8ba Head Replacement

S

slowspoke

Junior Member
Howdy folks! I've received a positive prognosis from the machinist regarding my 8ba; however, it doesn't appear the heads will survive the resurrection. I have no real grand vision for this motor as I simply bought it out of curiosity. She'll likely end up on a test stand for a year or two as I look to progress this project into something with four wheels. That being said I didn't have any real intention of hot rodding this motor; however, now that I must replace he heads it has me thinking... I think he economical choice would be to seek out some replacement 8bas or maybe seek a set of EACs. Head replacement wasn't on my radar as I wasn't suspecting this issue to arise. Now I'm in the market and would appreciate some guidance regarding replacement/sourcing.
 
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"EAC"'s ('52-'53 Mercury heads) have larger chambers than "EAB" ('52-'53 Ford heads) and are not as good a choice. FMC did this to keep the compression ratios consistent between the Fords and the Merc's (that had a longer stroke). I believe the "EAC"'s are equivalent to "8BA"'s.

Of course, they can always be milled to get more compression. If you are going to go to that extent to improve the performance of your engine, you may want to get the "quench" of the combustion chamber down to a little less than 050". In my opinion, this is one of the best (and cheapest) things you can do to improve the performance of a flathead Ford. There are a lot of threads on here about the required process.
 
If your going to run this engine on a run stand for a few years, assuming the engine has just been rebuilt. I doubt the rings will not be seated properly and will have to be replaced before putting it in a vehicle, The original heads could be used with a mill job as the run stand wont care how much compression it has.
 
Thanks for the response Ron. All this information leads me to believe I'll just stick with stock 8ba heads. Now I just need to source some in N. Texas.
 
tubman said:
"EAC"'s ('52-'53 Mercury heads) have larger chambers than "EAB" ('52-'53 Ford heads) and are not as good a choice. FMC did this to keep the compression ratios consistent between the Fords and the Merc's (that had a longer stroke). I believe the "EAC"'s are equivalent to "8BA"'s.

Of course, they can always be milled to get more compression. If you are going to go to that extent to improve the performance of your engine, you may want to get the "quench" of the combustion chamber down to a little less than 050". In my opinion, this is one of the best (and cheapest) things you can do to improve the performance of a flathead Ford. There are a lot of threads on here about the required process.
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Tubman I believe the EACs are just a step below the 8BAs being roughly equivalent to the 8RT truck heads.
 
slowspoke said:
Howdy folks! I've received a positive prognosis from the machinist regarding my 8ba; however, it doesn't appear the heads will survive the resurrection. I have no real grand vision for this motor as I simply bought it out of curiosity. She'll likely end up on a test stand for a year or two as I look to progress this project into something with four wheels. That being said I didn't have any real intention of hot rodding this motor; however, now that I must replace he heads it has me thinking... I think he economical choice would be to seek out some replacement 8bas or maybe seek a set of EACs. Head replacement wasn't on my radar as I wasn't suspecting this issue to arise. Now I'm in the market and would appreciate some guidance regarding replacement/sourcing.
Click to expand...

First thing....
If the damage to the heads is visual crack damage I would insist that the block be magnafluxed.
If the heads froze and cracked.....usually the block does too somewhere.

The earlier 59A style Pre-49/48 24 stud heads will fit with little modification. This gives you some more options and I like the look of the earlier heads.
 
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