need advice on some heads

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trudysduster

trudysduster

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well next up is doing some engine upgrades on the Dart Sport. It is basically a 78 stock 360 engine. I have a comp Xe268 cam for it to go in but since we will be driving this to Mississippi in October, we are going to wait on installing that. But I am looking at putting a set of aluminum heads on it soon. I am looking at a set of Edelbrock RPM's from Summit. I do not want to turn this into a race car or anything like that just give it a little more *** if you know what I mean. Would like to stay under a grand on the heads. would these be a good set to run with the 268 cam. I am running a RPM intake right now with stock manifolds. do not want headers. Let me know your thought on these heads or any other heads out there that may be better. looking for the 2.02/1.60 valves as I heard they are better. BTW. I am not a mechanic, I know enough to get myself in trouble so don't come back with all the terms above my head. just need a set to bolt on and go. Thanks,Bill
 
trudysduster said:
well next up is doing some engine upgrades on the Dart Sport. It is basically a 78 stock 360 engine. I have a comp Xe268 cam for it to go in but since we will be driving this to Mississippi in October, we are going to wait on installing that. But I am looking at putting a set of aluminum heads on it soon. I am looking at a set of Edelbrock RPM's from Summit. I do not want to turn this into a race car or anything like that just give it a little more *** if you know what I mean. Would like to stay under a grand on the heads. would these be a good set to run with the 268 cam. I am running a RPM intake right now with stock manifolds. do not want headers. Let me know your thought on these heads or any other heads out there that may be better. looking for the 2.02/1.60 valves as I heard they are better. BTW. I am not a mechanic, I know enough to get myself in trouble so don't come back with all the terms above my head. just need a set to bolt on and go. Thanks,Bill
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Under a grand..the heads cost $1500.00 alone and will need to be gone through,but they are an excellent upgrade have run a set on both my 416 and 360 with great results..i'll never go back to steel heads after running them:D:D
 
I'm with Stroked on that.

But since you want to stay under a grand, I suggest a owed chambered set of 360 heads and stick with the small 1.88-1.60 valves. Just have the heads bowl ported. Tell the porter what cam your running and to maximize the head for the cam with the stock valves.
(If you can afford 1.94 Valves, all the better.)

The slight raise in compression and added flow will be a nice improvement.
 
ok, here is what I looked at.Edelbrock Performer RPM Cylinder Heads 60775 at Summit. $800.00. like I said, I am no mechanic but will these not work. I know some of them are one head only but I think these are a pair. And, I think I read somewhere you can get a set of steel heads that would work really good on a small block that maybe just came out in a year or so ago. I don't know. just want my options here on what to do. maybe I wont go aluminum. Thanks
 
trudysduster said:
ok, here is what I looked at.Edelbrock Performer RPM Cylinder Heads 60775 at Summit. $800.00. like I said, I am no mechanic but will these not work. I know some of them are one head only but I think these are a pair. And, I think I read somewhere you can get a set of steel heads that would work really good on a small block that maybe just came out in a year or so ago. I don't know. just want my options here on what to do. maybe I wont go aluminum. Thanks
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price is for one head...

but you can get these for 1k

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mopar-Chrys...ads-/171778548172?hash=item27fecca1cc&vxp=mtr
 
Well I know a girl, her number is.....Oh dam misread the title...sorry
 
what would be the size cc heads I should be looking for and the best size valves for this engine with the 268 cam.
 
Bummer that the Eddy heads are $800.00 each. I've been seeing ads for a seemingly decent iron head for the LA. On the 318 head, a 2.02 valve is not available. How about the Magnum 1.94?
Here's the URL for pricing and see what you think.

[ame]http://www.indyheads.com/images/laxmaxtaprice.pdf[/ame]

[ame="http://www.indyheads.com/images/laxmaxtaprice.pdf"]http://www.indyheads.com/images/laxmaxtaprice.pdf[/ame]
 
Bummer that the Eddy heads are $800.00 each. I've been seeing ads for a seemingly decent head for the LA. On the 318 head, a 2.02 valve is not available. How about the Magnum 1.94?
Here's the URL for pricing and see what you think.

[URL="http://www.indyheads.com/images/laxmaxtaprice.pdf"[/URL]


How did this get posted twice when I only sent it once?
 
I think, dollar for dollar, and given your usage, I'd go with a set of Engine Quest Magnums. They're cheaper and work very well with milder builds. RPMs are a lot of money and you really don't need them.
 
yeah, we were just talking about that this morning at breakfast. Engine Quest Magnums........... which ones would work for him. I have seen 53cc up to 76cc's. I have no idea on what I need. I can work on them and put this stuff on but scoping out the right set, I am clueless. I am talking him out of the aluminums if possible. I believe with what we are going to do with this engine, he is pissing money away. I think a good set of steel heads would work fine. I heard the W2's were good also. Hell, I was tickled with the X heads I had on my 69 Swinger back in the day. What about valve size. I saw the Mopar aluminum's had like 2.20/1.62 or something like that. I personally would like to see him hold off doing anything to this engine till we get back from Cruising the Coast in October. Then pull it down, bore it .030 and put the right pistons, cam, heads and all that in at the same time. Build it right the first time. He told me when we left the car show Saturday that he wants to be able to feel it like my Duster when he gets in it. I cannot blame him but I think he needs to do more that just one thing to accomplish it. Anybody have any advice on this so far. would you leave it alone and do it all at one time or just start doing heads, then cam and then pull it down over the winter and do it all again. especially with a 2000 mile trip ahead of you.
 
I am running the Edlebrock RPM heads on my car (from JEGGS) Mine did NOT bolt right up to a 360 MAGNUM block (well the bolts line up but they needed to have some machining done for the water and oil galleries done). A good performance machine/engine builder can do that for you, but the whole project will cost me at least $3000 (for the heads and some machine work..I did not do this work myself INDY CYLINDER HEAD did the machine work).
 
Remember "once you go aluminum you'll NEVER want to back to steel":D:D
 
I am going through this same type of head choice right now, TD. The EQ magnum heads are the most attractive as well as the RHS equivalents for iron, and Edlebrock has a magnum Al equivalent. I am focused on good CR for low end torque so the smaller chambers are needed.

Looking at the stock EQ Magnum flow numbers with the standard 1.92" intakes, the flow numbers are very close to stock 351C-2V heads from the early 70's. (Low 200 cfm range at .4 and .5 valve lift.) Those 351C-2V heads flowed very well for stock heads 40+ years ago, and would IMO be all you need for a none race, street car, based on my direct experience with them 'back in the day'. From what I can find so far, the 1.88 valves in the 360 heads are pretty decent but not as good as the stock EQ heads if not ported. And the Magnum chambers are smaller so the compression is higher; with a cam like yours, that may make a positive difference in driveability.

AS I UNDERSTAND IT TODAY (OTHERS PLEASE CORRECT ME): Putting on Magnum heads is a lot more than just the heads. You can get the EQ's bare for a bit over $300 each from Summit. But then you need to add valves and springs, and stud mount rockers because the Magnum heads do not use the old Mopar rocker shaft rocker system. The lifters have to be AMC types, and the pushrods are different to provide the oiling for the stud rockers and valves up through the pushrods, not through block/head passages and into the rocker shafts like the standard SBM design. The pushrods are also a different length. All of this has been boiled into a 'recipe' but you're changing a lot of parts all at once. (If you have lifters with that new cam, they will have to be changed.)

BTW, you CAN buy the EQ magnums drilled for the LA intakes so you would not have to change your intake out.

For roughly the same CR as the magnums, the other alternative is to get some swirl port 318 heads (302 heads) or even late 273/early 318 heads (675 casting) and have 1.88 valves put in them. But it looks like they can't flow into the low 200 cfm range @.4 or .5 lift without a fair amount of porting, like the the newer casting magnum heads do out of the box. So there is cost in that work. The 'out of the box' flow numbers I cited above are why the performance cast magnum heads (EQ, RHS, Edlebrock) are attractive to me: no big deal to get very good flow for street performance with good CR with flat top pistons. But you gotta make that leap to a whole different valve train for the magnum heads.

BTW, I have focused in on one step lower XE cam, the 262. I like low end and mid range. IMO, just don't get too caught up in the max flow numbers if you are not drag rading: it sound like the 300+ HP range would be where you are going, not the 450+HP range.

I have not looked at the Edelbrock non-magnum aluminums. Sounds like the heads cost a good bit more if it is $1500 for a pair. I'll check them out for completeness.....
 
BTW, I finally dug around on the Edelbrock site and the RPM heads don't look too bad either for mild use and have the option for re-using Mopar rocker shaft design. Pretty pricey though.
 
yeah, since he found out that the price he looked at was for just one head, he has paid attention.I think for the bang for the buck he may just have the ones done that are on there now and use them. I don't think he likes the price of aluminum now. I think for what he is wanting the factory j heads might be good enough. He doesn't want a race car. I think the cam will make the difference that he is looking for. You know how young guys are.......... I remember back 35 years ago. I had him read an article on one of the racing sites where it said that the smaller valves would do better on the street. I think he paid attention since it was from a racing site instead of me. lol
 
I am doing a similar build with my 360. I ordered EQ 2.02 heads about two weeks ago. Plan to use headers and a XE268 cam. My dielemia is the intake. I'd like to go dual plane... But... I want to keep my thermoquad since it was recently rebuilt.

What is your setup there?
 
stock mopar J or X heads flow stalls out at about .485 lift.The XE268 is .480 and just about perfect.
.I'd go with 1.88 intake if you want a little more snap stop light to stop light and i think the XE262 might be a better street cam for a lower compression engine...but i've been wrong before but i think ideally you want a size 10 shoe on a size 10 foot
 
trudysduster said:
You know how young guys are.......... I remember back 35 years ago. I had him read an article on one of the racing sites where it said that the smaller valves would do better on the street. I think he paid attention since it was from a racing site instead of me. lol
Click to expand...
I had to chuckle when I read this....LOL. Fortunately, my son and I have raced together so he has found that dad is not totally dumb on motors....(well not ALL of the time; I did manage to turn a turbo blow-off valve into a blow-ON valve....but I digress..)
 
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