put your head on straight!

[fivemustangs]

I recently assembled my 87 ford mustang 5.0 engine the last winter. when I built the engine with a few performance parts including gt-40 heads, trickflow cam, underdrive pulleys and a good msd ignition system. When I got the engine togeather and in the car I noticed that I somehow put the heads on backwordsdon't ask me how. the engine still seems to run fine without any complications, but I was wondering if I was missing any power because of the fact? the only things that seem to be bothering me about the car is that the engine is kinda hard to start when its cold, it also keeps running for a good 2-3 seconds after the key is turned to the off position, and there seems to be more smoke comming out of the passenger side tail pipe then the drivers side. I have tryed messing with the timing but it hasn't seemed to help any. keep in mind that this engine is carburated and is placed in a 96 mustang that used to have a 3.8 V6. if anyone could help my with this situation that would be great! im looking to pull then engine out this winter and do a few more upgrades.:SNSign:

 

[Dean85GT]

The head is on backwards??? lmao I'll let the other guys handle this one

 

[new46stang]

Don't worry. I did this with my first 302 rebuild on a 91. The only thing I had to do was plug the EGR port that was now on the front of the engine. If memory serves (as my engine ran perfect) the stock heads are identical.

As for your other issues, sounds like timing? To far advanced it could be hard to start. Did you rebuild the bottome end? Maybe it needs to seat the rings for a bit more. Could explain the smoke. I am not sure why the engine still runs after the key is off.

 

[93 LX]

there is only one head. The left and right are the same.. stock heads have an air injection port that faces the back but the heads are th same. On the front there is a plug for the port.

 

[Foxfan88]

its impossible to put heads on backwards on a SBF AFAIK (dont know bout anything else).

all the heads i have seen are able to interchange.

sometime it may APPEAR that they arent the same, the back of stock heads have the hole for air injection. the holes are threaded and you can buy a threaded "thermactor plug" to go in the hole to reduce the hole size to 7/16 for the accessory bolt hole. and also the front one can be removed and air injection can be ran that way.

i tried to get my thermactor plugs out of some stock heads and it was a PITA.

so dont worry, any problems you are having have nothing to do with the heads "being on backwards"

when i read the topic title i thought you were talking about putting heads on with no dowel pins (more like big roll pins) that will mess you up big time. if you could even get the intake bolted down and sealed.