They aren't $50, far from it. The X-heads are stripped, no valves and no rocker assemblies. They're supposed to be unmolested, I haven't seen them in person yet. $400 for just the pair of heads.
The J-heads are actually one J-head and one U-head, both 915 castings. They came with the 360 core I bought for $300. One of those doesn't have any valves and neither has the rocker assemblies.
I'd like the 2.02 valves but it's probably not a necessity since racing is definitely not part of the plan. Just a fun street car is all I'm after. I really don't care about correctness, the car is not a resto car, it won't even really be a clone of a GTS or a 340 Swinger. It'll stay badged as a GT but the 318/904 auto/7.25 rear will all be replaced with a 360/A833 4 speed/8.75 sure grip. I can't afford a real 340 car these days and this is just to relive my youth a little and come close to a replacement for my first car ('69 Barracuda 340/4 speed). I bought that one in 1981 when I was 17 and like an idiot, I sold it. In those days they were easy to find and I didn't have storage to sit it in while I went to college.
I was going to talk to my local engine machine shop about 2.02's in the J-heads but I haven't done that yet and figured maybe some of the expense of that machining could be avoided with a decent builder set of X-heads. Maybe I'll just buy the X-heads and put them in my storage unit for a few years until I either luck into an actual 340 project or someone else wants them worse than I do.
