The best factory head that never was

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skrews

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If you could pick the best aspects of any of the OEM castings and roll them in to one head, how/what/why would you choose ?
 
Valves- 2.02 and 1.6 diameter of the X but with the 5/16 stem diameter of the Magnum
340/360 intake port ie X,J,587,596
308 casting exhaust port
T/A offset intake pushrod hole
302 casting chamber sized for 4" bore
Magnum 10 bolt valve covers (less leaks)
 
they should have made the W2 a production head. Then all the expense of a W2 would not be! no special mani, exh or rocker arm....they would have been stock production parts! :cheers:
 
they should have made the W2 a production head. Then all the expense of a W2 would not be! no special mani, exh or rocker arm....they would have been stock production parts! :cheers:

Yea, they tried to on the original Little Red Express trucks. darn. They may not have been as plentiful as other production heads though. Maybe like the Max Medge heads were?
 
Aluminum LA hemi w/ individual rocker shafts on corrected geometry. No crossover exhaust, please.
 
^^^ Dang I didn't even think of the absence of an exhaust cross over like the Magnum or HEMI
 
pick the best aspects of any of the OEM castings and roll them in to one head

Valves- 2.02 and 1.6 diameter of the X but with the 5/16 stem diameter of the Magnum
340/360 intake port ie X,J,587,596
308 casting exhaust port
T/A offset intake pushrod hole
302 casting chamber sized for 4" bore
Magnum 10 bolt valve covers (less leaks)

Agreed 100%
 
Yea, they tried to on the original Little Red Express trucks. darn. They may not have been as plentiful as other production heads though. Maybe like the Max Medge heads were?

My understanding was that it wouldn't have passed emissions.
Was this due to the lack of a heat riser to warm the engine on cold starts?
 
they should have made the W2 a production head. Then all the expense of a W2 would not be! no special mani, exh or rocker arm....they would have been stock production parts! :cheers:

Then, not one single other small block, from any other American automaker wouldda stood a chance in hell against a factory hot W2 headed 340. Many big blocks wouldda been shut down too.
 
Yup, it would have been so COOL............and then, NHRA would have band them as well!:D
 
Then, not one single other small block, from any other American automaker wouldda stood a chance in hell against a factory hot W2 headed 340. Many big blocks wouldda been shut down too.

I'm sure that would've been OK to deal with ;)

...other side of that is that it would've forced the other folks to step up and market something better than what they offered at the time.
 
Yea, they tried to on the original Little Red Express trucks. darn. They may not have been as plentiful as other production heads though. Maybe like the Max Medge heads were?

the little red engine I know of was a police spec E58 360 engine, nothing too special really, just good flow and decent HP, the E58 package was made for a few years in different appications
 
I'm thinking the Hemi head had everything I ever wanted....
 
I'm sure that would've been OK to deal with ;)

...other side of that is that it would've forced the other folks to step up and market something better than what they offered at the time.

Not sure they couldda done that. I think the W2 was and still is THAT good. My only wish is that something similar was made for the big block.
 
1966

Proposed 1966 '273 D-Dart' Cylinder Head

Intake.........1.84"
Exhaust.......1.56"

5/16" Valve Stems w/Bronze Guide Liners

Closed Chamber {57.3 CC's}

12% Larger Ports
 
Ball stud hemi head that was due to be in production for the 72 year. With a thermo quad carb
 
Twisted wedge,independent rocker shafts, w2 ports and 11/ 32 valve stems
with 2.05/1.60 and a 2" tall spring for bigger cams.
 
the little red engine I know of was a police spec E58 360 engine, nothing too special really, just good flow and decent HP, the E58 package was made for a few years in different appications

Yup. Express truck got regular production heads. In the truck it was code EH1 instead of E58.

Only LRE with W2 heads was the prototype.
 
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