AFR 185 heads on a FRP 392 Stroker?

[Humbucker Jake]

I have a Ford Racing 392 crate engine (the 430 hp one) from 2002. Does anyone know if the AFR 185's will bolt right on with no probs? I was going to put the 205's on there, but I found out I can't do that because the valve relief on the pistons won't work with the 2.08 valves on the 205's. The GT-40x heads I have now use 1.94" and the AFR 185's are 2.02".

I've read several articles about swapping those heads with 392 Ford Racing crate engines and people getting performance increases, but no one mentioned having to notch the pistons in any of those articles.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!!

Jake Langston
Ft. Oglethorpe, GA

[HookedonFord]

Go to airflowresearch.com and click the articles section, you will find the 2 articles about the 392 crate motor with AFR185's. Then I would call AFR as well, they have been great to work with.

[SP3]

My bro-in-law is building a FFR MkIII and we have chosen the same engine (440 hp, 392 cid). At the risk of thread-jacking, any ideas of what carb we ought to use for primarily street use? I'll start the process by saying electric choke and vac secondaries. Ford gives their power #'s using a 750 cfm Holley but no other info (vac 2nd's, etc).

[roeper72]

AFR uses this engine as an example in their ads they swapped the heads only and it dynoed 75 HP more.

[Joe R]

I have a 392 but I built it using TRW flat top pistons with valve reliefs. There is also a 3.5" diameter dish machined .090 deep. I run a .544 lift cam and everything clears. I did need custom pushrods, 8.25". My guess is you will have to clay the pistons to be sure. Isn't the crate motor a .57something lift cam?

[Steve]

Jake,
Why not bolt on a set of CNC ported Trick Flow heads? You'll have a lot more clearance and easily as much flow as the 185's. The CNC version has over 200cc's of port volume too.

The valve angles of the Trick Flow give you more clearance without the need for special Trick Flow cut pistons. You really only need the custom Trick Flow cut pistons if you are running a really big camshaft like those used for drag racing. A TF Stage 2 camshaft clears the stock pistons in a 302 and it's a pretty big stick.

What cam are you running?

851duc - I'd use a 750HP - there's a new one with vac secondaries out there too. Alternately you could use a 750 Demon which can be had with vac secondaries and flows a lot more air than 750cfm.

I'm running a 750 with a milled choke horn on my 408 and it works great.