afr 165's on a 98 5.0? PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Has anyone here put a set of AFR 165's on a 98 explorer bottom end? I just bought a low mileage 98 explorer bottom end and I'm afraid that I might have piston to valve clearance issue's. Afr said these heads will fit on a mustang bottom end with my cam but the explorer pistons are not dished and have smaller valve reliefs than the factory mustang pistons.

Has anyone done this and did you have to fly cut the pistons?

 

[Limited02]

I think you should be fine. Not sure about the exhaust mounting up though. Someone here will chime in and give you some better info. Congrats on the AFR 165's because they are very good heads. What are your plans for your ride?

 

[Turdle]

Yes, the explorer does have flat top pistons,I am 99% sure you will indeed have interference issues. You will need reliefs cut into the pistons to solve this.
What is the combustion chamber volume ? This will determine your compression ratio.

Also, you will need to contact Bob at Toquemonster headers to make a custom set of exhaust headers to match the ports of the heads. The stock headers are for gt40 heads and will not mate to the AFR's

Good luck!

 

[cobracoupe5]

I know this is an explorer forum but, this setup will be going into a 1986 mustang coupe that I am currently building. I posted a similar thread on the corral forums but noone seems to be that educated on explorer bottom ends but only on the heads and intakes.

I had a 1994 mustang bottom end that I was gonna use but it had a bent rod and I didn't want to have to do a complete rebuild. So, I bought this good low mileage 98 explorer short block cleaned it up, painted it and began putting my parts on it. The plan is to use this bottom end with the AFR 165 58cc competition port heads, comp cams lifters, comp extreme energy XE264HR-14 cam, ported cobra lower intake, gasket matched upper cobra intake, 70mm TB, 76mm C&L MAF, Cold air intake, BBK ceramic coated shorties, x pipe, and mac catback.

I've never fly cut pistons before so I guess I'll have to pay somebody to do it for me. The piston in my hand is the mustang one and the one in the motor is explorer.

 

[Spdrcer34]

The Valve relief on Mustang Piston is a bit deeper. It appears to be the exact depth in the dished area, as the Explorer Piston. Except the Explorer uses a Flat top, while the Mustang one has what appears to be about a 6cc dish (before the fly cutting).

All this talk from different people is just speculation anyway. There is only 1 way to know if you need it or not. And that is to do the Clay Test.

Ryan