How Much Can Heads Improve Compression???
How much impact can changing the heads make on compression???
We're tinkering on the son's 72 Challenger. It's been passed through the family now from my brother, to me, to my brother, and now to my son... It's been in the family since 83 and has just over 99 k original miles on the odometer.
Waaayyy long time ago, when my brother had it, he had the original 72 318 engine rebuild with 360 heads and 2.02 valves. I'm not sure if the engine has even been started for break-in yet.
The heads were done when leaded gas was available and didn't have hardened seats in it when my son got it back from my brother. So we pulled the heads and had our head guy install hardened seats and "tune them in" a bit...
Now we have the engine pulled and are going to assemble it again. We checked the compression using my patented "How to Check Compression" method in the How-To section as here:
How to Check Compression
Soooo... When we checked the compression on the 72 318 with 360 heads (I'm not sure if they are stock pistons or replacement, but I think stock), we ended up coming in around 7.6:1 :violent1: :wack:
We would like to get it up higher so we have more efficiency out of our engine. It's just a street cruiser, nothing radical with lots of cam or compression. We do have the opportunity to put in a rainbow of different cams while we have it on the stand also, so we're looking to dial in the compression and pick a good cam out of our "stock" that I have "acquired"...
We are going to put into my son's 72 Challenger Ralley, 318, 904, slapstick, dual scoop hood, 3.55 sure-grip 8 3/4" rear axle.
Here's the car:
Here are different stages of the engine pull:
Here are some shots of the engine when we pulled it:
Here it is on my handy-dandy rolling dolly:
Here's the thread on how to make the dolly:
How I Made My Engine Dolly
How much impact can changing the heads make on compression???
We're tinkering on the son's 72 Challenger. It's been passed through the family now from my brother, to me, to my brother, and now to my son... It's been in the family since 83 and has just over 99 k original miles on the odometer.
Waaayyy long time ago, when my brother had it, he had the original 72 318 engine rebuild with 360 heads and 2.02 valves. I'm not sure if the engine has even been started for break-in yet.
The heads were done when leaded gas was available and didn't have hardened seats in it when my son got it back from my brother. So we pulled the heads and had our head guy install hardened seats and "tune them in" a bit...
Now we have the engine pulled and are going to assemble it again. We checked the compression using my patented "How to Check Compression" method in the How-To section as here:
How to Check Compression
Soooo... When we checked the compression on the 72 318 with 360 heads (I'm not sure if they are stock pistons or replacement, but I think stock), we ended up coming in around 7.6:1 :violent1: :wack:
We would like to get it up higher so we have more efficiency out of our engine. It's just a street cruiser, nothing radical with lots of cam or compression. We do have the opportunity to put in a rainbow of different cams while we have it on the stand also, so we're looking to dial in the compression and pick a good cam out of our "stock" that I have "acquired"...
We are going to put into my son's 72 Challenger Ralley, 318, 904, slapstick, dual scoop hood, 3.55 sure-grip 8 3/4" rear axle.
Here's the car:
Here are different stages of the engine pull:
Here are some shots of the engine when we pulled it:
Here it is on my handy-dandy rolling dolly:
Here's the thread on how to make the dolly:
How I Made My Engine Dolly
