Can You Put Heads on High Mileage car?

Unit 5302 · 06-11-2002, 07:53 PM

There is NOTHING wrong with a mild N/A setup on hypereutic pistons.

Most 5.0HO's (in my personal experience) begin to drop off at about 120k. While a few stay good to 170k, not burning a lot of oil related to the rings even, there can certainly be other issues. Cam wear, bearing wear, bottom end problems, etc.

A compression test is only accurate about the current combo. If his heads need the valves ground his rings could still be good, but the valves could be leaking. There are just way too many variables for anybody here to come out and say slap heads onto an old 5.0.

Not to mention his intake isn't good enough to support them, anyway.

Let's see, a fully assembled cammed, long block with the heads for $1800. All new components vs an old, worn stock cam, lifters, rockers, timing chain, bearings, pistons, etc. If you're going to build an engine, I say do it the right way so you don't wind up ripping it back down two weeks later. Too much of a gamble for me.

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06-11-2002, 07:53 PM	#1
Unit 5302 Registered Member Join Date: May 1999 Posts: 5,246	There is NOTHING wrong with a mild N/A setup on hypereutic pistons. Most 5.0HO's (in my personal experience) begin to drop off at about 120k. While a few stay good to 170k, not burning a lot of oil related to the rings even, there can certainly be other issues. Cam wear, bearing wear, bottom end problems, etc. A compression test is only accurate about the current combo. If his heads need the valves ground his rings could still be good, but the valves could be leaking. There are just way too many variables for anybody here to come out and say slap heads onto an old 5.0. Not to mention his intake isn't good enough to support them, anyway. Let's see, a fully assembled cammed, long block with the heads for $1800. All new components vs an old, worn stock cam, lifters, rockers, timing chain, bearings, pistons, etc. If you're going to build an engine, I say do it the right way so you don't wind up ripping it back down two weeks later. Too much of a gamble for me.