88 head on an 86

I took the head off my 86 cougar to be cleaned and checked. I got a call back this morning saying that I have two cracks in the exhaust outlets. He did say though that he has a head off and 88 mustang 2.3 that he would give me for the cost of the work. I swear I have seen in some other posts that the intakes are different on the 87-88 cars then the previous. So could I just use a lower intake from an 87-88 and bolt my upper onto it? Thanks for any help, I am going to call now and try to get the casting numbers off both the heads.

Jim

n/a 2.3l heads are higher compression; heart shaped chamber, not D shaped chamber like the turbo. There's tons of info around the search about it.

Thanks, I went through the search function and found the link that gave me all the casting numbers. I think I am going to have to wait until I go up there tomorrow and pick up the head to have a look at the other one. I asked for the casting numbers and what he gave me was a GO2 for my current head and a CO3 for the one off the mustang. How common are SVO mustangs and what are the odds of this being a turbo head?

Jim

SVO Mustangs were made for model years 84, 85 and 86. I think the combined total was about 9,4xx. There is no significant difference between SVO heads and TC heads.

I have some untested spare heads if you get desperate.

Thanks Pete. There is another machine shop around here that said they might have one too, so I am going to check that out.

Jim