Time for the 84 LTD to make a little more vroom vroom. Looking for advice on "reasonably priced" cylinder heads. Obviously not going to be the big dollar race car. Just a more fun and rumbly/ tire smoky version of itself. The VV carb and intake will 
be replaced by a Summit intake and smaller 4bbl.carb. Any thing to seek or to avoid?
I'm running the aluminum flotek heads from speedway with 1.94 intake valve. I don't have any complaints, I'm not making a ton of power though. I am very pleased with the summit brand M2008 carb I have been running for a couple years.
Edit: make sure you check piston to valve clearance if you go with the floteks, I had to clearance the pistons with the tfs stage 1 cam installed at 3 degrees retarded.
I've heard that the V8 Exploders got the GT40 heads. You might find one in a junkyard.
Those were my two choices, used AFRs are about $600 and come up frequently. Most have studs that require aftermarket rockers I just sold some fresh ones that had the stock style screw down rockers.
With all the LS, Coyote, repowers going on there should be a glut of pushrod ford parts out there for cheap.
84 is pre roller lifter correct?
Ford GT40P is the only real value head. Be careful though. For any kind of performance cam you will need a valve spring upgrade which you can get from alexsparts. The cheap aluminum ones from eBay are then close in price. I would not know about their valvespring reliability though and would probably not be happy driving around on unknown chinese valve springs.
Let me ask a crazy question; what about an Explorer 5.0 swap? It'd be a roller motor with the updated firing order AND some of the best factory heads. It's easy for me to suggest since I'm not doing the work or spending the money, so grain of salt, but...
Not sure, but I think the 351 already has the 5.0 firing order. I wonder if a roller cam conversion would be a good idea in addition to the gt40p heads.
Roller cam FTW, but geez they get expensive. Until you get the retro roller lifters, buy the cam, the melanized gear for the dizzy, the pushrods.... it can be pricey.
GT40P heads are the Vortec of the blue oval world. Not quite as good, but good enough. Should boost compression nicely as well. Hard to tell what the final squeeze will be without knowing the piston configuration.
In the Ford hot rodding world, if you're going aftermarket, just get what you need from Trick Flow. Equal to or better than AFR and usually less money.
For the intake, don't fall for an air gap intake. They are just dumb for the street. Edelbrock Performer or similar (not Performer RPM). For carburetion, there is no carburetor made - factory or aftermarket - that can equal a Qjet for metering accuracy. They also usually return better MPG and drivability. For $400 you could buy an expensive aftermarket carb and then start the process of tuning and jetting it yourself, OR, for $25 you can buy a junkyard Qjet and send it to Jet Performance with your specs and for $350 they will give it the red carpet treatment and the most you'll probably have to do is slightly adjust idle mixture. Same basic investment, but it's a bolt-on, which is something I rarely say when it comes to carbs. I used to be really good at tuning Qjets, but those guys are absolute masters.
Keep the cam mild and obviously stay cautious with compression ratio. 9.5:1 with GT40s you might be able to squeeze by with 87 octane, 9:1 for sure. Since I'm assuming you have 3.08 gears (most police spec cars were in that range) pair it with a cam in the 210-215 degree duration range and a 112 LSA and you can probably have an easy 300hp and 375-400 tq and be able to keep your stock torque converter.
eastsideTim said:Not sure, but I think the 351 already has the 5.0 firing order. I wonder if a roller cam conversion would be a good idea in addition to the gt40p heads.
The 5.0 has the 351W firing order 
For a street car, I'd want iron heads. The aluminum aftermarket heads usually have really thick decks for forced induction reasons, on top of aluminum's necessarily higher wall thicknesses, and aluminum Ford heads generally have very, very little water jacket remaining. Practically nothing, sometimes actually nothing, under the intake ports, all coolant routes in a little sliver on the exhaust side.
As a bonus, most people don't WANT iron heads, so they can be really inexpensive. Like grabbing late Explorer heads.
An Explorer engine is a great option, especially if you ditch the Explorer SUV camshaft for a Mustang one. The 351W does indeed have the same firing order, but it is not set up for a roller cam.
I'd stick with the longer stroke and displacement and live with the flat tappet cam over swapping to a roller 5.0 for that car. It needs the torque.
When I had my 79, I bought a new set of take-off E7TE heads and had them decked and ported with a multi angle/back cut valve job. Iron GT40 heads were still $800 a set at that time and I got a great deal on the machine work. The ported E7s worked quite well.
For today, I agree with the recommendation to find a set of the GT40p heads. Curtis has the exact formula.
Just because no one has mentioned it yet; P heads use special headers. Not a deal breaker, but something to keep in mind.
3bar gt40's, which use normal headers, can be found on Explorers as well.
Just so you know, 351s use bigger head dowels than a 302 (and possibly one size bigger head bolts, I'm not sure though) so if you get a set of 302 heads the dowel holes need to made bigger, they are not a direct bolt on. I learned from doing what was supposed to be real simple 351w swap into my mustang that nothing ford built is a direct bolt on if it wasn't factory.
In reply to gearheadmb :
I thought the dowels were the same but the head bolts were different, and you had to use hardened washers when putting 351W heads on a 302 and drill out the heads if you put 289 heads on a 351W. I think. Putting 8.2 deck heads on a 351W is not something people really did...
This may not apply post-77.
The late 5.8L blocks were cast with provisions for the same roller cam set up as the 5.0L. The roller cam in the 5.0L started in 1985 in the Mustang GT's. I believe late 80's blocks were all roller capable but not all 5.0L got one. To put heads off of a 5.0L on a 5.8L you just drill the head bolt holes in the head out to 1/2".
Get a mid 90's F.I. 5.8L engine out of a truck and add better heads, (GT 40, GT40P, or some aftermarket head.) and then add a roller cam of your choice. A set of the 1.6 ratio Crane RR is a easy upgrade and they were production parts on the 1993-1995 Mustang Cobra and the first Gen Ford F150 Lighting PU's. Putting together a 300+ HP 5.8L is easy using just Ford OEM production parts. If you go with an aftermarket cam and heads then 400 HP is not unrealistic.
Yes on the half inch head bolts on the 351. Never heard anything about the dowels being different, so I don't know.
It's also correct that the GT40p heads use a specific exhaust flange. I think I remember there were shorty and long tubes made for the swap.
Shorty headers will be easy.
I had a set of Hedman shorty headers on my 79. We were able to retain the AC, too. The main AC bracket on the front was unaffected, but we lost the support from the studs that were part of the right exhaust manifold.
Fortunately, those were two of the studs that mounted the manifold, so they were easily replaced with ready rod.
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