All Small Six 250 head cylinder in 200?

This relates to all small sixes

Gustag

New member
Hi everyone,
I have the possibility to buy a 1970 250 engine and have some questions. Is it possible to use the head cylinder from it in an 1968 200 engine? What effects would it give? Do I need to do any machine work or is it an easy swap? Or is the best course of action to just replace my 200 with the 250??
 
Yes, the newer head will bolt on, but it's not that simple. I'm not sure what your old engine specs are, but you'll probably loose some compression (and power) from the 250 head having bigger combustion chambers. And your old carb probably won't fit either, as the 200 head has a 1.5 inch carb inlet, and the 250 will be 1.75". If you change your carb you may have to change the distributor too. These are issues that can be dealt with though, and that is a common swap.
 
You are going to have to mill the head .070" just to get the head CC's 52. A Fel-Pro headgasket is .048" compressed, the Victor is .044" compressed thickness.
 
Thanks TrickSix. I actually already have a Weber 32/36 waiting so I gues I would need a distributor. But many seem to change their cylinder heads to get more HP not less. Have I missed something or is the 1970 250 head just not the best??
 
Your 1968's points distributor is a duel advance unit and will work fine with the Weber carb. Yes the later 250 & 200 heads will bolt on and give you a boost in power. X4 these 1969 to 1983 heads all have a larger combustion chamber of about 62 CC's (compared to your 1968 and older heads of 52 CC). They all have a larger log, a 1 3/4 inch carb mounting hole all that was mentioned above, they also have larger intake ports for better flow almost everything is a good benefit except for the larger 62 CC's combustion chambers. But as wsa111 posted above you will only need to mill the head and that will fix that item, you can also direct mount the Weber (this gives the most power) or open up the carb opening to 2 to 2 1/8 inch and use a 2V to 1V carb adapter as a decent upgrade.

Being you have a 1968 Mustang the 250 would fit easy into your car if you wanted to do the extra work and would give you quite a boost in torque. If that 1970 250 is in good running codistion that might be a worth while swap, it would require a different bell housing to fit it but if your trans is a C4 auto that's easy enough to do. All the 1969 to 1983 heads are quite good the best picks in the large log heads are from 1977 up with the last ones used in the 1980 to 1983 200's and 250's being the best ones by a small margin having the largest of all the logs, the 1977 up heads also have the benefit of the larger 1 3/4 inch intake valves. You can get a decent performance increase with 1970 head just doing the milling to get the chambers down to 52 to 48 CC's. Other mod's to max out the performance are installing larger intake 1 3/4 inch or bigger valves & 1.5 inch exhaust valves, pocket porting / blending the valve bowls & narrowing the valve guides, a good 3 angel valve job and back cutting of the intakes, adding the center exhaust divider, and a full porting of the exhaust are all good mod's to do. Best of luck
 
Get the 250 if you can as stated it can fit your 1968. And get a copy of the Falcon Performance Handbook it will provide details on the combustion chambers size and lots of other stuff. Nice Mustang you have.
 
Hi, X2 on all the advice.
I would assume any old head needs a rebuild anyway.
The whole deal Bubba spells out. As mentioned, get the Falcon Performance Handbook. All this info is in there.
Make sure to have the head checked for cracks before any other work is done, especially above the 3-4 exhaust port area
Good luck
 
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Thanks everyone for great advice. The 250 was actually from 1969 but I understand it is the same head so I bought it. Will get the Performance Handbook to check how to proceed. Need to get a new distributor and it seems that the DS2 is the best choice. Unfortunately difficult to find in Europe. Is the DUI the second best choice??
 
X2 the 1968 200 or the 1969 250 distributor are both good points distributors that can be used works fine with any of the newer carb's. If you want to go electronic you could install a Pertonix Ignitor unit and a hotter coil, Wsa111 can sell you the DuraSpark II (DS II) or an HEI that's custom curved for your engine if your wanting to head in that direction. Be advised that a DUI or HEI's installed in a 200 is much taller in heght and won't fit with the factory Power Steering pumps (PSP). If you have PSP or are ever going too than a DS II distributor is the best choose. Best of luck
 
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