i am gonna want to rebuild my 351 w pretty soon and i want to put some better heads on it it is an 85. i have a line on some good d8oe heads were these a good year for flow and compression? thanks

 

Sorry, but those are stinkers.

C9/D0 or the D5 heads are what you want. Zero deck when using these heads.

 

aluminum heads would be the way to go if you have the funds. also saves a bunch of weight over the cast iron heads

 

I have been told that D0OE Castings were the best factory head. I bought a set off Ebay for $300. They already had new guides and hardened seats. Some thing you will want any older Pre-No-lead day heads to have. I heard people say both intake and exhaust valves will need seats while others say only the exhaust. I tend to believe only the exhaust my self. Anyway, I too went ahead and bought another set - Aluminum Edelbrock RPM Performers. They ran me $1100. The D0OE heads have a closed chamber 60.4 cc- which is good to boost compression. There is a couple of options, Hope it is of help. Good Luck

 

There was a sort of mystique about those heads. Years ago I bought a set that came off a '69 351 Eliminator Cougar, they were the C9OE heads. Supposed to be the only 351W 4-barrel head, but there's no difference as far as I know. I have another set that a friend who owned a machine shop gave me. They were both worked over the same, converted to screw-in studs, bronze guides and oversize valves with seats installed, but one head is a C9OE and the other is a D0OE. He had looked them over carefully, cc'd the chambers and found no detectable difference between them. I had read that the '69 heads had a better chamber shape, but in looking at them I see no difference either. They are supposed to have larger ports then other heads of that era as well.

I've had these two sets for years and never used them, so I can't speak of personal experience in that regard. Supposed to be darn good heads though.