1949 8BA with 1946 cylinder heads overheating

[RandyMettler]

Has anyone successfully ran a 8BA with earlier style cylinderheads? I purchased a car with 1946ish offy aluminum cylinderheads and it is running hot. This seup is possible because ford designed the two different style era heads with the same bolt pattern and the coolant passages line up. I don't understand why my new copper 1949 headgaskets passage holes, on the gasket themselves, are so much smaller than the waterjacket passages on the 8BA block. If ford designed the sizes for blocks coolant output holes, why are the gaskets designed to restrict coolant flow?

Has anyone attempted to increase the size of the holes, on the head gaskets themselves, to match that of the engine block?

Has anyone successfully tried to bore out their aluminum cylinder head coolant passages to match the larger diameter holes on their blocks?

Also, the 8BA waterpumps incorporate two additional small coolant passage in addition to the large impeller output. One built into the top of the pump and one on the bottom. The top passage ports to the cylinderheads, technically bypassing the block all together. My 8BA block currently has these two coolant passages plugged because the earlier style cylinder heads, I have, where not designed for this configuration. The 1946 water pumps did not have the upper passages. Does anyone know why the 8BA pumps did this?

Regards

[Charlie Stephens]

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You should really move your question to the main forum: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4 This forum is intended for questions to the editors about the site and is seldom read.

Charlie Stephens