Completed Project Brandon's mild 4.0 OHV build

[carlover]

damn i wish i would have seen this thread earlier. i just sent a good set of 95tm heads to the scrap yard.

 

[Brandon96]

damn i wish i would have seen this thread earlier. i just sent a good set of 95tm heads to the scrap yard.

Nooo don't tell me thatt!!

 

[Anime]

Makes sense kinda, a new OEM Ford head that's laying around is a blem. They should send a return shipping label and refund your money.

If you're sold on 95TM heads your best bet may be the forum if you want cheap OEMs, though surely there must be some aftermarket 95TM heads that aren't 98TMs with the smaller ports.

 

[Brandon96]

Ok, I've got some good news:

ModernEngine might have redeemed themselves today. They made some calls, spoke a few times to my guy at Ballos and called me a few minutes ago. Looks like they get their heads cast by the same company Alabama Heads does (says my guy at Ballos who has close ties with Alabama Heads), I just happened to get a defective casting is all. ModernEngine out of Glendale, CA has ordered and shipped another brand new head from a sister shop down in NC somewhere, the head should be up here Monday or Tuesday.

Hopefully this one is good, we shall see? Like I said it MIGHT be too early to tell, but they might juuust maybe redeemed themselves, claiming this is the first they've ever had a problem like this.

Keepin' my fingas crossed!

P.S. - Anime, 2 brand new rocker assemblies from Ford Racing should be on my doorstep monday morning I know you've been wanting me to get some :

 

[jd4242]

Was the head you got a 95tm? If so and they cast for alabama why do they not cast 95tm for them!? I wanna see some pic of these new rockers,the cup that delta presses in has a very small oil hole and i think its causing some oiling problems at high rpms for me.

 

[Xeek]

ok. well if everything starts looking better, then maybe i will buy from them lol

i have holes in mine from rockauto... or do you mean deltas holes are just to small?

 

[jd4242]

ok. well if everything starts looking better, then maybe i will buy from them lol

i have holes in mine from rockauto... or do you mean deltas holes are just to small?

Yea the ones you have even have way larger holes.how much did you pay for those heads?

 

[Brandon96]

JD,

ModernEngine sells an "early style" and "late style" head, when I ordered them from Ebay they request that you give them the casting number you have so they can give you the right head. In my order on PayPal I simply told them the '95TM' casting. The head I received from them absolutely resembles the 95TM, though it's back at Ballos right now so I don't have a serial number to give you. The guy that I've been in contact from ModernEngine with says that's called the late style, the early style was the old 90TM's with the big 60cc combustion chamber..

I asked the guy at Ballos why Alabama head no longer offers a choice, he said they do, you just have to have your way with them, or be "in" to get the ones you want. Alabama sells the 98TM style casting because it's the most popular/most expensive and it can be adapted to fit all of the 4.0's of the era. Alabama just likes to make you buy a pair of heads, fully assembled (When I called they would not sell me a single bare head without springs/valves already assembled) where as some of the other guys like ModernEngine will sell the older style heads for cheap because the big guns like Alabama don't offer them. My guy said if he needed to, he could call up Alabama and get an older casting from them for sure.

So to answer your questions, who freakin knows

Also, I'm supposed to receive the rockers on Monday according to FedEx, I'm not sure they're much different than new stockers, I think the difference is in the shaft strength and oil journals on the mounts (says Richmond and Tousley Ford). But I will definitely post up some pictures..


EDIT -- Fedex.com/tracking - 464471934215.. #$(@!!! They made it to the sorting facility here in Richmond earlier today but have to sit there all weekend before they get brought to my house! ArgghH! hahaha

 

[Xeek]

now im really hoping my heads were replaced in the 'rebuild' 35k ago...
to much crap to worry about with getting the right ones lol

 

[Brandon96]

now im really hoping my heads were replaced in the 'rebuild' 35k ago...
to much crap to worry about with getting the right ones lol

Your honestly good with whatever ones you want, they will all work.

just know this:

- '91-'94 - 90TM casting - you'll have a 60cc combustion chamber, meaning you will stay at your stock compression 9:1 but these heads, the non-aftermarket ones, are prone to cracking

- '95-'97 - 95TM casting - 48cc combustion chamber, it's heart shaped and known as the 'fast-burn' style chamber, your compression will bump up a ton, maybe around 10:1(?) due to the '91-'94 pistons, they were not dished as much like '95 and up. These heads were known to be very strong and known to have the best airflow capabilities, especially the exhaust ports because they were so big.

-'98-'01 - 98TM casting - 48cc combustion chamber, it's a more rounded chamber. Compression will be bumped up a bit more due to the smaller chamber, as well as your less dished pistons. These were just as strong, especially the aftermarket ones. However they lacked the exhaust flow due to smaller ports and rounded manifold exits. It's unclear to me whether or not aftermarket heads like Alabama cylinder head did something about the exhaust ports, some people say they were worked a little more, but I can't verify anything. But I think the exhaust ports were changed due to the introduction of the SOHC motor, and it possibly needing some more back pressure than the OHV, but that's a whole another argument that I don't know enough about to get into..

EDIT- some of my info was typo'ed and wrong

 

[jd4242]

Your honestly good with whatever ones you want, they will all work.

just know this:

- '91-'94 - 90TM casting - you'll have a 60cc combustion chamber, meaning you will stay at your stock compression 9:1 but these heads, the non-aftermarket ones, are prone to cracking

- '95-'97 - 95TM casting - 48cc combustion chamber, it's heart shaped and known as the 'fast-burn' style chamber, your compression will bump up a ton, maybe around 10:1 due to the '91-'94 pistons, they were flat topped not dished like '95 and up. These heads were known to be very strong and known to have the best airflow capabilities, especially the exhaust ports because they were so big.

-'98-'01 - 98TM casting - 45cc combustion chamber, it's a more rounded chamber. Compression will be bumped up a bit more due to the smaller chamber, as well as your flat topped pistons. These were just as strong, especially the aftermarket ones. However they lacked the exhaust flow due to smaller ports and rounded manifold exits. It's unclear to me whether or not aftermarket heads like Alabama cylinder head did something about the exhaust ports, some people say they were worked a little more, but I can't verify anything. But I think the exhaust ports were changed due to the introduction of the SOHC motor, and it possibly needing some more back pressure than the OHV, but that's a whole another argument that I don't know enough about to get into..

wow easy grasshopper!! this is not all true.i dont know where yoe get that 98tm are 45cc but stock they are the same as 95,96,97,98tm all 48cc.90-94tm are 60cc.98tm do have smaller exhaust port or fast burn but everything else is the same and a 90-97tm head,well some water ports design changes also.Alabama im guessing told you the 45cc and if you asked how much the 95 or 90tms are they will tell you 57cc, i think they told me witch both those numbers are off.90-94 pistons are dished to -17.5 and 2nd gen 95-99 are dished also to i believe -30cc more dish than the first gen!! the only flat top pistons are the sohc piston and the combined with 95-99tm 48cc heads will give you close to 12:1 or sohc piston with first gen heads 60cc will give you a little over 10:1

 

[Brandon96]

Ah, some of my information was incorrect. I shall correct it. I assumed the 90-94 pistons were flat topped as well due to the bigger combustion chamber, my fault!

Also, typo! I meant to say the 98TMs were 48cc as well.. whoops

 

[jd4242]

ps im not impressed or would even tell anyone to buy there heads,(Alabama) i bought from them in the very first place and got in a huge fight with them because they swore they was the same as 95tm and the also said the 45cc.i personally tested them and bought a set of 95tm and send pics and machine shop papers to them before they said o yea the ports are different and finally gave me my money back.

 

[jd4242]

Ah, some of my information was incorrect. I shall correct it. I assumed the 90-94 pistons were flat topped as well due to the bigger combustion chamber, my fault!

Also, typo! I meant to say the 98TMs were 48cc as well.. whoops

nope just smaller dished no they told me 45cc im pretty sure back when i went through this.also 98tm heads are not to be used on a 95tm block or with 95-97tm Catalytic Converters as they speed up the exhaust gas and can burn up the Catalytic Converters

 

[Brandon96]

Yeah, I meant to ask you about that, I think a loong time ago you had told me they were 45cc, and so did Alabama Heads. But I saw a book at the shop that had all the numbers from Ford saying that the 95TM and up were all 48cc, but different style chambers..

Though they are very similar, did you know that the 95TM weighs a crapton less than the 98TM's? I forgot the specific numbers, but I THINK the FORD 98TM's weigh in excess of 30lbs and the FORD 95's weigh 26.5lbs, I wonder if they used different casting material?

...as the speed up the exhaust gas and can burn up the Catalytic Converters...

Cats, who uses those anymore?? : Also, I can't confirm this, but I think all the OHV '95 and '96 Explorers only had 2 cats AFTER the y-pipe, where as the '97 and up had 2 primaries on the y-pipe and then the two down stream because of the reason you just mentioned

 

[Xeek]

yea im going with the 90tm/93tm myself. since i dont wanna spend money for premium gas lol
from the looks of it the higher the tm # (year?) the smaller the size and higher the compression?



you have anymore updates or are you just kinda sittin there waiting on parts to continue?



edit: speaking of cats, what good does 2.5" exhaust piping do anyway if the outlet on the cat is 2.25"?
and is there some single cat, 2.5" that va will pass inspection on? i need a single cause of a y-pipe dump valve im gonna install before the cat. open headers from the flip of a switch

 

[jd4242]

i may have but yea they def are 48cc and 60cc.im looking at my parer work but i have -23.3 as the 95+pistons but i think that was a wrong number they gave me for the 90-94tm pistons because its circled and x out and 17.5cc is written next to it and thats what my shop measured my heads to or very close

 

[Brandon96]

I'll have an update for sure on Monday when I get the new rocker arms, after that it's just a wait for my shop to get the Head from ModernEngine and get it DONE.

Once that's done, I'll measure the pushrods (which I need to find a caliper for, anybody wanna loan me one?? ) and then order them from Smith Bros, once I get those in I'm going to go at it all at once, no matter how long it takes to put this thing back together! :

 

[jd4242]

I'll have an update for sure on Monday when I get the new rocker arms, after that it's just a wait for my shop to get the Head from ModernEngine and get it DONE.

Once that's done, I'll measure the pushrods (which I need to find a caliper for, anybody wanna loan me one?? ) and then order them from Smith Bros, once I get those in I'm going to go at it all at once, no matter how long it takes to put this thing back together! :

do you have anyway of measuring the lifters?if not i have the specs for them,im sure they are the same as mine.i got you on the push rod measure just pm me with you address whenever you need it,should cost anything to ship to you.

 

[Xeek]

i hate when they deliver it to late to the local facility and make you wait another day. but getting something 2 days after ordering with an expected delivery of 5 days makes up for it lol
i wish i had a bigger garage like you. i have to work outside. i can only tolerate being out there for so long