360 Heads Reasonable?

[dusterforever]

I recently bought a duster who someone started but never finished which had a 360 engine bored .030 with the deep dish seal power pistons which I think are around 8 to 1 with the stock heads. It also had a deep sump moroso pan. Engine came from a 78 cordoba.It also has stock vacuum dist and the 8,000 chrome mopar box. I plan to run a 3.55 gear with 904 tranny with 2000 stall ,hedman headers and a crane 272 hyd cam and edelbrock rpm air gap intake with a 650 double pumper holley. I would love to buy the alum edelbrock rpm heads but really cannot afford them. Can someone tell me what other heads with large valves and small cc's such as x head will raise the compression and be a good horsepower gain without spending a fortune? All suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[C130 Chief]

X heads will have similar chambers. Magnums may give you a boost, but don't expect "instant race winner" with the stock low compression pistons.

You might be better off doing some basic prep on the heads you have now and replacing the pistons. Way cheaper than Edelbrocks and far better with your combo. Stock heads will support that cam just fine. Bigger ports are great for power, but generally don't help low RPM throttle response.

Rethink the double pumper with an automatic. Especially with a low stall converter (OEM 340 converters were 2200 RPM stall or so). A 750 AVS or Vacuum secondary will do you better.

 

[OldVart]

I'm with the chief on this one. You have to remember that basically torque is produced by the engine itself, and horsepower is produced by the heads. On the street, torque is king, so personally, I'd try and sell those pistons and get a new set that will bring your actual static compression ratio up to about 9.5:1. KB107's might be a good choice to start.
So, now you would have a good torque motor, to add more H.P, get some basic work done to your heads, to the extent your wallet will allow at the time. Remember, it's a lot easier to build the bottom end now, while everything is apart, then upgrade your heads as money allows. You won't even need to pull the engine to upgrade the top end.
There's nothing more frustrating than building a high horsepower engine, only to find out it's a dog off the line because it doesn't have enough torque to get out of its own way. The power won't even kick in until you're close to 3K RPM, and by then it's time to stop for the next red light.