heads

Mine wags it's tail all the way to about 4000 rpm in high gear. You know right when it stops spinning the tires because it feels like you just hit dry pavement, so at the moment I'm not really looking for more power, I'd just like to utilize everything I've got. But as I mentioned before, this is a street car, so dumping another $1000 into a set of wheels and tires for the 2 or 3 times a year I go to the drag strip just isn't justifiable to me - yet. I did give some thought to the Edelbrock aluminum heads though - if nothing else they would certainly add to the aesthetic appeal of the engine compartment, and as long as the power didn't fall off. The problem is that for the money spent (in my case) the only real gain is the weight you lose by substituting aluminum for cast iron. The problem with any head that uses stock type valve gear is valve and port configuration. To really see the gains you have to relocate vales and redesign ports - thats why all the really good heads all use special valve gear, intake manifolds, and exhaust. So the real question is how much do you want to dump into 340 cubic inches? - - Food for thought - what kind of power could you squeeze out of a low deck 452 with the money you've already spent on the little moter? I've seen those things crank out almost 700 horsepower and still be relative mild mannered compared to the small block. Imagine this - 680hp/600 torque, idle at 900 rpm, 3000 rpm converter, 3.55 gears, 11.22 in the quarter. this motor had cast iron 906 heads, 9.5:1 compression, and cost about $6500 to build - for comparison I've right about the same amount in my 340 that idles at 1400 rpm and lives on VP C-12.