Advice on which heads to use. 360 , 302???

moparracer95 said
I have a valve spring compressor.. But I lack the air.. My compressor died about two months ago.. Unless you think a pancake compressor will keep up.. I guess I can give that one a shot... ??? But I guess I could try the 360's and in the meantime, take the 302's off and gasket matched and springs installed.. I have one buddy that says I should run the 302's and my other buddy that has the 360's says I should run those... But his motor was built a little more than mine is.... But I guess I should start a poll and see what people say about the heads... I take everybodys points, but everyone seems to have valid points and me being new to the mopar engine build, doesnt know which way to go.... But I thank you all and hope to continue to recieve more and more info that would help me on this motor..

I have a friend that likes the heart shaped chambers in those 302 heads so much, he's going to mimic them on his slant six head by welding up the chambers and machining them in. But if you have enough old K car turbos laying around you plan on putting on that motor to justify running a super low static compression, go ahead and put on the big chambered heads.

An easy way to remove valve springs without air is to get some braided rope (like lawnmower pull rope or a little bigger), and then with the piston down the bore from TDC a little ways, feed it into the spark plug hole until you can't feed any more. You then turn the crank until the piston comes up against the rope enough to lock the engine up. At that point there is just about no way the valve going to go anywhere, and it becomes very easy to compress the spring and remove the keeper. And yes, I did learn this trick from a guy that repaired small engines for his living.

That said, unless the your piston rings are shot or one of the valves in that cylinder is so bad (bent, burnt, warped, or just worn away) air leaks past it, any small compressor can fill the cylinder with enough air pressure to do the job (and hand holding the air line just won't cut it, make sure you have the fitting that screws into the spark plug hole). If you do use compressed air to hold the valves shut, one thing to remember (wanna know how I learned this one) is if the valve moves off the seat for any reason, the valve falls into the cylinder. I had some keepers varnished to the stems once and while prying or banging them loose, you guessed it, lost a valve down into the cylinder. Nothing to do at that point but pull the cylinder head.