Best factory heads for a 351-W

[junkyardjeff]

If my heads turn out to be milled and causing the intake to not seal what would be the best heads to find at the junkyard,its a 80s motor and I am looking for torque not tire shredding power. I am going to look at aftermarket but the price might shock me. Jeff

[thesals]

69/70 are the best 351w heads hands down, problem is they dont have hardened seats, so you'd be spending money on seats which isn't cheap(labor wise) the next best set of heads is the 88+ 351 heads only because they have hardened seats, i dont know what kind of setup you're building exactly or what your smog laws are, but you can do a little bit of smog equipment removal on the heads for a little more power

[Dave Severson]

No idea if they are worth running Jeff, I have a set off a '78 Cougar... Don't know a thing about them or what the specs would be. Let me know if you want me to get the casting numbers.

[R Pope]

C90E or D0OE, 1969 or 1970 351-4V heads are the best Ford made. I've got 2 sets with 100 thou on each with no seat problems.

[thesals]

yup, you can run soft seats on unleaded fuel generally without problems, especially if you use newer type valve materials, you get less of a chance of the welding problems and such.... its still not reccomended but then again i've done it myself with no problems..... those 78 heads are small port, small valve, big chamber heads, they were designed for fuel economy during the fuel crysis....

[junkyardjeff]

The motor is in my 55 fairlane so no pollution devices are on the motor,the 5.0 mustang set likes the D7TE truck heads but a local junkyard has a 69 or 70 galaxie with a 351 so I am going to look at it. I am thinking about the edelbrock total power package that has heads,cam and intake since the nimrod that built the motor put in a 302 cam,putting hardened seats in early heads will probably be chaeper then aluminum heads but I am going to look into the cost before buying early heads. Jeff

[falconvan]

I built a 351w a few years back and a book I had said to get a set of heads from an early 90's 5.0 HO in an Explorer. They're supposed to be the same as the GT-40 head. I dont have any numbers but it did run very good and the heads were cheap at the boneyard.

[bluestang67]

Jeff some reading i did also the F150 heads off a 5.0 are good breathers . Heres a link showing specs on alot of stock heads .



http://www.carbdford.com/tech/flowdata.htm

[dennis kelley]

I don't think you will be shocked by the price of aftermarket heads when you compare them to machining a set of iron production heads. Good luck

later
dennis