Last week, I came across a guy who wanted to sell me a pair of '69 aluminum cylinder heads for $350. Yes, it was almost too good to be true. He's coming back sometime this week to seal the deal.

I'm pretty sure that the only two aluminum cylinder heads availabe in '69 were on the L-88 and ZL-1 engines. I don't know the differences between them off the top of my head, & I'd have to look up the part #s to identify them, but I'm curious as to what their actual resale value is. I have no interest in putting them on my 402. I'm putting oval port heads on that motor.

For now, I'm going to assume that these are L-88 heads due to the extreme rarity of the ZL-1 stuff, but I'd still like to know the value of both heads. I'm sure that it's more than $350. smile.gif Any help is greatly appreciated.

Early '66-'68 L-88 427 heads are closed chamber. In '69 the '074' heads were used on two 427 engines, L-88/ZL-1, which are open chamber. Same goes for 1971 454 LS-6 engines.

As far as worth goes, at least $500 and easily over a grand and up depending on what is needed and what shape they are in currently.

This post might shed some more light too:

http://www.chevelles.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=020539#000005

There were L-89 aluminum headed 396 engines in 69. Who knows what they might be worth to someone restoring a numbers matching car, but to tell the truth, the alloy used to cast those heads is inferior to todays aluminum heads cast with better alloys.

T,
I would only do this deal under the following conditions. You have him take the heads to the machine shop of your choice, and have them pressure tested and otherwise looked over very closely. Pay for the testing yourself if you have to. If they are good, then its a great deal .... IF you want a set of those heads. Speaking from experience, I personally feel that they are junk compared to any modern head. The aluminum is melted beer cans at best, the seats are soft, etc etc etc. I have a set in the shop right now for a customer and the intake seats are actually falling apart, for lack of a better term. I have had to fix them in the past for a couple of Vette motors and they were nothing but a pain. The aluminum is so bad it is almost impossible to weld.
The Vette guys will pay a mint for them if they are good .... I would save a few dollars and buy the Edelbrocks or GMPP ones instead.
Just my opinion,

In 69 there were both open and closed chamber. The L-89s used the old closed chamber head. The L-88s and the ZL-1 used the open chamber. The early head is pretty much a copy of the 840 iron head with 1.84 ex valves. The open chamber is a poor design with a giant round exhaust port that simply doesn't work. I agree with Bill about the problems they have but a good set of 842s make a decient street head especially if you are going for the stock look (you can see the Winters mark from the outside)

They are tempermental. Retorquing bolts left and right due to their extreme expansion/contraction. Lift the motor up by the heads and or intake flange - ARE YOU KIDDING!?

Watch for signs of welding. Check the exhaust rocker bosses for cracks/welds/ Use extra long studs there.

Having said all that, my 074s are probably good for $1300+ on Ebay. And in a pretty well thought out combination, they seem to make decent power ( 118 mph+ in the 1/4).

If they break again, nostalgia goes out the window and new , modern heads go on.

Well, I didn't say that I was going to USE the heads on my 402. I just wanted to sell them. I'll probably just put them on eBay and hope for the best. Every auction that I've seen for aluminum heads on there was insane (the fact that the heads were made out of a craptastic alloy isn't common knowledge it seems.) The heads would be around $100 at the start of the auction and the next day they'd be around $2000.

The heads that I WANT to put on my 402 (but I can't quite afford at the moment) is a toss-up between the Brodix RR BB-Os and the Holley oval ports. They are made from A-356 and 356-T6 aluminum, respectively. Not sure of the differences between those two, but do they have to be constantly retorqued as well?

Tanatra, The metalurgy in the old L-88 heads is pretty poor but they run pretty good. I saw a set of mismatched old round exhaust port open chambers go 10.04 @ 134 MPH in a Camaro a long time ago. If they are sound and the right type they might fetch a good price from someone trying to do a restoration.

The local guru didnt think they were terrible. Mine are worked nicely on the in side. According to said guru, about $300 worth of welding and porting on the EX side would have helped quite nicely .( raising the floor specifically ).

Sure $1300-1500 easy depending on casting dates, etc. Ebay 'em. BUT, with a few details, they have been pretty good heads for me. Mettalurgy sucks though. And wouldn't DREAm of running a roller cam with them due to spring pressures. They're strictly flat tappet territory, and even them you have to beef up using extra long threaded studs.

You might get lucky and be able to do an even $$ swap for modern heads!