Police Interceptor Heads?

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Chrysler dumped the idea because they would have had to emission certified the engine for 50k miles...never happened...

talked to Mike (he is a Chrysler engineer like his dad was) this morning he said according to regulations, an engine that had already been certified for road use could be modified without needing to be recertified,
 
just got an emails from Mike, he started to go through some papers of his dad and found that his dad worked on a project called the Midnight Express truck in 78 to, I have never heard of it till now. You could not order it from the factory, it was all done by the dealer. He said it was black in color, Midnight Express on the door, and 440 motor (you could get a different motor if you wanted). It was made to sell in the states by dealers where the LRT could not be sold.
 
No such thing as "Police Intercepter heads." Al heads are the same reguardless of application save the 340 T/A or 6 pak heads with the offset intake rocker arm.

The 340 was given a 2.02 intake valve until '73 where it was reduced to a 1.88. All 360 heads have a 1.88 valve.
273 - 318 heads have smaller valves.

Get the casting numbers off the head and or the letter cast into them next to the spark plug holes. Not all heads have a letter.
Casting numbers are located under the head where the 2 intake runners meet.

Stock rebuilt heads are capable of 400 hp, but the manor in which you make 400 hp with stock heads may not be to your likeing. Stock ports and a sizeable street cam can make 360 hp without a problem. Another 40 hp should require a bit more cam.

I take this from example of the old MoPar crate engines. The "Comando" 360 engines came in 2 flavors, 300 and 360 HP. The 360 HP engine was a rebuilt bottom end @ (IIRC) 10-1 ratio, a M1 single plane intake, a Purple 284/.484 cam with stock heads w/2.02 intake valves.

MoPar suggested the rest of this engine parts as followed;

Holley 750
Large tube heads

The heads you mention, for $400 sounds like an OK deal, but, would need porting to achieve your goal. A bowl porting with a performance valve job & back cutting of the valves would be the perscription I'd order up.

Still a reasonable amount of money spent.
The opener in this post is hilariously contradicting.
love ya Rob, but not all 360 ports are created equal, not all came with 2.02, not all had good exhaust ports, not all are even the same size. 974 have probably the best workable exhaust port, 915 have a higher ssr floor, larger volume exhaust ports.. there are things they did, in casting, that made some heads even weigh more with all the extra they added for smog and just sloppiness when switching core boxes.
10cc variance int ports. Some flowed right under 200, others flow right over and into the 210 range...while 2.02 x or j might do 218-225 +/- 3cfm. Are these huge differences? Kinda and not kinda on paper.
400.00 for done ready to run heads that are know for being in the 200+ cfm range and the goal is 400? You're there. Buy'em. Worst you could do is have someone do a little porting and gain 30-50 over that. There is some room to grow with them, but the room ends near 475hp , 500 hp if you're pretty good with a grinder.
Oh, a small detail... the j heads with the lower head bolt cast reinforcing ledges shaped like rectangles, hedmans and the like 'average street headers' all rest against it and sometimes ,more than not, cause a leak. The x heads most of those headers were designed around did not have those, they were smaller.

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For the production truck, the W-2 heads were nixed, partly because they had never been fully endurance tested for road use, and the cold air intake was moved to the radiator yoke. According to the L’il Red Express Club (no longer on-line), the following additional items were added to the stock 360 in 1978:

The Dodge Li’l Red Pickup Truck
 
I doubt any W2 made thru the dealer network unless it was a courtesy delivery for a local exec or such. But I would not be surprised one bit to find a Corporate car with secret mods.
And I fully believe the story of Puruit fleets with W2s. Chrysler was desperate for sales around 79 up and would have done anything to get a fleet order to keep lines moving.
Thats not to say the whole fleet had W2s but I am sure they would have equipped a few squads to kinda grease a State Police buyer.
 
I doubt any W2 made thru the dealer network unless it was a courtesy delivery for a local exec or such.

I asked Mike if I could mention his dads name and he said yes. Mike's father was Tom Hoover. He said the LRT and Midnight Express was two of the last projects his dad worked on before retiring from Chrysler in 1979
 
I doubt any W2 made thru the dealer network unless it was a courtesy delivery for a local exec or such.

I asked Mike if I could mention his dads name and he said yes. Mike's father was Tom Hoover. He said the LRT and Midnight Express was two of the last projects his dad worked on before retiring from Chrysler in 1979

Tom Hover is a Mopar Hero. Imho.
 
So what your saying is there are indeed “Police Interceptor heads” then.
The opener in this post is hilariously contradicting.
love ya Rob, but not all 360 ports are created equal, not all came with 2.02, not all had good exhaust ports, not all are even the same size. 974 have probably the best workable exhaust port, 915 have a higher ssr floor, larger volume exhaust ports.. there are things they did, in casting, that made some heads even weigh more with all the extra they added for smog and just sloppiness when switching core boxes.
10cc variance int ports. Some flowed right under 200, others flow right over and into the 210 range...while 2.02 x or j might do 218-225 +/- 3cfm. Are these huge differences? Kinda and not kinda on paper.
400.00 for done ready to run heads that are know for being in the 200+ cfm range and the goal is 400? You're there. Buy'em. Worst you could do is have someone do a little porting and gain 30-50 over that. There is some room to grow with them, but the room ends near 475hp , 500 hp if you're pretty good with a grinder.
Oh, a small detail... the j heads with the lower head bolt cast reinforcing ledges shaped like rectangles, hedmans and the like 'average street headers' all rest against it and sometimes ,more than not, cause a leak. The x heads most of those headers were designed around did not have those, they were smaller.

View attachment 1715404396

View attachment 1715404397
 
Your friend is Tom Hoovers son ?

That is cool ! That pretty much validates any claims

!
I doubt any W2 made thru the dealer network unless it was a courtesy delivery for a local exec or such.

I asked Mike if I could mention his dads name and he said yes. Mike's father was Tom Hoover. He said the LRT and Midnight Express was two of the last projects his dad worked on before retiring from Chrysler in 1979
 
talked to Mike (he is a Chrysler engineer like his dad was) this morning he said according to regulations, an engine that had already been certified for road use could be modified without needing to be recertified,
Well geez, with Tom Hoover around back then anything was possible!
 
A 1.88 valve 360 head was what it took to make the cop cars keep up...then what's that tell ya about any 318 head, 302 or not...

Interceptor ? lingo.
 
I rebuilt the motor on a 383 4 speed superbird into a stealth 426 (440 crank and rods, custom quench dome pistons, ported big valve heads)
0nly 383 superbird I'd ever seen or heard of and I was at Corta Madera Chrysler Plymouth as Service Manager when they and Hemi Cuda's were on the sales floor, then factory Zone rep.
 
I rebuilt the motor on a 383 4 speed superbird into a stealth 426 (440 crank and rods, custom quench dome pistons, ported big valve heads)
0nly 383 superbird I'd ever seen or heard of and I was at Corta Madera Chrysler Plymouth as Service Manager when they and Hemi Cuda's were on the sales floor, then factory Zone rep.

In What years were a Rep? Service or parts ?
 
Late 60's early 70's
Parts rep mostly but did both I was parts mgr before service manager left and I was pressed into that job at the dealer- I was in charge of body shop and paint, sold cars
family owned smaller dealer that's where we had the Birds and Challangers- what year was the oil crisis?
Several dealers had both AMC and MOPAR
I arranged a sale of Penske Javelins and 2 door Matadors to Hurst- damn not Hurst the Rental Company Hertz and I can't remember what the Matadors were- Cassini? some Italian designer most were 304 but some 6 cyl to 401
The Javelins were the later front end and Matadors I think 74's
Also 4 door Matadors to the US Forest service
401 with special suspensions wheels tires blue streaks? damn were they fast and handled great
 
I knew a guy that was a sales rep around that time for the NW region ( Id , MT and eastern OR/WA....
His name was Jerry Blake . I met him at a car show in MT in the 90s. He said he was parts mgr for Chrysler ... I asked him which dealership ? He responded... all of them !

He ran Mopar... lol

He knew I liked Chargers and told me of a Hemi Charger in Anaconda MT that might be for sale. I never followed up on it thinking it would be too much money for me at the time. He bought that 70 Hemi 4 sp the next year for $16,700 ! Turned 30k on the way home ! I about got sick !
 
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