I have a 73 460 with d3ve heads on it in my F250 4x4. While shopping in my local bone yard I found a 71 Lincoln with its d0ve heads in it. The looked good and the bone yard said the engine ran when it arrived (of course). They want $200 for the pair. My question is will they work on my 460, and what am I going to have to do to get them in. My goal is to get a little bit better than mild street engine with as little money as possible. Being able to leave my neighbors el camino (350) in the dust would be a big bonus.

 

That sounds a little high. Check the guides and make sure the valves are sealing good. They will bolt right on but you will need to use pushrods for a 68-71 motor because the valve length is different.

 

I too would say thats a little high for an original condition head which you really don't know about, but could definitely be worth it if they turned out to be in good shape, so a tossup IMO
Scott

 

I'm going to see if I can talk the bone yard down a little bit. I've seen a couple on the internet for around $100 + shipping. Seeing that I still would have to get them out (good thing I love a good salvage yard) I think might be able to get a deal. So far I've had good luck with this truck.

 

You're going to get a very significant increase in compression ratio because you're going from a 92cc combustion chamber to a 76cc combustion chamber. The older heads also used a different style of rocker setup than the ones you have now so you're going to want to check the push rod length carefully. It's a simple conversion to install a more standard stud & guideplate system on the older heads which helps eliminate the tendency for them to drop valves.

 

If I end up changing heads am I going to have to use 92 oct gas?

 

You might. Depends on your elevation and a couple of other variables. My d0ve heads put on a 73 460 worked fine at my elevation of 5500 feet with regular gas. At sea level, she pinged like a pop corn machine. I bought a set of those heads at a pickand pull yard for 35 dollars a piece. They are being rebuilt right now. A pain to get off of those old lincoln cars though. Rusty Rusty bolts. Do you have a serve yourself wrecking yard where you are?

 

We're a port city, so we are at sea level. We have a pull-a- part near. I went there last week-end. No luck. I did find myself another truck project. I think I spoted myself a dana 70 rear end. If my luck holds it might be limited slip. Like yourself I'll probably have to pull the heads myself. Seems like the better part of a day. Do you have any idea how ofter your timing goes out with the high compression? I'm kind of afraid I'm opening up a can of worms with this project.

 

I had a 460 71' lincoln motor and was told that's what it was and I thought the heads were in the 100's on the cc's. These motors were about 8.8 compression with big dishes in the pistons. Went to flat tops with a nice street cam and had about 330hp with lots of torque.

 

Dropping a set of 76cc heads on an engine built for 92's will net you a static comp ratio of roughly 9.5 to 1 (give or take a tenth of a point). If nothing else, then increase in compression will help power, although you will see a much more noticeable increase if you couple the swap with a set of decent headers.

And, yes, you'll probably have to run premium unless you dial the timing back a little.

Brad

 

OK, I'm now the proud owner of a set D0ve heads. Getting them out of that old lincoln was quite a challenge. My back may never be the same. They appear to be in really good shape. I will be getting them ported soon. I kept the rocker arms and lifting rods. Are they good for anything else besides making an interesting wind chime? Should I also look into getting a new cam shaft. The one I currently have I'm sure is stock. My goal is to have a considerable amount of low end and mid range torque. I would flip out over 500-400hp, but I'm not really interested in pulling the engine. I'm not so conserned about the High rpm range as I'm not running from the cops anytime soon.

 

Why not? You're no fun!
Scott

 

i had a set on my 429 with flat top piston lets just say it has some compression, to bad the machinist who built them for me put cheap valves in them, and with the valve springs i had, they popped the heads off the valves, so now i have one head that is gasket matched and polished, i need to find one head.

 

and i got a c8ve head the same way.

 

and I have c9ve heads. Running 9.5 to 1 cr on regular gas, extreme cam with matched springs, ported and polished, It will ping if the timeing is not set right. I purposly limited my cr to 9.5/1 so I could run on regular gas. Standard all else.

If I had it to do over again, I am not sure I would not have stayed with my D3 heads and spent the money on pistions and larger valves instead. I also had a rebuild shop offer me $300 for my heads. It seems I paid around $100 for my c9 heads from a fellow shade tree mechanic.