I was reading aroung in some of my mags and one of the sections with reader write in about a question. Well one was of a guy asking about the cyl. heads off of a explorer. the mag said that I think 96' to 98' explorers had GT-40 cyl. heads and the 98's had GT-40X heads i think it was x at the end. but anyways the difference in the two was the later x heads has slightly smaller exhaust valves. So if this is true how come ford did'nt raise the hp rating of them. I know they still had the crappy non GT-40 intake on them so that will keep power down but the heads should still give it great gains. Also if this is true then a good set of heads is just a junkyard away. Does anyone know any info on this?

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still no one??

Its true...but from what I've read Mustang owners can get more power for about the same price as a set of junkyard Explorer/GT40 heads by porting their E7 heads or buying brand-new aftermarket heads. Junkyard explorer heads only add about 30 HP if they're just bolted on...

Bear in mind that while the GT40 was an impressive car, technology has improved since the 70s, so building a free-flowing head that isn't designed for a race car isn't so far fetched. If anything, its an indication of how well the European design team built the GT40 that its heads are still being used thirty plus years later.

Gt-40 cyl. heads are not from the gt-40 car. Nor where they designed by them. I think your confused. Has for porting the E7 heads can flow has well has a gt-40 head once ported but by then money wise you could have just gotten the gt-40 heads. And if you port them then it will be better than the e7

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 who do we apreciate..........

Humm, I guess that's why those people that work in a junkyard called them Exploderz.

If they have GT-40 heads, then why is there reliability is considered to be unsatasfactory?

the gt 40 aren't all they are cracked up to be, beeter than stock ho302 heads, but nothing to get all worked up about. This little fact about the explorer heads has been known by the mustang community for a long time, its like when ford made the aluminum 4.6 mod motor block for the exploder.

Humm, I guess that's why those people that work in a junkyard called them Exploderz.

If they have GT-40 heads, then why is there reliability is considered to be unsatasfactory?

Yeah I had an Exploder, but it wasn't any part of the motor that was casuing there low reliability it was there Trannys. The auto tranny on the early to mid 90 model explorer had about a 40-60,000 mile life span depending on how you drove it. I personally had to pull and replace mine 4 times

Yeah I had an Exploder, but it wasn't any part of the motor that was casuing there low reliability it was there Trannys. The auto tranny on the early to mid 90 model explorer had about a 40-60,000 mile life span depending on how you drove it. I personally had to pull and replace mine 4 times

I have really hear that they were notorious about that.
Kinda like those Taurus in the 90's with a powerplant of 3.8V6..... pain in the ass!

The exploders have the GT-40 intake also but it was unbadged, with a good cam and a lil dremel work you can make some good ponies with an HO block, the reason the sploders have no go was the brookstick cam ford dropped in it.

I dont know much about Ford engines, but when researching performance heads for my vette, I found that buying aftermarket ones with bigger valves and thicker walls to port had a LOT more power potential than machining any stock ones. A popular thing to do was find the D port aluminum heads from a later year and port them, put in bigger valves, but it only gained so much.

If your looking to maximize power from aftermarket heads, AFR is one of the best options.

The GT40 "x" heads did have smaller valves and ports, but this was to increase the charge velocity. I think they still made close to the same HP as the gt 40 heads. The "x" heads will fit on a standard 302 but the plugs are also angled and require different headers. They use to make these headers, i guess they still do. The intake manifold will not be as good as you might think, the inlet into the upper intake makes a hard 90, this has to really hurt the airflow.

As superflop correctly stated, they also do have the GT40 intake which is a nice piece for a mild street bruiser.

The GT40 heads from Explorers are probably the cheapest way to get into some GT40 heads, but they're cheap for a reason. I've never heard of the X-heads on the Explorers, rather I believe they only came with GT40P heads. The angle of the spark plug on these P-heads is rather difficult, so it gives a lot of buyers pause when contemplating them. I can't recall offhand if the P-heads are iron or aluminum, but if they're iron, that also means that there's some more potential to be had by bypassing the P-heads and going to aluminums.

If you want GT40's, the P-heads aren't a bad way to go if for no other reason than they are a pretty good bang for your buck. GT40X's are better on the street because of the aforementioned better air charge velocity at lower RPM's but are more expensive, and if you want the the best street heads for a 302, AFR 165's are awesome, followed by Trick Flows. AFR 185's offer even more potential, but won't be as agreeable on the street.

Yeah it has been a while. I was probably thinking of the P heads.

^^^I was just curious I did'nt know ford did that for the last of the 5.0's. If I did have a stang I would really just buy the AFR's cause they are really good and yeah the 165's would be great on the street and 185's are more for like a stroker or higher reving small block. Stock non ported AFR 165's will add aproximailty 50-60 hp over stock heads and thats just bolt on no work. Mind you it was on a mildly hopped up 5.0. Thanks for all the info guys I aprreciate it. Just a cool interesting fact to know. Just like the last of the new edge V6 stangs were actullly 3.9l instead 3.8l. At least I think these are cool little facts.