Scotty above kept it simple by asking what power you were looking for.
The answer to your question is all about what combination do you need to reach your goal.
The best heads with the wrong combination of cam intake carb and exhaust may leave you getting outperformed by a kia 4 cylinder.
The worst flowing head with the right combination will feel like a rocket ship on wheels.
The big block ford is a versatile powerhouse of possibilities from a low rpm torque monster to a high rpm track killer.
Scotty has spent more man hours in r&d on perfecting the limits of the cast iron factory stuff than most out there today and he has had many budget combos as well so you will get great advice from him and everyone here but the best advice starts with your explanation of what you want to do with what you have for a car or truck and your intended use and any parts you may have already collected.
A pair of budget ported early castings will easily support 460 hp with high nines static c/r, a performer intake with jomar power cone and a proper cam profile. A proper distributor curve is necessary.
Seth,
You have a few pieces that will work like on a fun basic street or four wheel application.
Decide if your vehicle will be car or truck.
The 76 460 you have if stock oem will have a lower static compression ratio with dish pistons and larger chamber cylinder heads so you will want to find a set of 68-70 429/460 small chamber heads to up your static compression ratio. This will give you a few more sensible options in cam selection ultimately knowing your vehicle choice will be essential and whether yours transmission will be automatic or manual.
Years back I built a couple 460s that were on a budget platform with performer manifolds small split pattern cams 650 cfm holleys.
They started out as stock low compression running motors we tore down inspected ball honed put new rings and bearings and cam bearing found a couple sets of dove-c heads did valve jobs and very basic bowl cleanup and boy were they a lot of fun. One in an f 250 and one in an f 150.
The running motors we started with were well kept and pistons and bore were adequate for reuse without a bore. These were run around work trucks so we did it on the cheap. They both were in service for several years after the freshen up and ran as good as day one when we sold them .
We put a ton of miles on those trucks and they were just torquey and responsive . They would surprise the heck out of someone new who drove them for the first time because in a pick up with 410 gears and a c 6 automatic they would spin the tires at will from a stop and pull surprisingly well to about 4500 rpm in an almost 6000 pound pick up.
That said in a car that is significantly lighter the same basic combo would be a blast on the street.
This may be something similar I think to what you are trying to get to so let us know.
Class rules require iron?
Budget constraints require iron?
How much power do you need?
To make reasonable power you will HAVE to port or have heads ported. Early castings C8, C9 and D0VE are a great start. Iron CJ and PI heads are costly. Hell at this point in time they are all getting expensive.
Providing some greater detail will allow folks here to better address your questions.
Seth,
Basically the c8 c9 and dove c heads are smaller combustion chamber heads in the 75 cc range so they will give you a bump in compression ratio for a later short block with dish pistons.
The next common head to use is the larger chamber d3 a2a head which has approximately a 95 cc combustion chamber. These can be run with flat top pistons to get a street pump gas compression ratio.
This is just some general info.
It still comes down to your combo and use.
If you have a good running bottom end with your 76 460 and it has stock dish pistons and you are going to use it as is as your starting point for a daily pump gas driver without doing more than basic intake upgrade and maybe small cam you would want the small chamber c8 c9 or dovec they are basically interchangeable
There is no way to give you sound advice from here until you let us know what you are really planning to do with your motor and are you planning on a ground up rebuild or just an enhancement of what you have.
I wanna take it down clean up the crank, change bearings and build from there. Budget build do not want to take it to the machine shop. it only has 33,000 original miles on it. Just wanna get some good HP and torque without breaking the bank.
these heads with flat top pistons would be a good start?
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