junkyardhero
Well-Known Member
unless you already have worked over stock heads or a smoking deal on a set falls into your lap, don't even bother with steel heads and head straight to the aftermarket aluminum heads aisle at the market.
Mild 383 build
- Thread starter Shorty Thompson
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That 440 piston has a 1.912 ch , should fall .010 short of deck. some fall in at zero.
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What head would you recommend then?
440 Source Stealth is a decent budget aluminum head. They flow 260 @ .500.
A decent valve job and bowl blend will get them to 280 cfm.
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Lemme take a look, Okay! Back! Nice looking heads , that's not a bad price either. Does the factory rockers & shafts bolt on, or does anyone know?
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Depends on which ones and or what you do to them. If they are the 915 67 only 440 big exhaust valve heads, those would be good. If they are the 516 castings, they can be made good, but really either could end up with diminished returns compared to new aluminum castings. It's just a call you're gonna have to make.
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What's your thoughts about the 906 heads? I thought they were brought up in here somewhere, but as luck would have it, I couldn't find . Heck, maybe I'm wrong. I uploaded the 906 head I took off the 383. I think you'll look in disbelief. Block's not cracked, heads not cracked, Valve didn't go complete through the piston.
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Musta been idling. lol Yeah, if they check ok.....but again, they'll require a lot of $$$$ to get them right. Guides, hardened seats, new valves......obviously. lol You'll just have to weigh it all out.
Oldiron440
Well-Known Member
I thought you had a set of 915 heads?
I’ve got a set on a 440 that makes 650hp.
I’ve got a set on a 440 that makes 650hp.
junkyardhero
Well-Known Member
well, there's your problem-- you have a BFH in your engine!
all kidding aside, RRR is on the money. i'd sit down and run the numbers to see how much dosh it would be to make those heads work for what you want/need vs what a new aluminum set would run ya.
all kidding aside, RRR is on the money. i'd sit down and run the numbers to see how much dosh it would be to make those heads work for what you want/need vs what a new aluminum set would run ya.
Yeah and don't forget to add in the extra cost to get the new aluminum heads checked out. There's no way in heck I'd bolt any of them on out of the box. As @318willrun about that.
junkyardhero
Well-Known Member
+1 on that. i have a local guy that does mine and it's right around 250 for inspection and set up.
which when you're dropping 2~3K isn't all that bad in the grand scheme of things.
Puzackly.
Torque is in the toilet.
Gomer Pyle
Member
They're all pretty thick, I'm building a .070" over 383 as we speak and just finished most of the machine work. I was explaining some of the details on another web page which is what gave Shorty the idea to do one . I planned on making a short video with pics to explain the 72-78 440 piston 383 budget build, these pistons have the same CH as the 68-69 HP 383. My block after boring and honing checked about .180"ish to over .200" on all major and minor thrusts. The downfall is the flat top piston with no valve reliefs so you're limited to duration in the 240ish range at .050". I built many of them when I had my first machine shop in NH back in the 90s for customers that wanted a low budget build that would run high 11s to low 12s and used stock 72-78 440 pistons I had laying around from 440 builds. The pistons are about 30 grams heavier than the stock 383s so I cut the stock pins down to 3" which brings them from about 225 to about 191 grams, I"m not sure what the Silvolites weigh but They're probably close to the stock ones. I"ll put up some pics and tell more about it tomorrow. The block still has to be cleaned and new cam bearings installed and I'll hone the piston pin bosses for .0010" to .0012" clearance. I'm building this out of stuff I have laying around the shop to run on pump gas and put in my 62 Dart and run the local Friday night bracket which is 25 dollars and 10 miles away. The cost to take my race car out is getting out of hand.
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Right now , I got 3 sets. I'll have to look at what I pulled off the 440 before I would say what they were.
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I had to stop and think about who you were for a minute, but I quickly realized who you are. Hope ya don't mind . Research here is a must.
We weren’t even talking about stalls speeds.
Not to me, long stroke and torque which some how turned to low cr and 292 cams torque ability.
Lolol!!! OP's proposed combo; "3000 stall", & "292° cam", then the pistons. Your dyno chart resembles neither a 292° cam @.006" tappet or worse @.015 tappet lift. For an under-cammed engine to only pick up ~6-7hp @3K shows it's a loser at low rpm, the combos You posted will all suck w/a 3K vs 3.8K stall...but the 285° unit will be killing it there.
Using those "% gain/CR increase" charts is really for a narrow range of "street" cams, not for cams in the 292° range, it just isn't.
Lets not ignore the fact that BBM's have horrible open chambers & plug placement that burn SLOOOWWW.
This build is still up in the air far as I know nothing is a 100% decided and I've never said that this combo of parts is the way he should go, I've repeatedly have said he should pick a cam and cr that works with his parts, I've said probably around 224-236 on 108-110.
The point of the dyno chart was towards his side quest question about low cr and a 292 cam, closest I could find
Fine, Whats that got to do what I said ?
For whatever reason Fishmens67 seem to take issue with me saying a displacement of 396 should be able to make decent torque and it is only less than 20 cid from the popular 408 choice (which is known for torque) and he brought up longer stroke to me. Then there was a little back and forth now you want to jump in and argue arguments that I didn't even make.
My whole original point was people always remember longer stoke has more multiplying effect but disregard smaller pistons applies less force to be multiplied. That's all I was saying.
I appreciate You digging for relevant dyno tests, & the amount of mass reduction doing a stroker varies combo-to-combo, but yes it is often overlooked.This build is still up in the air far as I know nothing is a 100% decided and I've never said that this combo of parts is the way he should go, I've repeatedly have said he should pick a cam and cr that works with his parts, I've said probably around 224-236 on 108-110.
The point of the dyno chart was towards his side quest question about low cr and a 292 cam, closest I could find
Fine, Whats that got to do what I said ?
For whatever reason Fishmens67 seem to take issue with me saying a displacement of 396 should be able to make decent torque and it is only less than 20 cid from the popular 408 choice (which is known for torque) and he brought up longer stroke to me. Then there was a little back and forth now you want to jump in and argue arguments that I didn't even make.
My whole original point was people always remember longer stoke has more multiplying effect but disregard smaller pistons applies less force to be multiplied. That's all I was saying.
The 2 primary statements fishmens67 made were; no less than 3,800 stall, & that Your math doesn't add up in the real world....referring to the projected bump/CR increase...which He is 100% correct on both points.
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