TFS Mystery Heads?

I have a pair of BBF TFS heads that were sold to me as the Power Port 325’s, part number TFS-53410007-C01.  With help from the tech dept at TFS, their online catalog, and some careful measuring, I have CORRECTLY (I think) identified them as the Power Port 290’s, part number TFS-53410002.  (Casting ID ‘TFS-BBF-2’, 2.20” intake valve). The thing that almost fooled me was the intake port measurements.  On the heads that I have, they are WAY BIGGER than listed for the 325’s!  The exhaust ports are only slightly bigger than listed for the 290’s.  The 325 ports are listed as being completely CNC’d (by TFS), with the 290’s listed as, “fast as cast”.  So, these 290’s have to have been ported by somebody (?) at some point.  As you can see in the pics, the ports appear to be CNC’d and NOT hand-ported, but I’m certainly no expert.  The other pics show some stamped numbers / letters in the ends of the heads and some engraved numbers / letters on the bottom of the heads between the pushrod holes.  These may point to some shop that did the port work?  Can anybody help me out with this?  

Actually, I’m just curious to know what I have.  I have long since given up on even trying to get any satisfaction from where these came from.  I have decided that these are still pretty good heads for my 501 streetrod where I’m looking for about 650 HP.

Yes, I'd agree.
These heads look like they started out as 290's but, have been CNC ported by some other shop than Trick Flow.

Do not think that the old 290's can't make good power. I hand ported a set way bigger than normal in order to use epoxy to create the port size and shape I wanted. They ran really well on a 557. I figured they made just north of 800 hp. They ended up looking just like the afr stuff before afr built them. Rectangular ports and all.

rmcomprandy wrote:Yes, I'd agree.
These heads look like they started out as 290's but, have been CNC ported by some other shop than Trick Flow.

snuff98 wrote:Do not think that the old 290's can't make good power.  I hand ported a set way bigger than normal in order to use epoxy to create the port size and shape I wanted.  They ran really well on a 557. . .

Yeah, I'm thinking that with the right pistons & cam they should get me at least to the 650HP I'm looking for.  The CNC work that gave them the giant 2 1/2 x 2 1/4 intakes seem to limit my manifold gasket choices to the Fel Pro 1231 / 1231S3 SCJ gaskets.  That size also matches up pretty well to my Blue Thunder tunnel ram.  The only difficulty I see is that the intake openings aren't very well centered, (see pic) so I may have to do some gasket / manifold 'trimming'. (?)

rmcomprandy wrote:Yes, I'd agree.
These heads look like they started out as 290's but, have been CNC ported by some other shop than Trick Flow.

Do you know if TEA (Total Engine Airflow)  does the TFS porting or is that just a different division all together. I bought my Track Heat intake converted to efi through TEA and picked it up at Trick Flow. You can buy ported TFS heads from TEA as well.

Do you know if TEA (Total Engine Airflow)  does the TFS porting or is that just a different division all together. I bought my Track Heat intake converted to efi through TEA and picked it up at Trick Flow. You can buy ported TFS heads from TEA as well.[/quote]

I didn't know about them, thanks!

stevesgarage wrote:

Yeah, I'm thinking that with the right pistons & cam they should get me at least to the 650HP I'm looking for.  The CNC work that gave them the giant 2 1/2 x 2 1/4 intakes seem to limit my manifold gasket choices to the Fel Pro 1231 / 1231S3 SCJ gaskets.  That size also matches up pretty well to my Blue Thunder tunnel ram.  The only difficulty I see is that the intake openings aren't very well centered, (see pic) so I may have to do some gasket / manifold 'trimming'. (?)

Seeing that photo, I would say that the port spacing is regular production spacing but, with a Cobra-Jet sized port; not the Cobra-Jet port spacing.
The centerline port spacings at the flange are different.

rmcomprandy wrote:Seeing that photo, I would say that the port spacing is regular production spacing but, with a Cobra-Jet sized port; not the Cobra-Jet port spacing.
The centerline port spacings at the flange are different.

Yes, that makes sense.  I did get a TFS 325 intake gasket set and that lines-up / centers much better, I just need to enlarge the widths of the gasket ports and they should work fine for the heads AND the manifold.