DOOE / GT-40p ?

Get the P's. You would spend a lot of time and $$ ona set of old heads that don't perform any betetr out of the box. Even if the box is 30 years old. LOL

I put gt40P's (with an intake too) on my 78 martinique with the 351W and it gave it a serious kick in the pants power wise. I've bee told it is a good 300 hp motor now compared to the 240hp it was before. Big time difference, and the motor has a lot more snarl to it too.

I'm not asking which ones to buy, I have a very nice set of ported P's on my boat now with 20 hrs on the motor. Just collecting parts for the "next" one. I came across a set of NOS DOOE heads and the guy GAVE them to me!

DO0E-_?

The Bs are from a 302 and the only D0OEs with potential for a 351.

I found this:
D0OE-C 70-74 351W, Valves 1.84, 1.54, 60.4cc

The DOOE-Bs are better?
The heads are assembled and my bow-tie freind has my valve spring compresser but the head bolt holes measure .523 in. The valve heads are ABOUT 1.60 exh. & 1.80 in. Would 302 heads have 7/16 head bolt holes?

Just takin my time trading parts, buying stuff over about a year I put together the engine in my boat now.
.060 over 351w
cam reseach cam
very nice ported GT 40ps (from clearwater cyl head)
crane d/roller timing set
1.7 cobra roller rockers
stealth intake
windage tray
ect...

$ 1100-

this spring I added

mallory e-spark
new holley 4160
taylor plug wires
$ 575-
acme 540 prop
$ 340-

It's the tv show "wheeler-dealer" live
"It's a good deal IF it's a good deal for both parties"(Dave Ramsey)

My opinion on the D0OE heads is that I would sell them.. It takes a bunch of work by someone who knows what they are doing to make them work well, and after that they can compete with or in serious applications beat out the gt40p on the top end. By then they wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable in a day to day ski boat as the gt40p. Even for a top speed only boat the only value I see to doing that kinda work is to a guy with access to a flow bench and way more time than money. If you are paying the big bucks it would be cheaper to get aftermarket heads than work up a competitive set of D0OE's with someone else's labor and there are aftermarket heads that would have better manners up high and down lown. If we had cars with header issues that would also be a strike against the GT40ps.. but we don't.. find a guy that does and swap IMHO.

You'll find a lot of D0OE hype because people are putting the 351 "C" heads on a 302 because of the bigger valves. Again, the Cs are good factory heads, but they're not going to do anything really special. As pointed out by Joe, and plenty on the net, it takes a lot of work to open up D0OEs to outflow modern stuff. B's also need bigger valves.

Combustion chambers:
D0OE-B 58.2 cc
D0OE-C 60.4 cc
GT-40p 58-61 cc
GT-40 65 cc


These are 2 really good posts I found.
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The C9OE and D0OE were some of the best factory head castings of their time, as has already been pointed out.

These 351W heads were incredibly popular as a low-buck high performance head to use on 289's and 302's. The small block ford performance cylinder head market used to be non-existent, now...you can get a high performance small block ford head from dozens of different manufacturers. When there was a real lack in aftermarket SBF heads, the C9OE and D0OE heads were the ****.

The downside of the larger combustion chambers of these 351W heads, and thus reduced compression on a 289 or 302, was offset by the fact that these heads came with bigger valves. The valve sizes on these 351W heads were 1.84"/1.54", which was larger than the early 289/302 heads' valves (1.78/1.45) but obviously no bigger than a "3-bar" iron gt-40 head.

The intake ports on the 351W heads were also wider, measuring 1.94" x 1.16" versus the 289/302 1.94"/1.04".

To make up for their bigger combustion chamber, most people who ran the 351W heads on a 289/302 milled the heads by .040", which reduced the size of the combustion chambers about 7cc. If you milled the heads by .040 to raise compression, you also had to mill the intake manifold mating surface by .057" to properly realign the intake manifold passageways.

Since these heads were mostly used on fairly high revving small blocks, it was recommended to remove the press in studs and replace with screw in studs and guide plates (Ford guide plates were stamped C9OX-B).

If people really wanted to get the most out of these 351W heads, it was popular to install a set of GT-40 valves (old school). These valves were slightly larger than stock, at 1.875"/1.625". The valve seats have to be reworked to use these valves. The intake valve needed a 60 degree seat, and the exhaust valve seat needed to be set to 45 degrees.

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Actually the D0OE was the casting that was used all the way up to '74. In 75, they went to the D5TE casting which maintained the same intake runner size, but used the conventional 1.78/1.46 302 valve size, making a head that is a far better base for a "worked" head with larger valves because you have more workable metal in the valve bowl region and short side radii, AND you dont have to find those 18mm plugs that are extremely hard to come by in cooler heat ranges now.

The original 351 head, C9 and DO castings (essentially identical), was a slightly revised intake runner ( ~140cc's) of the '65 289HD head (Ford OTC head better known as the GT40 that came with the 1.88/1.63 valves, not to be confused with the hipo head which was a regular head with upgraded valve train features). The exhaust was typical ford stuff for the small blocks, hideous at best. IT did use a little better emissions hump instead of the corner hump used in the 67 and later stuff.

Are C9 and DO heads a very good head to use now? If you are going to be putting them onto a motor with very little work other than a good valve job and general refurb, they can be a good swap. But, to make them comparable to a lower flowing aftermarket design it will take lots of work. If you are converting to screw-in stud and guideplates it will take some big effort, new valves, etc etc. SO you have to know what you are looking for and weigh it out. Some bolt on aftermarket heads that are essentially ready to go, may not seem like so much money after all. A typical stock 351 intake port (C9 and DO) with a typical valve job maxes out around 180 cfm (28"). the exhaust around 120 cfm or so. Ofcourse well prepared stuff can hit 240/160 cfm using an intake volume around 160cc's. The AR head (later called the J302) was based on a well worked 351W head.

If on the other hand you are looking for FOrd purist build-up then definitely consider using them. spark plugs are going to be a pain (finding good cooler heat ranges)