Tom,
If you're looking to pick jewelry off automotive corpses, watch out
for imitations. I have a set of '69 or '70 351 heads, and those are
supposed to be the best years. I can't remember why, but there were a
number of good reasons, not the least the ease of obtaining reasonable
C.R.'s. I got the info on comparative merits of different vintages either
in Monroe or the old STOA tech tips manual (or both). If the former doesn't
get you what you need, let me know and I'll pull out the latter and check.
However, I've been dragging my feet on starting to build them because
of numerous comments on the list that it was a waste of money. It's
pointless putting on the 351's unless you use at least slightly bigger
valves and a grind and perhaps a little porting (even the 25 year old info
says that). The amount of extra oomph you get out of stock 351's over the
289's is evidently not worth the price of the manifold shoulder bolts alone,
much less any other expenses. So, according to this thinking, you'll end up
spending about the same to build up an old tired set of 351's (use the same
springs, keepers, etc. that got it to that 175,000 mi. graveyard? probably
not) as you would to build up a set of aftermarkets.
That's probably sound thinking too, except that for the budget blue
streak crowd (you and me at the very least), that still leaves the excess
price of the alyuminiyum heads over the junkyard 351's as pause for thought.
But you don't need the latest brand new twisted wedge specials to do this,
and there were a lot of aftermarket heads made for SBF's in the last 5-8
years. It might make much sense to spend your time haunting your local
Pennysaver looking for an old set of first generation Dart heads rather than
in the trenches at Pick and Pull.
I'd be interested to know what other listers think of this reasoning,
as I need to start on my engine immediately two weeks ago and have been
thinking through this same quandary lately. ????????
Chris Hill
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