Thread: 429 year info please?

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Originally posted by techinspector1
Hold on to those heads, they are the 2nd best heads Ford ever cast for the 429/460 motors. D0VE-C's were the best and the C8VE-E's will run right with them.

The D0VE cylinder head is my LAST choice in the early-style heads. In my opinion, the C8VE head is a better head to start with in many cases. Why? First of all, let me just say that the C8VE, C9VE and D0VE castings are damn near identical to one another and--once ported--are completely interchangable. They are so identical, in fact, that you may run a C8VE head on one cylinder bank and a D0VE on the other bank if you wish...they are that much alike.

So why do I like the C8VE and C9VE heads over the D0VE's? Answer: Here in California, D0VE's are drilled for smog pumps (Thermactor) and this adds to the porting effort (plugging these drilled passages). C8VE & C9VE heads were not drilled from the factory and so porting is easier AND you can get more aggressive in some areas of the port when grinding, as you do not risk breaking into these drilled air pump passages.

To summarize, the port architecture, valve sizes, combustion chamber size and shape, etcetera, are identical on all three castings...but the D0VE may have passages drilled for the air pump. Always look for this before you buy a pair of D0VEs.

Paul