Quote Originally Posted by josh bichard View Post
I am trying to think of all angles of my bbf build and want to be sure about what I want to do before I start buying parts. I started doing some price checking on some things so I called a couple machine shops to get some figures and was rocked by what I heard. To get my dove-c heads rebuilt to stock form, (no porting, cheap valves, small valve springs) is going to be around 700 bucks. 700 bucks for some 40 year old stock heads. I already have a couple hundred in just buying these heads. I am not saying these guys were bsing me, just that I didnt know it would cost that much.
So now I am thinking about taking a little more time on the car and getting some performer rpms or some john kaase p51s. I am leaning toward the edelbrocks because I am worried that my 429 would need a crazy big cam to move the air that the john kaase heads can.
Any input would be great.
Machine work is machine work, it doesn't matter what heads you have, Ford, Chevy, etc. Generally, when it coes to american V8s (with rare exception) valve job is a valve job whether small block heads, big block heads, chevy heads, olds heads, etc, as is valve stem seals, locks etc. Has nothing at all to do with Ford.

What are you building that cannot use OEM style valves and springs? If you need more than stock componentry in your build then I certainly hope you are willing to spend WAY more than $700 on heads and not complain about it. All this being said, you did not specify what you get for your $700. For example, does the price include the installation of hardenend exhaust seats? 3-angle vavle job? Is a crack repair involved? Etcetera. We can't tell if this is a good deal or not unless you spell out what you get for $700. Also, for your information "40 year old stock 429/460 heads" can be set up to kick the ass out of some of the aftermarket aluminum heads on the market these days, and for equal or less than the cost of the alloy heads.

And you want to put P51's on a little ol' 429??? Are you racing and revving the engine to 8500 rpm? I doubt you are as this would be a pricey combo and you are complaining about a $700 machining estimate, nor do I think you would consider unported iron for such an application. I'm betting that P51's are way, way, way too much cylinder head for your tiny engine and that you will get more usable powe with a different cylinder head choice.

What exactly are you building? How much hp do you want? Must the engine run on pump gas? In what kind of vehicle will it be used? Answer these questions and you might get a more definitive answer about how you should approach your engine build.

Paul