J heads or E heads for a 455? I am on the hunt for a cheap 455 and keep running across everything except what I'm looking for but seeing a lot of heads for sale and everyone claims this ones better than that one etc so I figured I'd ask the experts. Also, does it matter what year 455 that these would go on?

 

455 is 455. The heads from a 69 will bolt onto a 76 455 and vice versa. J heads are the cheapest and you can have them rebuilt to whatever specs you want. Or you could go with aluminum heads.

It doesn't really matter what Olds 455 you buy if it's going to be gone through anyway. I'd go with one that costs the least and isn't seized. You're going to likely change out the cam, crank and have it re-bored anyway. Note: 455's were produced by Olds, Buick and Pontiac, so know what you're buying before you hand over the cash.

Either that or you could take a 403 and overbuild it too. But it's a SBO - so 350 heads will bolt onto it as well.

 

To answer your question, ANY other BBO heads are better than J heads in stock form.

 

which is why I suggested to him that he can have them rebuilt to whatever specs he wants. Sure hope you didn't interpret that as keeping them stock.

 

if you are in the "cheap 455" range don't rule out J heads. They do most of what most folks need done with a 455. Drag racing- not the best choice but certainly can be a contender with enough time and $- so I see.

 

Unless the OP plans to pay for porting, the J heads will really only be good for a street cruiser. With even C-casting cores going for $150/pr, why mess with J-heads?

 

J is for junk. Pick any other BBO head.

 

Check out the OP's home page. It looks like a street cruiser is exactly what he wants, hence the J heads and mild upgrading would be appropriate. These things are a dime a dozen, and even picking up the other heads you suggested, there's going to be time and $$ spent on new valves and machining. Doesn't matter if they're J heads or not at this point IMO.

 

Understand, but the original question back in post #1 was "E or J". If it were my money, I'd not spend it on the J heads when more desirable castings are easily available. If one is going to install big valves, that's even more expense not to put into the J heads.

You are correct, if you already have them they will work on a low RPM stocker. If one is asking the question between choosing E or J heads, my original response stands.

 

Also part of the original post was for a cheap 455. If it comes with stock J heads, oh well - the price can be right and the engine could be his. Very low cost acquisition for a street car. I also did suggest going with aftermarket heads BTW.

 

Is there a thread anywhere on this site that lists the best heads for an Olds big block? I'm assuming the F heads are the holy grail because they were made for the 70 W30...and I know the C heads were highly rated as well. I've read somewhere that J and K were near the bottom, but then there's a thread on here somewhere that someone corrected me that K heads weren't that bad after all. I think I've read that B heads were for the big cars like the 98 or the Delta?

 

Define "best"...

The W-30 heads (D, F, H) are both rare and highly sought after by restorers, so you won't get much change back from a $3000 bill for a set of cores. The reality is, however, that within manufacturing tolerances, when fitted with the same size valves, all BBO castings except for the J castings flow about the same and have the same chamber volumes. I've seen prior flow tests that claim to show that C castings flow the best of any. I don't believe that, because why would Olds go through the trouble of designing and casting the D, F, and H heads for W-cars if the C heads were better? Just about any test data you find will be based on testing of a single head, and that just isn't a large enough sample size to be statistically valid data. I suspect that the variation from best to worst casting is at most, 10% flow rate.

 

I guess "best" would stand for the one that makes the most horsepower. The H heads were on the 71 W30? I think I read that somewhere. The highest rated hp for all Olds engines was the 70 W30, so I'm sure that's the F head. Not sure where the D head comes from? Would that be the head for the 69 Hurst Olds?

 

D = 68/69 W-30 and H/O
F = 70 W-30
H = 71 W-30

By the way, the 70 W-30 was rated at 370 HP, the 68 H/O at 390. The 1970 Toro W-34 was rated at 400 HP and used E heads and a milder cam than the W-30. The factory ratings have no relationship to real HP whatsoever.

Again, if you're building a motor, any unported BBO head (except the J) with the same size valves will pretty much flow the same. If you get them ported, then it doesn't matter which one you start with. And aftermarket aluminum will beat any of them.

 

Thanks Joe. It's good to know. My 455 is from a 73 442 and has the Ga heads. Although, when the kids move out and I have a little extra money to spend, I'll probably go for the aluminum aftermarkets, as well as getting the Eagle rotating assembly....if we're still allowed to run V8s when the time arrives.

 

If you have a 455 with GA heads, they're out of a 72. 1973 were J heads. Check your engine stamping pad to see if your engine block is 73 or 72

 

Yeah, was just curious because I saw some E heads for 100 bucks if I remember correctly and the seller was stating they were the best and had the highest flow etc...a general con census as to the order of the best to worst would probably work but sounds like it don't matter much. As for my plans, I'd like something with a bit if "oomph" but don't want to dump a million dollars into it. It's just so if I see them I can grab them knowing I didn't just waste my money buying junk

 

Well yeah, the seller claimed the heads he was selling were the best.

 

It could have been a replacement for that car, but I do know I pulled it out of a 73.

 

Hey, EVERYTHING I sell is "the best". Just ask me...

 

Buy them.

Guaranteed it wasn't original to the 73. That's why I said check the stamping pad to see what year the block was. Could have been 72 heads on a 73 engine. Chances are though it was a transplanted 455 though because not many 73's were built with 455's.

 

Some have the opinion that the J head are ideal for my motorhome application because with minimal work the will flow just fine at the typical low rpm and give better torque down there...

 

This five year old thread you resurrected wasn't talking about a motorhome application. Scroll up and read the last line I wrote in Post #9. More to the point, the original question in THIS thread was about selecting J or E heads.