ve69tte

About 10 years ago, I bought my 1969 corvette

Though I do all the work myself (just reupholstered the leather seats), I am not a motor head by any means, and could use your advice.
The first thing I did when I bought it was to get it checked out to see if the numbers match, and they did.
When I bought the car, I also received the original hood and the hard top, which I have stored in my garage.
I ran into the guy I bought the car from over the weekend and he told me that he still has the original heads. Currently it has Edelbrock heads.
Is this something that I should have? Does it add value? I understand that they too are numbered. How can I be sure that they are the originals? And if I should buy them, how much should I offer?

RJ1AZ

Since the heads don't have the VIN number, I don't know that you could be 100% certain they came with your car originally. However, you can verify that they are correct for your powertrain.

http://www.corvsport.com/1969-c3-cor...Specifications

HEAD NUMBER:
3919840, 427 CUBIC INCH, 435HP, IRON HEAD
3919842, 427 CUBIC INCH, 435HP, ALUMINUM HEAD
3927186, 350 CUBIC INCH, 300HP, 350HP
3927187, 350 CUBIC INCH, 350HP
3931063, 427 CUBIC INCH, 390HP, 400HP
3946074, 427 CUBIC INCH, 430HP, ALUMINUM HEAD
3947041, 350 CUBIC INCH, 300HP

If it were me, I'd like to have them with the car, even if you have no plans to reinstall them. Might help during a sale, and certainly will never hurt.

Sorry, no idea on a $ value.

ve69tte

Thank you for your opinion. I appreciate it very much.
I will research prices for the heads and make an offer.

leadfoot4

Since you already seem to have the other original parts, I think they'd be nice to have, "just because". And really, I think the previous owner should have included them in the sale.

cv67

kinda shady coming back later and wanting more money
put em under the workbench and keep the eddys on there.
Wouldnt offer more than a few hun for old iron heads if that.

ve69tte

Thank you all for your advice. I will go ahead and get them.

69Vett

Heads do not contain, Vin #, only date code & gm part number.
I would not offer more cash for them, he should have given them to you, when you bought the car,
I hate people who hold back orginal parts from a car sell,
thinking they will sell them separately and make more money.
reworking original heads will cost over 1k, keep the Eldebrock heads.
don't worry about them.

joewill

the heads will most likely need refurbished.. 1000$
the owner of the heads could sell to someone else, but someone else will have a price ceiling lower than yours due to shipping ( heavy and expensive to ship)
make sure the casting number is correct for your horsepower rating and then make sure the date code on the heads is within a month or so of your engine block and then at that point there is no way to prove or disprove their originality for your engine.

how much you are willing to pay for that is up to you. look on ebay and see what the going rate is for a set of heads like that ( needing redone ) and add an increment since they would be your original heads.

then I would apply a decrement for the fact that this guy is a bozo for holding them back when you bought a car from him.

but having these heads will definitely help in resale of your car. will it be dollar for dollar? maybe...

Scottd

I agree with what everyone is saying about 'shame on him' for holding back on a set of old, unused heads. But there are more people like this out there than we want to admit...this is kind of off topic but along the same lines...

When I worked for Harley Davidson, we had a clown who would come in every few weeks and have another chrome accessory installed on his bike. He INSISTED that we keep the original packaging for him and put the old part in it. When we asked him why, he said that when it was time to sell the bike, he was going to take ALL the chrome parts off and offer them to the new owner, piece by piece because 'If I had to pay for all this chrome, so will the next guy'

7T1vette

If you have the space to store them, ask for them to keep with the car. From a functional perspective, those iron heads would only make good boat anchors (). BUT....they are original to the car and having them might mean something to the next buyer.

If you intend to keep the car 'forever', with no intention of selling, and don't have a specific use for the iron heads, forget it.

leadfoot4

How much did the original owner want for them?

Red86Z51

$1000 ++ to rework stock heads???? Good God, where do YOU guys get your work done? I want to make sure I avoid those shops...

ve69tte

That is exactly what he is doing. In fact, now that I think about it, when I bought the car and we agreed on the price, he told me after the fact that he also had the original hood and hard top, which I had to pay more for.
Well, this should be the last of it.

ve69tte

He wants me to make an offer. He didn't say.

leadfoot4

Guy sounds like a real piece of work....

Tiger Joe

I hate when people say make an offer and give no price. I searched and saw you had a small block. if it was me, I would want the original heads, but I am one of the people who keeps every part they take off any vehicle.


I'd offer a couple hundred bucks for em. obviously he isn't in any big hurry to sell them if he still has them

joewill

well let's see:
clean/mag/pressure check heads 120$
valve jobs 100
head mill 60
need new valve guides, some or all? 230
new hardened valve seats 200
valves and springs unless you want to use your old.. 300 on up..

doing quick math, that's close to 1000 bucks..

69Vett

Red86Z51

I guess where I save big is I supply my own parts and only pay the shop for the work I need done, easily saving me about $300 +/- off of that. But if you simply dropped the heads off and said "have at 'em guys", then sure, I can see where you'd drop that kind of coin.

cv67

x2 with joe, most dont consider all that; if you want to port them forget it there goes 2k unless you have to have those old heads it just doesnt make $sense at all.

Maybe that guy can try to soak someone with his "very rare" story good luck. Very few people out there want those old parts anymore.