I am just finishing building a 5.0 roller engine for my 78 F100,and I already know its not going to have the power I'm looking for,and I am going to start gathering parts to put something bigger together,there is a guy locally who has some 1969 460 parts,block and crank,and he has a set of dove heads,are these something worth picking up?I know nothing about the ford big blocks and will be greatfull for any knowledge you have to share with me.

 

depends on what he is asking for them.

the good thing about the D0VE heads are they 75 cc (give or take) chambers compared to 95cc for the D3VE heads and screw in rocker studs.

bad things are they only have 2.08" intakes and very restrivtive exhaust ports.

you can do a lot to them to make them flow better by putting bigger valves in them and doing porting work especially on the exhaust. most sites say they can support around 600hp when properly done.

that being said there are lots of aftermarket heads that by the time you put all the extra work into these heads (new valves and seats, new springs, new rocker studs and arms, porting, etc.) you will not be that far off the cost of a decent set of aftermarket heads like the TFS street heads that will outflow even a well worked over set of D0VE's

so if you can get them cheap and complete and they don't require a lot of work, then they wouldn't be a bad starting point. really depends on what your end goal is with the 460.

rgds
Mike

 

thanks mike,that answers my questions,I'm not even sure I want to go with 460.but I heard these heads mentioned a time or two and wondered what ws so special,but like you just stated,not much.I think I will have to pass and just wait until I get my hands on the bottom end I will be using first.thanks again.