Bare 4.6 castings for $3500?? I don't think so. You are shopping in the wrong place partner
Summit Racing has a fully assembled PI head for $369.95.
Ok, I was wrong on the 4.6 head cost, correct that to $1400 each assembled for ported 3 valve heads. You still have to add more to that in gaskets, computer upgrades, etc. And those $370 PI heads ? add the other $385 to that for the other, then you have what? $750 for a set of stock heads? Where's the deal there?
Eveywhere I've looked (occasionally) it seems the cost of doing a Mod motor is far over and above what it cost's to do a pushrod V8. Yea, the Mod are supercharger friendly, but you're talking about a $3000 upgrade for starters. Like I said before, the costs will have to come down to ever compete with a pushrod V8 in the aftermarket. The Mods cost so much, the result is dirt cheap donor cars, good condition Lincoln Mark VIII's sell for less than $1000 with bad engines. I was going to pick one up today (but think I'll wait) for $500. I was going to strip it down and plant my 400+ hp 331 sixpack in it though and ditch the DOHC mod motor.
So, what's the problem? Lets think about that for a second. For $1,400 you just bought yourself a set of ported 3-Valve heads that will wipe the floor with 80% of the aftermarket OHV castings. You don't consider that a good bang for your buck? Not only that, but you're comparing the cost of a set of 3-valve heads, to a set of 2-valve heads. Apples and Oranges my friend.
Eveywhere I've looked (occasionally) it seems the cost of doing a Mod motor is far over and above what it cost's to do a pushrod V8. Yea, the Mod are supercharger friendly, but you're talking about a $3000 upgrade for starters.
....what.....$2,500 for a block!?!? 
The 4.6 2 valve head, due to it's design, has very tight tolerances from the factory. This is the reason why nobody wants to take on making an aftermarket casting. The 4.6 head actually has relatively poor flow numbers, but it would cost a bunch of money, a lot of R&D, and precise QC to churn out a production aftermarket 4.6 casting.
You might be able to squeeze a little more power out of the 5.0 n/a, but like mentioned above, when comparing the two motors with a power adder, the 4.6 can make much more power.
Bare 4.6 castings for $3500?? I don't think so. You are shopping in the wrong place partner
Summit Racing has a fully assembled PI head for $369.95.
And you STILL have a set of $750 heads that are no different than what you could have picked up used (there are thousands of these filling up the Junkyards now with the retirement of all the police cars) and spent a little bit for a rebuild. Sorry, I don't see the deal there.And that $369.95 is a FULLY assembled PI head. Meaning it includes camshaft, cam bearing caps, rockers/followers, lifters, valves, springs, retainers, valve locks and all. Swap cam(timing) gears and bolt on the head. I'd say that ain't too shabby.
What's a pair of SOHC cams cost now ? $700 or so? Or are you content to run the stock PI cams ? I can buy second hand Ford Racing rollers for the 5.0 block for less than $125 and you only need one. Ford seems to be catering to the wine and cheese crowd now with their offerings. That's why they haven't done any better in the aftermarket. I;d love to do some upgrades to my 06 GT, but the cost is prohibitive. Just a set of chrome valve covers and something to hide the butt-ugly intake would cost me $500 and I'd have nothing to show for it in performance. You can bet if the engine in this thing ever goes south, it'll get a pushrod replacement. You've thrown out so much info here it's hard to follow your reasoning. I built my 400-450 hp 331 stroker from the ground up for $3000. Add the cost of it's 3- 2bbl Holley carbs and asssociated parts and it's only $4100. I don't know what that translates to in RWHP, but in a 3800 lb Ranger with the areodynamics of a brick and it was pushing it to mid 13's. Topend was 140 mph.So, what's the problem? Lets think about that for a second. For $1,400 you just bought yourself a set of ported 3-Valve heads that will wipe the floor with 80% of the aftermarket OHV castings. You don't consider that a good bang for your buck? Not only that, but you're comparing the cost of a set of 3-valve heads, to a set of 2-valve heads. Apples and Oranges my friend.
As for $750 for a set of stock PI heads.......I'm sorry, where do you see a problem with that? What kind of heads does $750 buy you for an OHV? What.....a set of remanufactured E7TE's or GT-40P's??? Big deal, those heads both suck compared to even a set of stock PI units. You'd have to dip into an aluminum casting to equal or beat the performance of a set of stock PI heads, which my friend is going to shatter that $750 budet in a hurry.
....oh, and in case you forgot, you've got to buy gaskets for the OHV when you change them as well.
Look, granted I'll give you the cost of building an N/A OHV engine over an OHC engine to a certain point. But only to a point. You wanna really compare apples to apples, lets do that.
To start with....the stock 5.0L HO makes about 185-190rwhp. You're already 35rwhp short of what a stock PI 4.6L makes. Now, in order to make any real power on a 302, you need to address the H/C/I and Exhaust. Alright....so we've now sunk $3,000 into the trusty 5.0 and its making somewhere around 330-340rwhp. Not staggering by any standards, but still more than most 4.6Ls are able to make with bolt-on N/A parts with the same budge.
So what ever is a Mod Motor owner to do? Why waste money on something that doesn't work, when you can spend the same amount of money on a supercharger and with even an entry level kit, blow that 5.0L out of the water? The 4.6L guy has now put that mod motor into the 340-390rwhp range and has spent the same amount of money that the OHV guy did.
"WAIT A MINUTE!!!" the 5.0L guys shouts. "How is that fair comparing a blown engine to a N/A engine??? Of course it's going to make more power......we want a blower too!
You're right, fair is fair. So we'll start over. The 5.0L guys gets a blower and the 4.6L guys goes the N/A route. So the 4.6L guys spends $3,000 on parts and clocks in somewhere around 310-320rwhp. Again, respectable, but not stellar for the money. The grinning 5.0L guys bolts the blower onto that stock iron headed E7TE engine and.....WTF......this things a dog. It's hardly making 300rwhp. Why is that!?! Well, revert back to the original post. The 5.0L is nothing without H/C/I and Exhaust mods. It doesn't matter how much boost you're throwing at the stock 302, you're still effectively trying to breath through a McDonalds straw when you should be using a garden hose!
Ok, fine then, we'll go with both the H/C/I and Exhaust and we'll add a stroker to the mix. That'll put us on even ground with the blown 4.6L. Which is true, but you're still about $1,500 more expensive for the same amount of horsepower. Alright then, it's not secret that the 4.6L has pretty much hit the ceiling at about 420rwhp as far as the stock internals go, so we'll up the anti even more by going with H/C/I/E a stroker and a blower!!! Ha....now we win!!! We're now well over 480rwhp and the blown 4.6L can't come anywhere near that, without risking a melt down!
Yup...true again, but since we're still working with the original $3,000 put into our 4.6L and you're now up in the $8,000 range with your 5.0L, I guess it's safe to say there’s more than enough room for a forged internal component upgrade. So, the 4.6L guys adds $1,500-$2,500 (depending on the type of components and labor involved) to the short block and cranks up the boost. He's now running even with the 5.0L guy.
Ha....fooled you the 5.0L guys says, my new stroker kit was forged as well, so cranking up the boost for me is nothing....so up, up he goes into the 500-525rwhp range. Well damn.....what's a modular guys to do, I guess since we've still got a couple thousand dollars to play with, we'll spring for a set of ported "crappy" PI heads and a set of cams! Well, look who just joined the 550-600rwhp club and has still got room to grow!
That's fine says the 5.0L guys, I'll just crank up the boost again and......oh.....wait. I've reached the limits of the stock block. Damn...no problem, I'll just spring for an aftermarket block to take the power....
....well, so much for "the 5.0L is a cheaper to build than the 4.6L" argument.
And you STILL have a set of $750 heads that are no different than what you could have picked up used (there are thousands of these filling up the Junkyards now with the retirement of all the police cars) and spent a little bit for a rebuild. Sorry, I don't see the deal there.
