This oil-controlled hydraulic button applies pressure to the chain guides. Machie collapsed the button and used a pin to keep it compressed.
The blower output was left the same, meaning we kept the blower pulley and crank pulley identical in all testing. Boost usually drops off with the addition of larger/ported cylinder heads because air flows into the engine easier with less restriction. Boost is merely a byproduct of engine restriction. It's measured in pounds per square inch (psi). The blower output, however, will be the same between the before and after testing. A supercharger is a fixed entity in that the unit moves a specific volume of air at a given impeller rpm. Keeping blower speed identical is essential in a true A-B comparison. We're comparing stock heads versus ported heads, so why change the blower output? Upping blower speed would mean we changed two components instead of one.
The extra airflow proved to be worth 32 rwhp, as power increased from 454 rwhp to 485. The boost reading dropped a few pounds, as expected. The story behind the numbers is that the test car still has a stock bottom end. Dez could have pushed the power up a bit more, but he feared the bottom end would give up on us. We certainly would have loved to see 500 rwhp, but durability and reliability is paramount to Dez. He didn't buckle to peer pressure, returning Johnson's car intact and completely reliable. Overall, this car dyno'd at 365 rwhp with a stock engine and the blower. Power increased 120 rwhp with the heads, cam, and intake.
Nearly 500 rwhp is a stout street machine--one that could fry the tires at a moment's notice.
He then removed the hydraulic chain tensioner. | 
The cam gear was unbolted, and the chain and sprocket were removed. | 
Mod motors use a sprocket on the end of the crankshaft to turn the cams. These are interference-style engines, and setting up the cam is critical. Mark the chain's link and the cam sprocket before removing anything. |
Each component bolted to the front of the engine was removed in order to take off the cylinder heads. | 
We removed a set of Windsor cylinder heads and replaced them with a pair of Romeo heads. Performance-wise, the're identical, but the difference comes in the valve covers and front cover bolts. | 
Manley came through with a set of valves for these heads. Both the intake and exhaust measure 1 mm larger than stock. The combustion chamber size checks in at 45 cc. Ford lists the Two-Valve chambers as 41-44 cc. The CNC-machine cuts each chamber identically, and the material removed enlarges it. |
Dez pointed out the stock combustion chamber and its limits. He said Fox Lake's CNC work is a vast improvement and allows the tune to be better. | 
Dezotell says the combustion chamber has been smoothed to help reduce the chances of detonation. Robart informed us that they end up removing a little bit of the dam in the chamber as well. Ford puts a dam by the intake valve to prevent swirl in the midlift range. | 
Porting heads is a skill. Anyone can gouge the ports to huge sizes, but it takes expertise to make the port efficient. Fox Lake does a balanced port job, and a CNC-machine is used to make each head identical. The intake ports' cross-section comes in at 1.67 inches after being run through the CNC-machine. Stock, they measure 1.500. Port height is 1.97 inches in ported trim versus 1.83 inches stock. |