Cool!

I also appreciated those pics.

Note the rev kit under the top ledge of the cylinder heads and small diameter valve springs. Back then, spring technology/metallurgy wasn't nearly as developed as today. To minimize the load on what today would be pretty small & low pressure valve springs, Ford chose to lower the mass of the lifter (very small diameter body) yet add the mushroom shape for max. cam contact. That and the rev-kit spread the load and allowed 7,000+ rpm for the near 4 hour race. Those lifter bores were also bronze-bushed in the cast aluminum block to allow absolute location to the crank/cam tunnels and offer long-lasting oiling to those mighty narrow lifters.

As pointed out, World Products of NY has just in the last year (late 2007) duplicated Ford's 4 extra head bolts (block and head) with their Man-O-War SBF series of 10 degree Windsor race parts. The World staff only added the lower 4 bolts (14) versus the 18 bolts shown in these late '62-early '63 pics. The head gaskets (not shown) at this point also appear to be copper or composition with SS o-ring grooves. Later I was told the engine, before it got the 4-cam heads, also got the Cooper's rings (sp?) that make it a dry deck, ala' the later NASCAR version of the Boss 429. Note to the screw-in block freeze plugs....Ford did the same with OEM Boss 302 blocks.

What still amazes me is why Ford stuck with the original design of tiny exhaust ports for the 260-289-302 and even 351W engines to come. By the pictures, the intake port is huge compared to the OEM port and although not shown, I'll bet the exhaust port is equally big....at least compared to the tiny OEM port. Sure the Boss 302 heads later had the size but once that run ended, Ford could have easily made larger port/valve W heads and likely forestalled soon to come the Chevy 302-327-350 revolution. And I know since the 60's, 70's and even early 80's were losers for all Windsor engines as the heads just could not support any decent hp. Only later did the aftermarket come to the rescue and also prodded Ford to released the GT series of heads, although none were nearly as great as the Edelbrock, Canfield, TFS, AFR, Dart, World heads to come even later.