68 Police Interceptor 428 heads.

[TomP]

Is there anything at all different on the C8AE-H heads that were on the 428 PI compared to any old 390?

I have a pair with 8A4 and 8A6 date codes. The guy I got them off pulled the whole engine from a 68 Custom two door sedan... can't recall the last time i'd even seen one of those!... that he says was a old cop car. These have plugs in the Thermactor holes. So Californian cops i'd guess.
 They have yellow valve springs with dampers. Standard two piece retainers.

 He says the engine had an aluminum intake and was the main reason he bought the car. I thought 68's used the iron CJ intake but maybe this predates that?

Needless to say I wondered if he still has the 68 Custom but that went for scrap in the early 70's.

 His story seems legit, in pulling apart these heads they have never been rebuilt and don't need anything but seals, hardly any carbon on the valves. Those heads are not worth a bunch but if these is something unique about the PoPo heads i'd be interested in knowing.

[67428GT500]

C8AE-H heads are smog heads. Nothing special about them. Standard 2.03 INT 1.56 EXH Smaller intake port than the earlier 2.34 tall intake ports.
   
                                                                                                    -Keith

[thatdarncat]

From a few reports I’ve seen over the last couple years, including I think from Wes Adams, people have found that the C8AE-H castings on the Police 428’s are the same as all the others, but they are assembled with different valve train parts, and because the cylinder head assembly is different Ford ground the “H” off the casting to differentiate them - so they just have “C8AE-  “, and what usually looks like a ground spot where the “H” was. I just double checked the Ford Parts book and it shows the ‘67-‘70 Police Interceptor 428 uses the same hydraulic cam as the 390 GT & 428 CJ ( The ‘66 428 PI was solid lifter ). The Ford Parts book shows the 428 PI using the same single piece retainers as the 428 CJ, and the same valve springs as the ‘68 428 CJ. The Ford Parts book shows the 428 Police Interceptor using different intake & exhaust valves than both the regular 428 & the 428 CJ, they look to be a severe duty part, but they are still the same head size as a normal 428. Also from what people have reported, the aluminum 428 PI intake was used, then eventually replaced by the 428 CJ cast iron intake when that became available. The Ford Parts book shows the switch to the cast iron CJ intake started on 12-2-1968, which would be into the ‘69 model year.

[TomP]

Thank you Kevin. So these are not PI, they must be the regular 428 or someone switched them. The H is still there.
 I have had them with the H ground off and never knew that they were anything special.

 Still, ordinary heads in really clean unmolested shape are worth more than scrap.

 I wondered about the intake, the guy bought it to use for a 68 Shelby non KR because it had the date code he wanted.

 I have seen the P code listed for 67 TBirds in old literature... but did those ever get the PI engine or just the normal 345hp version?

[WerbyFord]

Agree w Kevin re the C8AE & "H" ground off. We had or have a set like this. Same heads & valves, just no "H".

The PI heads (ours too) also had the 1-piece retainers & damper springs (probably 390gt spec but I didn't check them out).

The 1966 PI was about the only 428PI that actually made 360hp with its solid cam.
The 1967-68 versions were more like 340-345hp, which ironically was the rating of the vanilla "7-Litre" 428s.

It's too bad Ford didn't offer the "P" code to the public in 1967-68 big cars at least, hyd cam, mild engine, autolite carb, but a decent competitor to Pontiac's 428ho.