[Clois Harlan]

Midnight,

Sounds like you know what you are doing. I recently did this on my 427 and I choose to change both but I was doing a routine maintenance on my engine to get ready for some track time. To answer your question about your heads being warped, I would think it is very unlikely and you can take your head in and have it re-surfaced (as I did) for about $30 per head. When you decide to pull your head keep all your bolts, push rods and lifters in the same order they came out of the engine.

During re-assembly be sure that both your head mating surface as well as your intake surface is really clean (use laquer thinner a clean blue paper towel). Before you reassemble the you might want to put a little silicone on your finger and wipe a thin amount around your water jackets to help hold everything in place and give you a little more security from water getting into your combustion chambers.

Also, if you are running aluminium heads you might want to torque them down to 110 lbs. and then re-torque them after you have brought your car up to operating temp.

Clois Harlan