Is the drivers side cylinder head different from the passengers side?

1320stang said:

A buddy of mine was at the salvage yard and he knows I'm into FE's. He spies a '68 Fairlane and checks the numbers on the heads and he sees a C6AE-R number and calls me up, I tell him that a pair of those are worth about $125-$150 cleaned up and since he can pick them up for $60, he goes ahead and gets them. Well, one of the heads turns out to be a C6AE-L head, but him, being a GM guy, thinks they're the same head, and one is labeled L for left and the R for right and since they were on the wrong sides, he thought maybe that was the reason it went to salvage.

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I did assume since you have a 76 stang that you were talking about 67 289/302 heads which are the same and can be installed on either side. I dont know about all ford heads. as for the c6ae-r and c6ae-L. These suffixes to the part numbers do not stand for left and right. They are indicating a change to the part and have all different suffixes attached. C6ae-r is actually from 66-67 352ci motor and C6ae-L is from a66-68 390 ci motor. The suffix depicts a change, in this case it is the size of the chamber. R=71-74 cc chamber and L=67-70 cc chamber

I have AFR 225 & Roush 200 heads and they are identical.

tos said:

I did assume since you have a 76 stang that you were talking about 67 289/302 heads which are the same and can be installed on either side. I dont know about all ford heads. as for the c6ae-r and c6ae-L. These suffixes to the part numbers do not stand for left and right. They are indicating a change to the part and have all different suffixes attached. C6ae-r is actually from 66-67 352ci motor and C6ae-L is from a66-68 390 ci motor. The suffix depicts a change, in this case it is the size of the chamber. R=71-74 cc chamber and L=67-70 cc chamber

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Who has a '76 stang?

I know the L and R don't stand for left and right, it was a humerous anctidote. The L head is an earlier revision of the head than the R head. The L head has smaller runners, the R head has larger runners. You're right in the middle of a bunch of emission changes and the R head is considered a more desireable head. As I understand it, the R head is considered the "poor man's" CJ head with better ports and a CJ like chamber, albeit bigger. so the change just isn't in the chambers.

About the only heads I know that you shouldn't swap side to side are the later flathead heads as the water necks are at the front of the motor to go into the radiator. My junkyard searching buddy and I are going to build him a flathead powered FED someday and I'm thinking of mounting the heads backwards to get better flow thru the block as the water pumps mount in the fronts of the block below the heads. I'm thinking of eliminating these water pumps and just using the front motor plate and some silicone to seal the openings and drill and tap a hole for about a -12 AN fitting in there and just mounting a 12v remote water pump on the frame there in front of the motor. The rears will dump down on either side of the tranny and follow the frame rails forward of the motor to a radiator (which may be a series of daisy chained heater cores following the budget theme of the build) laying flat in the chassis with an electric fan sucking up from below.

1320stang said:

Who has a '76 stang?

):

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Sorry. Had a spell of dislexia there. I meant 67.

The small block heads are interchangeable from left to right, with the exception of the later ones, and the difference there only being the thermactor plug insert. One end has a plug with threads for the front accessories, the other end is open and is covered by the thermactor tube, which crosses over between the heads at the rear of the engine. If you can remove the threaded plug, it can be screwed into the opposite end of the head, once the built up carbon deposits are removed. In this case, it's easier to just label them, left and right and install them accordingly.