Head choices? So many these days

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rumblefish360

rumblefish360

I have escaped the EVIL Empire State!
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With a decent amount of head choices for the Big block MoPar these days, what head would you choose for a 400 or a 500 inch A body street terror car/ light/med race car? (Ya know, nothing to dang crazy.)

Granted, there is a big difference between 400 and 500 inch's, but, it's all for fun, right?

I can see a Edelbrock RPM head for a real nice street ripping 400 right quick.

Copy and paste the below with your thoughts in your reply.

400 C.I.D. choice;

500 C.I.D. choice;
 
Hey Rumble! Sorry I cut you short the other day! Too much to do and not enough time!

As you know, I'm new to Mopars, but the new engine in my Barracuda is 517" and has RPM's on it with minor bowl work and ports matched. Made 638 hp at 5600 and 671 ftlb at 4400. Not too bad for 11:1 with a small solid roller (Comp Magnum 308R)! Other than my personal experience, I can't really offer too much more, but I'd say, from my limited experience, the RPM's are good for either the 400 or 500. Then I've been told that the 906's are a good choice too. I have a pair of those that were on the 451 that was in my 'Cuda with good springs and bigger valves. Who knows?

Anyway, I'll be in touch....especially when I bring my car back home. Final inspection on the house is Tuesday. Then I can put my lift back up and get the garage in order to bring her back. Been working over at my buddy's shop, she's getting close! The 4L80 conversion was kicking our ***, but it's all figured out and we're moving on to basic assembly. Gotta add a chute though. The 250 shot should put it over 150 in the 1/4. The Moroso calculator says 154. We'll see!
 
What to use for a bigger, say 572" motor, same type of car??
 
rumblefish360 said:
With a decent amount of head choices for the Big block MoPar these days, what head would you choose for a 400 or a 500 inch A body street terror car/ light/med race car? (Ya know, nothing to dang crazy.)

Granted, there is a big difference between 400 and 500 inch's, but, it's all for fun, right?

I can see a Edelbrock RPM head for a real nice street ripping 400 right quick.

Copy and paste the below with your thoughts in your reply.

400 C.I.D. choice;

500 C.I.D. choice;
Click to expand...

I really like the RPM heads. I use them in my 440 Scamp. Great for the street and the track. My son has them on a 500ci except they were ported with the largest intake and exhaust valves you can fit. His motor is pushing over 600HP
 
Fast01, no worries! Final inspection?!?!? Woo-Hooo!!
Stop by or call if ya need a hand with anything. Springs coming up real nice. I'll be cleaning the yard for the normal get together's. Gotta get Mike off the 4-12 shift though. It's killin him.

LOL @ INK! Yes indeed!

68;

Yea, just wondering what everybody was doing, thinking or seen that woks well for them. I have a 400 to yet tap into. Direction is yet unknown. Hence the thread question. The car is a '71 Duster automatic.

I also thought about the Indy EZ. The MP Stage VI (579 head) is a bit steep though it does perform well. I ca get a pair bare @ 740 each. (Yikes!) Vs. $999 for a Edelbrock head. Hummmm

That is $260 per head, $520 for the pair. Can, retainers, locks, valves, springs, for the intended cam to be used, not what Edelbrock gives you, cost that much. Granted, they will require a lot of clean up. Which only would be a part in total cost since porting would be in order.
 
i wouldnt say that the "brand name" is as important as where you get them, and they are ported / configured for what you want out of them.

in other words, you could get a CNC ported Indy, Eddy, Stealth / EStreet setup and they all would flow a ton with some small % difference. maybe the Indy would flow 12 more cfm or whatever, yadi yadi yadi.

you could also go with off the shelf and again one or the other might flow a bit more...

yadi yadi yadi

the BIG most important thing is who/where you get them from will they be replaced if there is a problem (i'd say about 5% of the time a set of any of them will come in poorly casted and the machine shop will say WTF to you haha where did you get these)

other than that i would purchase Made in USA heads if you are patriotic and get them CNC ported if you want to MAX OUT or for street/strip/general use just get them blueprinted & set up all flat true straight spring clearances etc for the springs that come with your cam, ports matched to your intake etc.

just sayin
 
rumblefish360 said:
With a decent amount of head choices for the Big block MoPar these days, what head would you choose for a 400 or a 500 inch A body street terror car/ light/med race car? (Ya know, nothing to dang crazy.)

Granted, there is a big difference between 400 and 500 inch's, but, it's all for fun, right?

I can see a Edelbrock RPM head for a real nice street ripping 400 right quick.

Copy and paste the below with your thoughts in your reply.

400 C.I.D. choice;

500 C.I.D. choice;
Click to expand...

It's all HP specific, cost per HP, and intended application. You can make a great running BB with:rpm's, Victors, EZ's, SR's, -1's, BS's, B1's, and so on.
I think the Victors having a raised runner puts them ahead of the EZ's personally, but they will require a bit more work to get to their potential vs. the EZ.
If I were building a driver for myself, and wanted to build a 500 BB to cruise, hot rod around and take to the track a few times a year, I'd port a set of Victor MW's with a hyd. roller cam, 1.7 rockers and let it eat.
Cheapest power for the $$$ IMO!

The EZ's are great too, both the 295 and 325 heads. Or some mild porting on OOTB EZ's will make good power.
Some guys want a certain HP # and you have to understand that to get there my require the engine to be more racy than a driver...it's all about personal preferance at that point.
 
With the combustion chamber size for a stock 400 to the ported flow capability for a 505, I think the best all around and adaptable head may be the Victor.
 
same question here, buddy is asking between Edels and 440source heads...I told him both have weak components and probably need a valve job out of the box. I told him B1's too because I like the valve cover...hahaha.
 
We've just put together a 383 out to 438 using a forged 69 440 crank and 60 over.
Its only a mild build as a cruiser in a C body.
Compression is 10.3 and cam is Comp HiEnergy 274H.
I'm thinking it'll be around 400hp.Maybe 420.
We used stock 440 source heads with comp retainers and locks.
 
If your going cheap for the 400 I would look for 915's. Alot of guys are dumping them when they upgrade to Indy / eddy. Got my set for $800 with oversize SS manley valves, ported and new springs. Work real well on my 440, plus you get a bump in compression.
 
JohnRR said:
What's the budget ?
Click to expand...

Just throwing it out there. A general question to ask. Idle chatter/bench racing. Not building anytime soon.

66 coronet deluxe said:
If your going cheap for the 400 I would look for 915's. Alot of guys are dumping them when they upgrade to Indy / eddy. Got my set for $800 with oversize SS manley valves, ported and new springs. Work real well on my 440, plus you get a bump in compression.
Click to expand...


The engine is a late 1978 with 452. If anything, I'd work them on on the cheap, though, the small chamber is a better start. Just an added cost. One I'd rather roll over into the 452.

Great idea guys, keep'em coming.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Just throwing it out there. A general question to ask. Idle chatter/bench racing. Not building anytime soon.




The engine is a late 1978 with 452. If anything, I'd work them on on the cheap, though, the small chamber is a better start. Just an added cost. One I'd rather roll over into the 452.

Great idea guys, keep'em coming.
Click to expand...

I'd be carefull about doing that unless your not worried about making alot of power. It's real easy to get 1000.00 into old iron and unless you can do port work yourself, your going to be way into them vs. good aluminum heads.
I hate to say it...but if you have a grand laying around for heads, the Stealth's are probably your best bet. Just beware after a valve job/surface cut and retainer/keeper upgrades it's more like 1400.00.
This is why I like the eddy heads...yes they can use a valve job, but surface is usually good, hardware is not bad, and they work well with alot of different engine combo's out there.
 
Thanks, and I agree 100% with that. The work, or thought there of on the 452 would be general rebuilding since, like you said, a lot of money can go down into a head that has limit's vs return on power & money spent.

While a rebuilt head can go 12's in a '71 Duster, lightly lightened. I do not think this the route I'll be traveling. Perhaps for Ha-ha's at first. But no serious attempt would be there.

I myself think a set of well prep'd and light ported Edelbrock would do the trick @ 400 inch's for a nice street strip scream machine. Just as I'm writing this, I went to Edelbrock site to see they now have a head equipped with roller cam springs, 60185*. Not yet @ summit racing.

A better way to go or E-streets to start and re-equip?

This thought also has me wonder...what I said before.. "The MP Stage VI (579 head) is a bit steep though it does perform well. I ca get a pair bare @ 740 each. (Yikes!) Vs. $999 for a Edelbrock head. Hummmm"

$735 for the RPM complete @ summit

E-Street Chrysler 440 (75cc) 5090* = 980 a pair
E-Street Chrysler 440 (84cc) 5093* + 1470 a pair

They vary a lot;

http://www.summitracing.com/search/...00/Cylinder-Head-Style/Assembled/?Ns=Rank|Asc
 
Thanks, yours is a valued opinion.

For a future rookie big block builder, when is there to much head. I liken the big block family similar to the small block family in certain ways. Long stroke vs. small stroke, 360 vs. 318 is much like a 383/400 vs. a 440/500.

How would anyone here decide on a head for general purpose/performance build ups vs. a heavy hitter/race engine build for the respective engine sizes?

Most here understand that a big port window in the head with a lot of flow potential on a short stroke engine will have the RPM band moved up if not way up the scale. The reverse for small port heads on big displacements. Some good examples would be in the racers forum under the "Post your xx second combo" stickies.

A quick click to the forum page here; http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/forumdisplay.php?f=74
 
400 C.I.D. choice; - The E-street 74cc Edelbrocks. Assuming they need the valve job fixed and springs replaced these will be the cheapest and ultimately the best chamber to go with. (I will be using these in a future 440 build) No offense to Brandon and admitting there may simply be some good spin associated with it, I would buy them over the Stealths just to buy "made in the usa".

500 C.I.D. choice; street engine - RPMs with a basic clean up. Race engine, Either the std port SR-EZs or the Victors.


572" - Depends on the block, budget, and use. Either the Indy 572-13s, B1, or Predator, in that order.
 
rumblefish360 said:
For a future rookie big block builder, when is there to much head. I liken the big block family similar to the small block family in certain ways. Long stroke vs. small stroke, 360 vs. 318 is much like a 383/400 vs. a 440/500.

How would anyone here decide on a head for general purpose/performance build ups vs. a heavy hitter/race engine build for the respective engine sizes?

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/forumdisplay.php?f=74
Click to expand...

Too much head is, I think, really subjective. Just like "what is the best 'general use' head". Every package is different, and in terms of getting or giving advice, you'll get all different ideas on how to skin the cat. Personally, on a street engine, regardless of dispacement, I always err to the smaller is better side. A race engine I dont think there is such a thing as too much head, because a racer can always just spin the thing up more to make use of that port. Remember a race engine only has to work well at full throttle and in between the rpm at the line and the stripe. That's pretty easy to get right, and if you don't you can make changes in the driveline that don't really have a down side. Also remember each firing cylinder's horse power is defined as torque over time. So the more firings you have per minute, the more horsepower the engine makes over that same given amount of (ET) time... Assuming the engine holds together and makes enough steam to keep accelerating.
 
.............SO, on a bracket 440-500@ 650-700hp.....would a guy b better off with porting a 270EZ or buying a bigger 295 or 325 head......thanks......kim.....
 
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