1986 Ford F-250 aftermarket cylinder heads, what to buy for my stock truck?

Newbie here and a newbie to Ford trucks as far as working on them, but have had several starting with a 1967 split rim Camper Special with a 352

I just bought this truck, one owner, never a work truck and just what I wanted. Previous owner had already taken off the air pump, I continued by taking off the 4 3/8" lines from each exhaust manifold and the
manifolds themselves when the nuts on the lines were frozen. Got the passenger side manifold off with not much trouble but on the driver side have already broken 4 bolts, and one is broke off flush with the head. Firmly believe I have to pull the head to get those studs out but would like your opinion and how to get those studs out on the motor. Now I am looking at pulling that head and in that situation I would pull both. If I am going to do that thinking of changing to the Eddy head. They have several and I don't know what combustion chamber to order and even if I can use my stock rockers or have to go with aftermarket adjustable.

Thoughts, comments? Dave

1970ls wrote:Newbie here and a newbie to Ford trucks as far as working on them, but have had several starting with a 1967 split rim Camper Special with a 352

I just bought this truck, one owner, never a work truck and just what I wanted.  Previous owner had already taken off the air pump, I continued by taking off the 4 3/8" lines from each exhaust manifold and the
manifolds themselves when the nuts on the lines were frozen.  Got the passenger side manifold off with not much trouble but on the driver side have already broken 4 bolts, and one is broke off flush with the head.  Firmly believe I have to pull the head to get those studs out but would like your opinion and how to get those studs out on the motor.  Now I am looking at pulling that head and in that situation I would pull both.  If I am going to do that thinking of changing to the Eddy head.  They have several and I don't know what combustion chamber to order and even if I can use my stock rockers or have to go with aftermarket adjustable.

Thoughts, comments?  Dave

Hello and welcome, if you are going to change the heads then Eddy's are a good choice and with the 80's short block you could buy the 75cc heads to get the compression up some, then you will need pushrods and rockers, another option is to get a set of C8, C9, or D0VE heads and get the seats changed out to hardened ones and a good set of valves and a good valve job, I'm not sure that you can get a set of early heads with stock type rocker stands or not but thats another option, anyway good luck with your project and I know some of the other guy's will chime in too.

personally if it is just going to stay stock I would use ProComps, but make sure you have them checked out by a head guy ... for seat and guide tolerances

+1

There are shops around here that have stopped selling proComp stuff. Valve seats that seem to fall out (when running, very bad lol),
and very poorly machined valve guides etc.. Let alone the terribly shaped ports.
Far better to start with a decent head.

68galaxie wrote:+1

Far better to start with a decent head.

With a smaller combustion chamber than the D3's.

I have had good results from mig welding a 3/8ths ( 9/16ths wrench size) nut ( through the center of the nut) onto the broken stud. Hit it with WD 40 before and after seems to "cook out" some of the rust , plus the heat seems to loosen things up and lets you put a wrench on it. Work it back and forth while hitting it with WD ( or a similar product) and it should come out . I did this often when putting headers on Ford powered motorhomes in my past.