Well, I did something stupid. I was gasket mathing my intake side of my heads and I cut through to the push rod hole. I swear I only removed a 1/16th or less of an inch and when I was done I noticed a wrinkled part of metal so i took out a screw driver and scratched it and it popped out like tin foil!! I have done this before and never had this happen. It is a set of 77 heads and I cant believe how little metal there was!!! Any way, I am thinking of patching the hole with JB Weld or some other metal repair chemical. Are there any suggestions other than JB Weld and should I even bother or just get a new head. The hole is on the intake side into the push rod hole so I dont think there will be much stress and it should hold up....but I am still concerned about it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. JP
New Head ! I would go with a new head , why would you take a chance and there will be Oil pressure ! :confused:
I've seen the JB weld trick done before and it worked fine.....as far as I know there will be NO oil pressure where he is talking about......
ok... No, there wont be any oil pressure where the hole is. The worst it would do is cause a vacuum leak and suck oil into the port. Sure, I would be interested in a set of heads....but the shipping would be more than they are worth. I think I am going to try the JB thing, more out of curiousity than anything. I want to see how well it works. If I had a set of heads here, I would put the new ones one but I dont and I live in Chevy town where Ford stuff is hard to find. I just love putting those chevy's to shame!! :bananaman (I love these banana guys too!!) Any more suggestions??? Thanks, JP
Don't worry...you didn't ruin the head, UNLESS you cut into a water jacket. If just on a pushrod hole, go down to the hardware store and get a short piece of brass or iron pipe about the same OD as the ID of the pushrod hole and push it in. Be sure to use some JB weld or something along that line to hold it form coming out, either that or braze it in. This is a common "trick" to porting stock Ford heads. Many times, a porter will grind through the pushrod hole, then install the bushings to take up for the "hole". Good luck.
If you're going to repair the cylinder head, you should do it RIGHT and weld it for REAL, not "JB Weld". Those heads get very hot, you know...
Wont welding it warp other areas of the head? The intake side of the head shouldnt get to hot. I dont want to have to mill the heads...if I am going to do that, I may as well just go get another set. If am sure a real weld would be better, I just dont think it is needed.
Mavman is correct. Any local hardware store ought to sell a brass or copper tube that will fit very tightly in the hole. You can even go so far as porting the rest of the pushrod area out, then pounding the tube in. It is a very common trick because the pushrod tubes are the main restriction on ford heads.
I use vavleguide liners for this job as they are already split . I have them in every intake runner with no problems .
THANK YOU! What a wonderful tip!! :bananaman 1/2 in. copper tubing worked great. It really opens up the ports. For stock 302 heads, this baby is going to breath Thanks again for all the posts. I am so excited (you can probably tell by all the emoticons) I have been using jb weld to set them in place but they fit so well and tight that I dont think you even need that. (comments?) :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman This tip rated a 5 out of 5 bananamen. JP
