A completely worn out 409 with a steel crank and the big heads sells for about 5 grand. The heads for about half that. The head design was terrible but with MANY hours of design modification, intake port re-contouring, exhaust port REDUCTION in size, and hours and hours on the flow bench here is a pic of a 62 with a 409 that runs 8's in the 1/4. About the same as a 502 BB with over the counter parts. Go to page four and scroll down to the red 62 if you don't want to wade through all my junkers.
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d41/coilover/


Evan