C8AE-H heads

[preaction]

Is it unusual to see these without air injection holes in the heads and are they any good other than a date code for a restoration ?

[FElony]

Is it unusual to see these without air injection holes in the heads and are they any good other than a date code for a restoration ?

C8-H heads, as well as C7-A's and C6-R's (and a couple other '66 heads) were made in four iterations: 8-hole with air holes, 8-hole without air holes, 14-hole with, 14-hole without. Ports and valves are the same throughout in each casting #. All forms are somewhat common; C8's more so because they were used in four production years (thinking about it, maybe no 14-hole for '70 and '71?).

14-hole castings are correct for all shock tower applications, either 2V or 4V applications. The only 8-hole C8's that would be desired for a resto would be the '68-'69 428 Police cars, as they did not use CJ heads, or LTD and Marauder type cars.

All FE heads are good. They are what you make of them. Roundabout the turn of the century I talked to a guy on the phone who had a lightened 67-68 Mustang fastback running the 10.90 Super Street index with a 428 topped with ported C8-H heads. 

[preaction]

Thanks for the reply FElony 

[My3sonz]

Both of my 1968 428 PIs had C8AE with no letter after although they look exactly the same. Wonder why they did that?
Actual Police car engines not Shelby.

[thatdarncat]

Quite a few people have reported or posted pictures of the later 428 Police Interceptor C8AE-H heads with the “H” ground off, so that seems pretty confirmed. Although I don’t think there has been any actual documentation on why, speculation is that it probably was to I.D. that the Police heads were assembled differently than the normal passenger car/pickup C8AE-H heads, as they used different ( stiffer ) valve springs and the single piece retainers.

[FElony]

Quite a few people have reported or posted pictures of the later 428 Police Interceptor C8AE-H heads with the “H” ground off, so that seems pretty confirmed. Although I don’t think there has been any actual documentation on why, speculation is that it probably was to I.D. that the Police heads were assembled differently than the normal passenger car/pickup C8AE-H heads, as they used different ( stiffer ) valve springs and the single piece retainers.

I see. Never heard of that. Do you think they ran CJ cams in those? I don't know why they just didn't run production CJ engines in those cars. Maybe put a little zing unto Mopar's dominance in the category. Poopy heads at Ford.

[My427stang]

All FE heads are good. They are what you make of them. Roundabout the turn of the century I talked to a guy on the phone who had a lightened 67-68 Mustang fastback running the 10.90 Super Street index with a 428 topped with ported C8-H heads.

Your second sentence spot on: "they are what you make of them" 

The C8AE-H out of the box is about the worst God forsaken FE head, along with all the other unibody heads and truck heads, with big guide bosses, small valves and crappy undersized ports.  However, they respond very well to a work and the small fast port does well when made to look more like a medium riser with CJ sized valves 

I'd only use them if the casting or exhaust port location is needed, cheaper to make power with other heads.  That being said, you are right, any FE head can get to a clean 280 cfm, which can make quite a bit of power, some can go way more

[wsu0702]

Quite a few people have reported or posted pictures of the later 428 Police Interceptor C8AE-H heads with the “H” ground off, so that seems pretty confirmed. Although I don’t think there has been any actual documentation on why, speculation is that it probably was to I.D. that the Police heads were assembled differently than the normal passenger car/pickup C8AE-H heads, as they used different ( stiffer ) valve springs and the single piece retainers.

I see. Never heard of that. Do you think they ran CJ cams in those? I don't know why they just didn't run production CJ engines in those cars. Maybe put a little zing unto Mopar's dominance in the category. Poopy heads at Ford.

Yep the late '66 to '70 428PI engines used the same C6OZ-6250-B camshaft that was already used in the '66 and later 390GT engines.  This is the same cam that was used later for the CJ/SCJ engines.  I am pretty sure that the early '66 428PI engines used the same C3 solid lifter camshaft that was used on the later 406 engines.  If I am wrong about that I am sure (and hope) that someone will correct me.;-)