Ford 427 "tunnel port" head curiousity?

[dhidaka]

I remember all the talk when the 427 Ford "tunnel port" heads came on the scene. I am curious how well they really worked (or didn't work) with the push rod tube going throught the middle of that huge intake port. Anyone with hands-on flow bench work with these heads that could satisfy my curiousity?

[SupStk]

It's been several years since I run a stock set over my bench. Never have ported a set. Flowed them without an intake but as I recall the intakes did about 300 at .500"? The exhausts ran like medium risers. If you really want the numbers, think I have the sheets in my note book and can post 'em.

[Mpcoluv]

The Tunnelport was an effort to run with the Hemi and be packaged low enough to keep a stock hood profile.
They won several races in the '60s in NASCAR up until the Boss 429 was introduced in mid to late 1969
They were a hot item in their day.
Still makes pretty good power on a stroker FE.
Like most of the performance Ford stuff, they require a rare intake and maybe special rockers.

[Stan Weiss]

Pontiac did the same thing with the Ram Air V head. These have been updated and are being manufactured in Aluminum. I believe that there is an article in the latest issue of HPP magazine on these heads and engine build. What is interesting is that the bore spacing on the Ford FE and Pontiac are just about identical.

Stan

[n2omike]

Tunnel Port Stroker Dyno!!!

Didn't do bad!

http://www.network54.com/Forum/74182/th ... unnel+Port

[Larry Heath]

When I was in high school and college I had a 427 side oiler that had a set of TP heads and the 2x4 manifold with two 750's on, a huge, for the time, Isky Super Lagurre (sp?) roller cam .675" on the intake and .605 on the exhaust, the heads were supposedly done by Crane Cams that were cast offs from one of the local racers. They did very well at Sunshine raceway in St. Pete Florida in the 60's and 70's with this stuff until they went to the 351C engines.

Anyway I had the thing in a 68 Mercury Cyclone, it was a scary fast car, the car would loaf at about 155 to 160 all day long turning about 6000 to 6100 rpm. Anything past that and it got very light and twitchy, not at all fun to drive. About the most I ever saw on the tach was just shy of 7000 I guess that was about 180. If I had a clue about aero at the time or had listened to the guys that sold me the engine and bought the Talladega aero package they had for the 68 Cyclone I have no doubt it would have run 200+ easily. As it was I could make the run from Tampa to Gainesville on the then brand-new and nearly deserted on Sunday night I-75 in about 50 to 55 minutes, if I didn't run out of gas, which I did a time or two. In the low gears the car would turn well over 8000 very easily. So yeah the TP heads on a good block with a good cam, even way back when, was one very very serious piece.

I had the heads on my flow bench in the early to mid 70's and as best as I can remember the intakes were about 355 to 365 @ .650" and about 315 to 320 @ .500, peak on the exhaust seems I remember at about 155 to 165 @ .550. I'd say 750hp would be pretty easy. I know I would sure love to have that head and manifold package back now days, the car too.

[DaveMcLain]

The tunnel port 427 stuff worked well especially on an engine with larger displacement. They were used to win many races in Nascar and by short track guys like Dick Trickle and Don Klein. They were not without their drawbacks in that they were somewhat bad about cracking in the chamber, they only will work on a 427 engine due to valve to cylinder wall interference with the 2.250 intake valve.

The stock head does not flow particularly outstanding when compared to other later engine designs and I've heard but not verified that they flow about the same as a standard port DOVE or D3VE 429/460 head.

[Barry_R]

I know I would sure love to have that head and manifold package back now days.

Strange as it may seem I can make that dream come true.

I haad a customer drop off an engine quite a while ago that had a complete tunnel port setup - heads and dual quads. Heads are very heavily ported, and pretty worn out but anything can be fixed if you want them bad enough. EVERYTHING in the engine is stamped "Crane Cams, Hollandale, Florida" with a unique logo'd stamp. Block, heads, crank, pistons - the whole package must've come out of Crane sometime in the 60's/70's. Customer is going normal wedge, and the TP stuff is for sale....caveat emptor - this stuff is OLD! Nver seen exhaust ports hogged out that far in an iron head.

[Larry Heath]

I bet I have.

I had to build my own exhaust flanges, the biggest stuff Hooker had was too small for the ones I had. And boy oh boy was it a pain in the neck to put the headers on in chassis. That was one of the knocks on all the FE heads, poor exhaust flow. Yeah now you say it I remember the stamp above the center two intake ports, it was crane on an arch. If I had that old 68 Cyclone I might be tempted. As it is I have a 565" A460 headed engine gathering dust in the shop now. I don't suppose I need more mementos of days gone by at this point. But thanks anyway.

[DrillDawg]

I bet I have.

I had to build my own exhaust flanges, the biggest stuff Hooker had was too small for the ones I had. And boy oh boy was it a pain in the neck to put the headers on in chassis. That was one of the knocks on all the FE heads, poor exhaust flow. Yeah now you say it I remember the stamp above the center two intake ports, it was crane on an arch. If I had that old 68 Cyclone I might be tempted. As it is I have a 565" A460 headed engine gathering dust in the shop now. I don't suppose I need more mementos of days gone by at this point. But thanks anyway.

Won't it be cool if it's the same heads/ect.

dd

[540Hotrod]

Hi Barry,

We spoke at the Red Lobster dinner at PRI. Darin Morgan flowed that set of Tunnel Ports I was telling you about for us. We just had it on the dyno..but it's all stock but with the old 427/425 flat tappet. Didn't make 600 HP!

Intake

.200- 176.8
.300- 240.0
.400- 279.2
.500- 306.3
.600- 326.1
.700- 342.3
.800- 304.0

Exhaust

.200- 115.1
.300- 152.7
.400- 179.5
.500- 190.0
.600- 196.6
.700- 201.4
.800- 201.2


JIM

[dfree383]

Hi Barry,

We spoke at the Red Lobster dinner at PRI. Darin Morgan flowed that set of Tunnel Ports I was telling you about for us. We just had it on the dyno..but it's all stock but with the old 427/425 flat tappet. Didn't make 600 HP!

Intake

.200- 176.8
.300- 240.0
.400- 279.2
.500- 306.3
.600- 326.1
.700- 342.3
.800- 304.0

Exhaust

.200- 115.1
.300- 152.7
.400- 179.5
.500- 190.0
.600- 196.6
.700- 201.4
.800- 201.2


JIM

If its even close to 600hp, thats big numbers for something stock from the mid 60's @ 427". Hell the Camshaft alone is probably a 50-75hp+ handicap.

[Barry_R]

Those numbers fall right in line with my guess on the one we dyno'd. The CNC Edelbrocks come in around 330ish by memory and the power was where it "belonged". Kinda nice to be kinda "right" once in a while..... And yes - that would have been rock star stuff in the 60's....

[Daniel Jones]

> I remember all the talk when the 427 Ford "tunnel port" heads came
> on the scene.

I didn't flow them but I have this in my database. The numbers came from
the FE Ford Forum and were posted by jim carlson on September 5th, 2007.

TP heads, 2.19 intake, 1.75 exhaust

Intake
0.100 83.6
0.150 124.7
0.200 156.5
0.250 185.6
0.300 201.6
0.350 219.8
0.400 241.7
0.450 266.6
0.500 287.4
0.550 301.4
0.600 298.1
0.650 289.1
0.700 288.9

Exhaust
0.100 50.4
0.150 79.9
0.200 105.2
0.250 129.8
0.300 158.4
0.350 176.4
0.400 191.2
0.450 205.2
0.500 212.8
0.550 215.9
0.600 216.9
0.650 216.3
0.700 216.8

The poster said the intakes were untouched and thought the heads were early
versions due to the 2.19" intake valves versus the normal 2.25" TP intake
valves. He said he did smooth the exhaust bowls. He also said the heads
were milled a lot and had 67 cc chambers. There was a claim that later tunnel
port heads with the 2.25" diameter intakes flowed 310 cfm @ 0.500". Another
poster indicated that tunnel ports were designed in an era of low lift cams
and the short side turn is too abrupt. He claimed to have fixed a several
sets of tunnel ports by laying the short side turn back to a gentle turn down
to the seat and doing a 30 degree valve job and that with very little work,
the heads will pick up low lift and keep gaining all the way to .800" lift.
Values of 315 CFM @ 0.500" and 330 CFM @ 0.600" lift were mentioned.

> I am curious how well they really worked (or didn't work) with the push rod
> tube going throught the middle of that huge intake port.

I've heard that Ford claimed the pushrod tube didn't hurt flow but I find
it hard to believe. A cylinder has very high drag, on the order of 40 to
80 times that of an airfoil of the same height.

Dan Jones

[SupStk]

Seeing these posts on TP flow, I looked up the sheets on the stock set tested several years ago.
Intake w/ 2.19 valve
.100...96.7
.200...172.8
.300...237.0
.400...272.9
.500...296.4
.600...284.6
.700...282.7
.800...290.9

Exhaust w/ 1.73 valve
.100...53.4
.200...104.6
.300...153.9
.400...179.9
.500...190.4
.600...193.8
.700...196.3