Wow, a lot of hating on Chrysler huh? Mopar offers many heads for the small blocks in both 59 and 48 degree versions. The main problem is not getting a good head, it's the expensive valve and rocker gear that goes with it. But let's face it, if it's a serious effort you need to buy serious rocker and valve gear anyway so it's really a moot point.
The reason Chevy and Ford stuff is so abundant and cheap is because of simple supply and demand. Hell everybody and their brother has a Camaro and every squirrel with a drivers license has a fox body Mustang, so there you have it, simple economics.
If you want to do something different you build a Mopar or an AMC, neither of these engines are cookie cutter and personally I like it that way. If you want easy, cheap and a me too engine, build a Chevy or Ford.
WELL SAID!
There are a ton of good heads out there for Mopars! Yeah, they aren't cheap, but like Guitar Jones says, there are plenty of heads out there.
It isn't just the oval port design that makes the head work, it is the push rod pinch that is taken away.
Also, many are forgetting we get to START with an 18 degree head right from a stock head! The Chevy boys would love to have that kind of angle on their "budget" heads.
My W2 heads didn't set me back a whole lot, but the rocker gear was a killer. If you are doing a budget build though, there is cheaper rockers out there to do the job, such as the crane golds. I opted for the T&D Machine Products 1.7 rockers for my W2 Econo heads. They cost me almost as much as the ported heads. But I wanted a rocker gear that would take the spring pressures that we are throwing at it, along with the solid roller and higher lift camshaft.
If you are building a fire breathing Chevy or Ford, you will need to spent money in the same places. T&D and Jessel stuff is spendy across the board, not just mopar.
A stock small block mopar will go a fair amount further than a stock small chevy head. I wasn't really impressed with the flow numbers on my J heads when we first put them on a flow bench. Then I had one of my Chevy buddy's Dart Iron Eagle 200cc head that had a nice fully hand done port on the bench, and it fell 30cfm short of my stock casting hand ported J's.
So, maybe the after market heads that work well out there are expensive, but your stock castings will be on par with a "budget" Chevy head.
At the end of the day, Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go? I have a set of W5's sitting on the shelf that will need a nice rocker gear, valves, and springs before I can use them. I don't have the money to spend on them yet, so the shelf is where they stay until I am at the point to use them.
-Kenny
