Used PI heads and used PI intakes are cheap now days.

You should not pay more then $200 for a used pair of stock PI heads unless they've been ported, with springs and after market cams etc etc. Same for the intakes. You can get a brand new PI intake with aluminum cross over for $180. I sold mine used for $100. I sold my complete PI short block with a bad crank for $150. $460 for just heads and intake is a rip off. You can get 4v heads for less then that.

I paid $100 for both of these heads from a guy who tossed 2 rods in his motor. They each had 2 bent valves. Replaced the valves and had the heads decked and still didnt have more then $225 total out of pocket in these heads.




A little bit of hand porting, port matching and polishing on both the intake and exhaust sides produced 272 rwhp with stock cams.









You will need a few more things to take into consideration and to complete a PI head swap.

The gasket kit alone to do a PI swap will cost you over $300.

Right here is $317.74 worth of gaskets for a 4.6 2v motor. NAPA had the cheapest price at the time.





Heads:
There are 2 different PI heads. Romeo and Windsor. I did mine the hard way with windsor heads. 96 - 98 2v 4.6 motors all used Romeo heads. Starting in 99 the PI heads were windsors,.. and then later in mid 2000 went back to Romeo. All of the truck motors from 97 up,.. all used windsor heads. The main difference between the heads is the valve covers. Romeo have 11 bolt holes and the windsors have 13. They do NOT interchange. Both heads will work on the block just fine,.. and the same PI intake works fine on both heads. The heads themselves are identical in design except for the difference in valve cover bolt holes. Why the hell Ford did this is beyond me. So if you find some cheap windsor PI heads,.. you will also need the valve covers for them. Ford wants $117 EACH at the dealer,. the friggen jubk yards want $75 EACH. I found a pair for $50,.. matter of fact,.. I still have both,.. Romeo and windsor valve covers in my parts shed.

Timing cover:
PI heads have larger 10mm bolt holes on the front. None PI heads have smaller 8mm bolt holes. Your stock timing cover will work and the 10mm bolts will slide through the stock holes just fine. How ever,.. you will need to locate the 10mm accessory and timing cover bolts. Steelership wants $27 for them.

Intake:
Your stock non PI thermostat neck will not work on a PI intake. You will need a PI neck.
The stock heater tube that comes out of the back of the water pump and through the intake valley will prevent the larger PI intake from dropping down in there. You will need the PI tube.
The alternator bracker for the top of the alternator are different for PI and non PI intakes. You can re-drill the stock bracket and make it work.

Temp sensor. Stock non PI motor uses 2 sensors in the coolant cross over. The PI intake only has a provision for one,. and the primary temp sensor is on the side of the block. What you will have to do is on the coolant cross over tube for the PI intake,. .there is a boss that can be drilled and tapped to mount your stock non PI temp sensor.


The swap itself is pretty straight forward. Another thing to think about BEFORE doing the swap. Your compression will be approximately 10.4:1 - 10.5:10 because PI heads have smaller combustion chambers. This raises the compression ratio. With 10.5:1 compression you are now relegated to using nothing but 93 octane only. So before you do the swap,.. make sure you have a tank of 93 octane in there. Once completed and the motor is back together,.. a few cranks and it should fire right up. Do not gag it or rev up on the motor. Just let it run and get to full operating temp. Check for leaks,.. coolant and oil etc. If everything is good,.. you WILL need to have the motor tuned because it will be running on the lean side in the mid RPMs,.. 2500 - 4500. Any tuner can fatten up the fuel tables for you. You need this done BEFORE you attempt to run the motor hard.

The difference between PI heads and non PI heads is night and day. You will pick up (Depending on your bolt on's, mods and tune) between 40 - 60 real world rwhp. A good tuner can typically find you another 20 - 25 hp just on the tune after your baseline pull. Brian from EFI_Unlimited did my dyno tune when he was still with Race Related. He tweeked mine to 272 rwhp with a very safe tune. I swa a couple pulls that made over 280 RWHP,.. but they were unsafe with pinging and detonation.

Figure 96 - 98 2v motors with all the bolt ons and exhaust typically dyno between 180 - 200 rwhp. Stock PI motors typically dyno 225 - 235 rwhp. I have seen a couple freaks that dyno'd 245 - 250. The PI head swap is HP that you will feel in the seat of your pants. Now,.. all the little bolt ons that you've been doing to try to keep up with the PI cars will all come to play,.. and stock 99 - 04 cars will become easy pray,.. and you will actually be able to keep up with stockish LS1 fbody's now,.. they will not freight train you like before. I've been there,.. I know the sad feeling. LoL.


Hope that helps,.. and if you have any other questions or need any help,.. shoot me a PM.

Hurst