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2.8 ford V6 heads, drilling cooling passages

mr.vman

Donation Time
Just recieved Ford 2.8 V6 heads from machine shop recommended on site in Southern California. Had, larger valves, exhaust seats, springs, porting, and lower exhaust ports plugged. As per readings, had the fire face of the head drilled for steam ports? According the. "book" drill, 5/16 inch diameter, 1 inch deep. That was done except the two holes on the intake side were only drilled 1/2 inch. Looking into the hole, there is solid casting (cast iron) on one side and water jacket open space on the other side of the hole. It could be the machinest was apprehensive drilling the one inch deep. When the small area of water jacket was found stoppedwith only a third of the water jacket open. To the side of the hole is cast iron not water jacket.
The heads are Ranger heads, has anyone else drilled into Ranger heads and experienced this? If so, just keep drilling the full one inch, hopefully will not hit anything important? Have yet to contact the machinest about this.
Thank you in advance, Steve V. Arizona
 

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
What do you mean by “fire face”? I’ll have to check, but I believe you should use the head gasket as a guide for where to drill the holes.
 

mr.vman

Donation Time
Thank you for the reply. Fire face is flat part of head, some might call it the, "deck". Did use head gaskets for guides as per, "Pruett" book. Might have a casting shift? Curious if anyone else has drilled the Ranger heads.
Steve V. Arizona
 

Fergusonic

Donation Time
Head3.JPG
I had a Head from a '78 Pinto 2.8L V6 that I had drilled 1/8" dia holes for additional cooling but later discovered that the head was nfg. So I decided to cut the head into today to see what it looked like inside.
I only had to drill 5/16" to reach the cooling passage as noted in the pic. One of the holes (on the Exhaust side) drilled right thru but the other one (on the Intake side) didn't. You can see the partial hole (red arrow) . The area in which the drill hit is only a sliver of metal thick and about half of the hole is indeed into the cooling passage. The other half of the Head has the same sliver of metal. The diameter of the holes could have easily been twice the size that I had drilled...... which would have entered the cooling passage more. I imagine that the Ranger heads are pretty much the same and also that the castings can vary somewhat.
 

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
So I guess the hole could be angled toward the center. I had a Jim Ellis do my heads. He didn’t drill the holes as large as Pruett recommended. I don’t remember why. Need to search old emails.
 

mr.vman

Donation Time
Fergusonic, Thank you for the information. This is exactly what I was looking for. Casting shift has taken place? With the heads I am working with, drill bit went about an half inch deep, machinest stopped. Some of the drill bit, went to into and uncovered water jacket, maybe 30 percent? Could drill deeper, the total one inch as in, "Pruett" book. Problem would be, drilling into cast iron not water jacket. And yes, did use head gasket as a guide. This must have happened to others. Might be able to uncover more water jacket by coming in at an angle with small die grinder. Is it needed? Once again thank you for the time and information. Everyone working or having the Ford 2.8 V6 benifits from this one.
Steve V. Arizona
 

Fergusonic

Donation Time
I don't own a Band Saw.... I had to use a Reciprocating Saw and 3 blades to cut the head ...... wasn't an easy task but well worth it.
 

DanR

Diamond Level Sponsor
Many thanks, Fergie! I have had my heads both early and late drilled as per Sven and haven't run into what is covered here.

As Vman said it will indeed benefit ALL V6 Guys at least as a Check Point!
 
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