Dove Aluminum Heads
 

Has anyone had any good or bad deals with dove heads for 427 ford?Thinking about getting a pair for my 427or any advice on any other brand.Thanks

I had been told when researching my engine that Dove heads had problems with porosity in the casting and required a fair amount of work. I ended up with Edlebrock and am happy with that choice.

I heard the same as AL, also bolts tend to pull out until everything is helicoiled. Check with Keith Craft about ported Edelbrock heads. He's an advertiser here, he would also have the low down on Dove heads.

John

Dove has a very good flowing head,they did however have some issues with poor castings although I understand the last few years has been fine,I have a pair of high risers that seem fine.
Dove is hard to get and expensive,Keith Craft CNC eldebrocks are the best choice I think.Eldebrock seems to have the best all around casting although need flow work to make them really superior,finished product is the best head for any money.call Keith,he is a straight talker and will help you determine what you need,or dont need based on your set up. Tim K

If you want/need "exotic" heads, i.e Highrisers or Tunnelports, I believe there is no other manufacturer.

Dove Heads all the way
 

I bought a set of the Edelbrock heads when I got tired of waiting for the Blue Thunder heads to come out. I was fairly underwhelmed. The casting quality was fair, and they are just copies of the 1960 medium risers (no improvements). I live in Ohio, and decided to give Dove a call. I had heard about the quality issues, and asked if I could come visit the plant to see for myself. They gave me the tour, and showed me some really cool toys. They also showed me a set of prototype heads they were working on. They are a set of high riser heads that were modified by Billy Glidden. They looked exteremely good, and I got on the list for a set. They will make the heads up custom for you, but the last time I checked they had some in stock.
I bought the first set they sold, and they are awesome.. I have seen the new Blue Thunder heads, and they will need a ton of porting to flow well. I returned the Edelbrocks, and never looked back. The casting quality on the Dove heads is better than the Edelbrocks, but probably not a nice as the B.T.'s. All of the bolt holes come helicoiled from Dove. All of the heads get treated with a special resin to eliminate porosity. All of the heads are pressure tested before they leave the factory. These heads are supposed to flow 420 intake and 320 exhaust at .700 lift. I have not flowed my heads yet, but I have no doubt about the flow numbers given by Dove. The heads out of the box have no equal in the FE world. They are that nice.
When I first met Jim Dove, I asked him about intakes for the heads. At the time they only had a single plane race type intake that was too high to run under a cobra hood. I said I really liked the tunnel wedge intake. Since that time he is ptototyping a tunnelwedge intake that has the carb height of the medium riser intake. It will clear under a cobra hood. It looks really good, and should be in production in a month or two. I am first on that list as well.
I haven't figured out how to post picture here yet, but I can email some pictures to you if you are interested (or if someone wants to post them here).


Paul

Hey Paul. If you would send me the pictures of the heads I will see if I can post them up.
bud4660@yahoo.com

Thanks
Bud

we've installed dove heads on a handful of 427s in racing applications. they aesthetically replicate medium riser heads fairly well, and we have found them to have very good flow and performance characteristics. i think we have purchased six pairs, and three have had to be returned for dropping valve seats and porosity problems. these are the all new castings, not old. we like the dove heads, you just have to pressure test and inspect every head u get, even if brand new. to their credit, Dove has stood behind the faulty heads and replaced them all. however, that only replaces the parts cost as we have expended a fair amount of labor $$ dealing with the problems, esp after a valve seat drops and the motor needs to be torn down.

I wonder what the original high riser heads flowed? Anybody?

Dove
 

I have not heard of a problem with the valve seats mentioned by anyone before. I know they used to do most of the machine work on the heads by hand before, this may have been the problem with your heads. I think all the heads are now machined on a CNC machine, mine were. I think this is a fairly new change at their shop. The machine work on my heads is top notch, I am really not worried about it. I think it speak volumes that they stood behind thier products in a RACE application!! Most manufactures will not warranty any high performance products, and race applications void most warrenties.
As far as porosity, I visited the shop last summer, and they made it sound like they had only recently started doing the resin impregnation in house. He said when they first started doing it, they pressure tested first, then only used the resin on the heads that were porous. They must have had problems, because now they use the resin on all the heads and then pressure test them.
The tunnel port heads flow about 315 cfm at .700 in stock form. The high risers flow less. The high riser heads work much better if you fill the bottom 1/2 inch of the intake ports. You can take off 1/2 second in the quarter mile on a ten second car by doing this.

Paul

Paul, Dove made highriser heads with the floors raised, they were the paquet port heads, and you could get them with the standard height exhausts, or the raised exhaust p[orts.

I just had a couple of seats drop on a pair of Dove tunnel ports recently. Not a big at the deal time since the motor was coming down for an oil leak. It doesn't do much for one's confidence in the product. At lest they past the pressure test.

Rob

Sounds like Dove is still having problems.Hate to pay that much money and have to worry about them falling apart.What about Eldebrock heads,have they had any problems

i rechecked; valve seats dropped in a 4 year old head, and then another brand new head just under one year ago and it lost the valve as well, plus a porosity issue. these are for 7k race applications. again, they have been good about standing behind and replacing the heads, however, you'll eat the labor.

Sorry it took me so long to post up the pictures. They were to big and had to be resized. And thats not what I'm good at...lol

Paul will have to tell you whats what with these.

And another

one more

Last one. Any questions need to be directed to Paul about the photos.