Thinking outside the box

Burntorange said, "One thing you are doing is comparing new chevy heads to old Mopar heads. The LS type chevy heads are what? 35-40 years newer than the stuff Mopar came out with back in the 60's. The chevy heads should out flow somthing that old."

And, they do... but what I am saying is, they wouldn't be able to maintain their flow superiority if someone would just design a taller port L-A/Magnum replacement head that was simply a taller version of a Magnum head, so that the narrow pushrod "pinch" didn't matter. This taller head would make up vertically what it lacked in horizontal area. No specialized offset rockers would be necessary...the valves would all stay in the same place... just the intake port volume would change... dramatically. There would be room for a larger exhaust port too, of course, but the Magnum exhaust port already flows pretty well, and I'd like to see the head accept present-day L-A/Magnum headers to keep the changeover cost down for people making the switch.

Someone suggested that I should be comparing the LS heads to a late Hemi head... and I would except they won't work on my 360... and, that's what I am directing this discussion towards; 318/340/360 motors. There's no glaring disparity between the flow characteristics of a new Hemi and an LS-1 like what exists between the L-A and Magnum heads and an LS-/LQ-9 head.

340sFastback mentions the wide-port IndyBrock combination which sounds like the real deal, except for the $$$$ involved. I'm looking for a better-flowing cast iron (read "cheaper") head that would be affordable for guys like me (poor.)

I wasn't concerned with the NHRA Stock and Super Stock situation for two reasons: 1. Mopars do VERY well in both of those categories, winning a lot more races than they should logically be expected to, given the numbers (demographics). Something like 77-percent pf the Stock Eliminator cars are Chevys, but they sure don't win 77 percent of the races.

2. The Stock and S/S horsepower factoring is not bad at all for the Mopars, in my opinion. The example cited by FC7freak "350 Camaro's are rated at 255 HP." is true, but that is for a low-performance, low compression Camaro. The '71 350s with high compression and a decent cam are factored to as much as 325 horsepower; more than any 340 or 360 Mopar motor. NHRA keeps a pretty tight lid on this stuff, nowadays.

It doesn't hurt that Mopar sponsors a national event...

NHRA de-factors some combinations, too.... For example, the 318 2bbl motor for 1971 is factory rated at 230 horsepower, but NHRA has dropped it to 185. The 273 4bbl "Commando" motor for 1965 is factory rated at 235, but NHRA has dropped it down to 210 in Stock. There's one of these motors in a Div. VI '65 Valiant going 12.0's in K/SA... driven by Angela Bushmaker of Seattle.

You can check out any of these ratings at the NHRA Classification Guide, which is at: http://www.nhra.com/tech_specs/classification/

But, the heads I am talking about, the ones I'd like to see built, (but probably won't,) wouldn't be legal for Stock Eliminator (or, probably S/S, either.)

They'd be a street-strip deal for bracket racers, which would help out a lot more people. We still don't have a 300cfm head at a reasonable price for an L-A /Magnum small block.... and, we need one.

That's what this rant is all about. I'd like to have the Chevy guys envious of OUR cylinder heads for a change.... and, I think this "tall port" head could do that.

It can't be that hard to do...

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas