I found a set of Pro-comp heads really cheap so I figured I would put them on my mustang.

Thing is that my current heads are iron Windsor sr.s. I added flanges to my HP turbo kit that matched the heads better(square ports instead of rectangular), but they use the wider 3" bolt pattern. the Windsor heads have both patterns, normal and wider.

I tried today to drill and tap the Pro-comp heads for the wider pattern and hit water passages. The aluminum is only about .300" thick, will that be enough to securely bolt my turbo manifolds to? I don't really want to cut the flanges off the HP kit again. I am including a picture of the hole I made. Thanks.

Jess

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I don't think that will work. Not enough thread engagement for a 3/8 bolt. Be best to weld that back up and sell those and stick with the Sr or swap flanges again. Sucks either way.

 

Think I am going to try another rear mount deal, if I am not happy with that I will make some new manifolds that keep the turbo in the same location ans the HP stuff did. The 1 3/4" tubing is just too big for what I am doing. The rear mount may be a little laggy, but all that weight in the back combined with the much lighter heads, and removing the A/A intercooler, should drop a bunch of weigh and help balance the car. We have a group building a road course out here, I was thinking of doing a daily driver/occasional track day car.

You see any problem with putting a little RTV on an alen headed set screw to plug up the hole I made?

Jess

 

I would NOT use RTV, I would use JB Weld or some other metallic epoxy, but yes.

 

Have it tig welded, going to be hard to sell them with J B weld in them. If it's done right you won't see it.

 

Couldn't he use the holes he drilled with RTV on the bolts and be fine with it? That would stop the water or is it that RTV can break loose and travel in the water jackets and possibly clog something?

 

I wouldn't try to plug straight threads like that. I would have them welded shut. If you could go back and tap them for NPT, then I would trust it to seal a little better.

 

I should have said, re-tap 1/8" NPT, THEN use metallic epoxy to make sure it seals and stays put....

 

That won't work, it's already drilled for 3/8" bolt. too big for 1/8NPT. Might could go bigger and install a 1/4NPT...

 

I am going to see if I can goer the hole welded up. I was not happy with the first one so I drill any more.

Jess

 

I asked this question about my Victor Glidden's too because they are bastard size 2 1/2" exhaust bolt flange width and I had a set of 3" kooks headers I wanted to use that were intended for AFR225's And was going to use its for Nitrous build. Then I just ended up saying fuck it cuz I couldn't get a answer on if I could do that or not.. found a shop that welded flanges around here, took them my headers and they welded the new flange to it for me. So I kept the VG's and damn do they flow... lol Curious to see what its gonna do on the track and with the turbo's

 

Probably a lot better than a set of ported Pro-comps, of course these heads cost me $419 to my door.

Jess

 

Yeah.. these were 900 each bare... and then of course everything fucking custom on them. lol these came fully CNC ported plus titanium valves that were $1300 for the set exhaust and intake. when I bought the heads with them completely brand new for $1000. I couldn't pass up that deal.. these heads make HUGE numbers. This was one of my once in a lifetime big breaks.. lol But oh well got the problem fixed. The pro-comps work especially if your on a budget.. I used the 210cc ones on my 427 Nitrous combo for a while before I could get different heads. I had to completely rework them but once I did it yielded nice numbers for me with spray. I can't say what boosting would be like but they held up to 250 and 500hp hits of Nitrous on two stages and lived. lol I can't say I regret one cent spent on those or they are a bad head at all. Need some initial cleaning up but by far not horrible especially for the price.

 

BALLS, BALLS, BALLS,

I got the motor in the car, added coolant, then was under the car scoping out where to run my pipes when I see some drips. I had the hole tig welded up, but now it is leaking! Balls. Don't even have any pressure in the cooling system and it drips.

I am thinking that if it leaks without the car running it will probably be too big of a leak to fix with a head gasket type sealer.

I thought it looked to be welded up good, apparently not.

Is there a sealer that I could add to the inside of the head, after taking it off of course? Is rewelding my only option?

I was at the point of just needing to fab up my turbo stuff, now I have to go backwards.

Jess

 

That sucks big swollen balls!!! only easy thing I can think of to try would be to burr the welded area down and try to fill it with some metal type filler. Short of takin the heads back off, that's all I got.

 

I don't know what it'd throw off, but as another thought what about making some adapters like they use for Stahl style headers on SBCs? Basically a piece of aluminum plate that sandwiches in between the header/head. You'd need to mod the crossover for a single and I'm not sure about your engine bay, but figure I'd toss it out there. Sucks on the welding, GL with it.

 

You might try some "Blue Devil" sealer. I maintain a fleet of taxis, most of them were Crown Vics and Grand Marquis for a LONG time, and we've used Blue Devil to seal A LOT of heater core and head gasket leaks. I also used it on a 96 Tahoe, (Vortec 350), where the customer could not afford a head gasket job, not to mention the strong possibility of cracked heads.....3 years and it's still going strong.
Two great things about Blue Devil....it usually works, and if it doesn't, it's "Money Back Guaranteed",

 

I am just going to take the head off and get it tig-ed again. My friend got a bigger welder, so he should be able to burn it in better. First we tried it with the head cold, penetration was not good. I ground it down and put it in the oven at 200 degrees for a half hour, it welded much better then. Thought I was good to go, guess not. With how easily the coolant leaked out I don't think that a sealer would work too good.

I am running the turbo in the rear of the car, so a spacer would not be a deal breaker. Actually if the headers I am using had one piece flanges, they would probably cover the area that is leaking. I am using Mac 351 swap shorties, they have individual primary tube flanges.

I have moved on to fabing up my hot and cold sides for the turbo. Don't want to get too bummed out about having to pull the motor apart. Forward progress makes me happy.

Jess

 

I fixed 2 holes in a alum head a few years ago and what i did was take a piece of alum round bar and turned it down and made a slug like piece and pressed it in the hole with a shop press and down about an !/8 below the surface then took the tig and filled in the top like a plug weld and he had it surfaced and you couldn't even see where it was, still on the car.