67 289 hipo Crane fireball heads

[s2ms]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/193826868354

[pbf777]

     The examples of the Crane "Fire-Ball" heads that have come through our shop over the decades had that stamped in the end of the head castings, do these?

     The port work was done by hand and it would vary some in it's presentation, but those that I have been exposed to looked different from yours?  But maybe not?     

      Scott.

     

[64cobra]

No stamping that I can see.  Do you have a picture of what yours looked like?

[6s2055]

Bob,
Your description of these heads almost sound the same as Mondello (sp) heads I had on my second Cobra. Larger valves to go along with the Webers.

[Bob Gaines]

Bob,
Your description of these heads almost sound the same as Mondello (sp) heads I had on my second Cobra. Larger valves to go along with the Webers.

Yep kind of the same.

[427heaven]

Cool piece of history! Looks Like the motor let go at some point and had pieces of pistons and valves rattling around in the combustion chambers, or is that the way they were sold?

[shelbydoug]

Cool piece of history! Looks Like the motor let go at some point and had pieces of pistons and valves rattling around in the combustion chambers, or is that the way they were sold?

Details like that are sometimes difficult to tell.

Those heads had lots of welding put into them during the modification.

KNOWING how thin the original castings are in the ports themselves makes me question their long term durability to begin with as the exhausts often will hole out.

Ironically those heads were advertised in a Sears "high-performance" catalog of the day. I had one but my father kept throwing out anything to do with cars back then.
That catalog would be cool to still have.

The other thing is that apparently even the GT40 castings would only produce head flow numbers around 240 with the regular k heads maxed out at around 220 so performance is all relative.

The AFR sb heads I have are advertised as flowing 296 @ .500. That is better then a stock Boss 302 head and a considerable difference to the original, even professionally ported castings.

[gt350hr]

   Crane did NOT do any welding on the head to get the round ports. That was part of the problems with the porting . The port wasn't designed to be round and round is NOT the most efficient design. In this case a rounded top , flat bottom would have been better. ALSO , "flow bench" numbers are not absolutes. If they were , flow benches would have drag slicks so we could race them.
    Randy

[shelbydoug]

   Crane did NOT do any welding on the head to get the round ports. That was part of the problems with the porting . The port wasn't designed to be round and round is NOT the most efficient design. In this case a rounded top , flat bottom would have been better. ALSO , "flow bench" numbers are not absolutes. If they were , flow benches would have drag slicks so we could race them.
    Randy

Those heads pictured appear to have the exhaust port air injector holes welded up so apparently there was welding done to them. Service heads had air injector holes by the date of those castings I think?

Flow numbers are an indication of performance potential. The numbers make it possible, the humans screw it up. It's kind of a necessary balance to keep the Universe from blowing up.

An intake flow number of 100cfm is an indication of don't even bother. 

[gt350hr]

 Doug ,
     The smog ports were likely plugged with the plugs provided by Ford with the heads and machined flat then ported. "Welding them" would have shot the price out of site and "back then" the heads retailed for $500 or less.
    Cylinder head flow numbers aren't always indicative of more power. Dale Eicke (rip) "picked up" my "Pro Stock" Cleveland heads 25 CFM with a "trick" valve job and the ET didn't change at all when I put them back on the engine. For airflow gains ( or literally any other modification) to show an improvement , the engine had to be lacking in that area. "Most" of the time that is true , but not "always". I see this allot in my "day job".
    Randy.

[shelbydoug]

Doug ,
     The smog ports were likely plugged with the plugs provided by Ford with the heads and machined flat then ported. "Welding them" would have shot the price out of site and "back then" the heads retailed for $500 or less.
    Cylinder head flow numbers aren't always indicative of more power. Dale Eicke (rip) "picked up" my "Pro Stock" Cleveland heads 25 CFM with a "trick" valve job and the ET didn't change at all when I put them back on the engine. For airflow gains ( or literally any other modification) to show an improvement , the engine had to be lacking in that area. "Most" of the time that is true , but not "always". I see this allot in my "day job".
    Randy.

I'm not arguing but one factor that is overlooked on air flow is that there is no point at making the ports flow more then an engine can pump at it's maximum used rpm.

A Boss 302 that flows 380 on the intakes is pointless unless you ARE actually going to turn 10,000 rpm with it.

240 to 250 on a 289 in the day actually might in fact be as much air as that displacement could pump at 7,000 rpm?


Look at the bump at 10 o'clock on this pic. That's a welded up air injector hole. A very nice job I might add too. Look at the corresponding shadow line inside the port. See it?

[gt350hr]

     I see the circle in the port but not a weld on the outside. '67 and '68 ( C7ZE/C8ZE) castings have the "bump" at 10 o'clock but it isn't always drilled. When the heads were sold new over the counter , they came with intake valves and four plugs for the smog ports. Notice the semicircle in the blue paint.The is where the exhaust manifold was notched for tube clearance. My "street" tunnelport 302 heads had plugged smog ports. When ported they had a similar circle in the port too where the end of the plug was ground off to match the porting.

[shelbydoug]

In any case, it doesn't really matter. My injector ports are simply plugged with a socket set screw. That works fine, but the plugs are ground back at the point they project into the ports.

More importantly, having had mine hole through into the water jacket on one exhaust with much less porting then those, realistically I wouldn't expect those heads to have great longevity.

As you pointed out the lower portion of the port isn't nearly as important as the top and ironically there isn't any water jacket to hole through into on the exterior top of the port. The bottom is another issue.

I MAY have seen a similar "porting" on similar heads in a "D" shape with the bottoms left alone and basically flat? I don't have pictures of those. That was before electricity and before cameras were invented.

These are a very interesting and cool '60's artifact to have and play with now and again though and having the heads in hand would end this idle speculation as well. 

[2112]

If I needed the top of the line iron head, I would look for N351 heads;

https://performanceparts.ford.com/download/pdfs/N351_Sportsman_Head_Product_Specs.pdf

Of course, probably against the rules of your sanctioning body.

[shelbydoug]

If I needed the top of the line iron head, I would look for N351 heads;

https://performanceparts.ford.com/download/pdfs/N351_Sportsman_Head_Product_Specs.pdf

Of course, probably against the rules of your sanctioning body.

You're missing the point Kemosabe.  As the theme lyrics say, "let us return to the days of yesteryear".

It's all about what was, how these machines ARE time machines and how they continue to be relevant today.

You don't need to pretend to be Zorro, the Lone Ranger or Batman. Drive one of Shelby's magical concoctions and YOU are "the Man". You're in a better place then fiction could ever put you into.

Those Crane heads are just another really good trip to back when.