Are you looking for good heads as in good to go ready to bolt on or good as in performance potential or good as in rebuildable cores? 66 and earlier high ex port heads or 66 and later low ex port heads? It makes a difference if you are running headers.

 

The short answer is either ready to go or good rebuildable. It’s for a 332 block that we’re turning into a 390, and the exhaust system will be new, so does it make a difference then?

 

Most aftermarket headers made for FE powered pickups are made for the later low exh port cylinder heads and can have problems getting a good seal against earlier high exh port cylinder heads.Factory exhaust manifolds will typically seal up against either.I've got both early and late heads. but its a pretty long way to ship.

 

Would it be a better thing to just go with something like the new Edelbrock FE heads?

 

From what I understand the edelbrocks use the same high port placement of the earlier heads and the CJ's,so possibly the same issues with headers. Guys running 390GT Fairlanes that have headers designed for use on 390GT heads have the same issues when swapping to Ebrock heads.If you are running stock manifolds I surely wouldn't waste the money on aluminum heads they are that restrictive. The problem is with where the port opening hole in the flange is placed(high or low) and the corresponding weld bead to join the tube to the flange, that weld bead on the head side is what seals against the header gasket and when the port opening is mismatched such as in the case of common pickup headers against an early large port,CJ,or Ebrock head the top of the gasket where it gets crushed by the weld bead of the flange and the head surface gets so narrow that it can't hold and will blow out in short order, in extreme cases there are sometimes gaps with no sealing at all.Years ago there were 2 separate header gaskets available for Ford FE's even though bolt hole placement and exhaust port sizes were all the same, the port hole placement was higher or lower to match the early and late heads.Unfortunately FE powered pickups only used the early large port heads for the first couple of years and then switched to the later small port heads so the vast majority of FE powered pickups came thru with the low port placement and headers were made to fit them.If you are going to get headers make sure they are compatible with the early large port,CJ, or Ebrock heads, call or email the manufacturer and verify they will match the placement, if not they will bolt on just fine but you will play hell getting the gaskets to last any length of time.Header manufacturers such as FPA and possibly others are well aware of this and offer headers for the same application that are flanged appropriately to match one head or the other. The other option if you already have the headers is to make sure you use the later small port heads.