➔HANDS ON
Car Craft’s 482-inch FE with Trick Flow’s new PowerPort 175 heads on the dyno.
Our best pull was 704 hp at 6,300 rpm with peak torque of 643 lb-ft at 5,300 rpm.
Great numbers for heads right out of the box!12 CAR CRAFT AUGUST 2019
W
e got our 482-inch Ford FE
finished up and on the dyno,
where it promptly blew our
minds by cranking out 700 hp and
640 lb-ft of torque. Evidently, these
new heads from Trick Flow really work!
In our first installment, we bolted on
the Trick Flow heads but were waiting
for some final parts to show up. As
expected, there were some issues
that popped up during final assembly.
The raised rocker-arm position on
these heads solves some geometry
problems, but it also changes the
angle of the pushrods and creates
possible interference issues. On our
engine, the intake manifold needed to
be machined for pushrod clearance,
and so did the bottom side of the
rocker arms. We also needed to ordercustom pushrods with tapered ends to
resolve a final clearance issue. Smith
Bros. Pushrods in Redmond, Oregon,
was able to build a set of tapered
pushrods for us by starting with thick-
wall^3 ⁄ 8 -inch tubing and machining a
slight taper at the end.
You’ll recall the intake gaskets were
another item that required some extra
time and effort. The standard gaskets
from Cometic are 0.060-inch thick and
have the long-port design. The Trick
Flow heads use a short-port size, so
we wanted a matching gasket. More
importantly, the intake manifold sat too
high with the thick gaskets. Cometic
can build its intake gaskets from
different thickness of material, so we
ordered a set of gaskets from 0.030-
inch material. These gaskets wereBy Andy Finkbeiner / Photos: Andy Finkbeiner
TRICK FORD,
PART 2
The Ford FE Revival Continues With Car Craft’s Dyno
Test of Trick Flow’s PowerPort 175 Cylinder Heads
close, but still a tad too thick, so we
ordered a new set cut from 0.020-inch
material. These were a perfect fit. The
ports in the intake manifold lined up
exactly with the ports in the head, and
the valve-cover rails sat flat.
The owner of this engine wanted a
classic Ford 427 look, so a tunnel-
wedge intake from Bear Block Motors
was installed. The factory used this
type of intake with a couple of back-
ward-mounted Holley carbs. But why
use carbs when EFI works so much
better? We discussed this engine with
the folks at FAST, and they recommend
their XFI Sportsman EFI system with
dual throttle-bodies. To complete the
system, we installed a FAST ignition
box and coil, as well as a FAST dual-
sync distributor. All of these parts