LOL, Kind of.
It's not all about the head,.... but also the heads. Thewhole package it came on and what was done with it in racing.
The 340 being the screamer small block of the day and with what to challenge it? A 318 or 273. Well, OK, someone is going to sceak about the D-dart, the 273 that screamed with 275 HP. It still wold lose to a 340 in a heavier E body never mind an earlier A body.
The X head is the major numbered/plentiful head with 2.02's. A good sized port for the engine size and street bound screamers. The 340 and the head made fame in class racing. The hot ticket for the day. Everyone was trying to get into this and do well. At a time when win on sunday sell on monday still truly ment something.
In the class racing, certain rules applied. Certain tings had top remain stock, period. Now what you did to the stock part is another stroy and what was allowed is yet another one. Of the things that had to remain the same, off the top of my head and limited knowledge of the rules back then, are
Stock;
Carb
heads
valves (I think)
Bore size held to a limit
Stroke unchanged
Had to run the tranny that came with the car. Sox and Martin I beileve it was ran a 904 and HAD to bring NHRA tech to a dealer to prove they were stock.
A well ported X head can go very far and still be bound for the street while doing very well at the track, but, what if it is a track car only with a notion of balls out hitting the limit is just where we begin? Full ported takes on a new meaning and you push it hard and beyond.
Dick Landy has been known to achieve over 330 CFM on a X head on a full boggie race platform. With a head like this, 7500 was a red line that was passed easy. Masive roller cams and ported Holley Strip Dominators, decked block, milled pistons, drill out cranks. The limit was what ever you didn't get caught in breaking and what ever there was no rule for.
If there was one thing Dick was known for, he was known for the abilty to do a hell of a job on getting a MoPar to out run the comp and spank'em real good.
His shop is still in Biz in California.
Once the J head was introduced with a smaller valve @ 1.88, the MoPar head hit a sour note and was thought of as a pig of a head. Same goes for the 360. I've been dogged relentlessly for use of the 360 disipte high performance rebuilds.
Now, remember, this is back when the thinking was bigger the better and for the track it basicly still holds true for certain arena's of racing.