Why? You wouldn't remove the pan on my 331. You're getting as much or more in sheer parts for that money. I wouldda told you to buzz off and bounced you outta my shop by now. Either you want the thing or not. Lighten up. Not everybody in the world is out to rip people off. Somebody else will snap it up by the time you make up your feeble mind. You're getting what you are paying for without even removing a valve cover.
Having said all that, you need to call Bob Walker at Hot Heads to get the real scoop on early Hemis. He's the go to guy.
First thing I would do would be to crapcan everything from the block forward. Timing cover, water pump and balancer. Get the hot Heads timing cover and run the adapters to adapt a big block Chevy water pump. They sell a nice 340 balancer that's been remarked for the early Hemi too. That will remove about 40 pounds from the engine and give you a water pump you can actually FIND at 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, instead of something no one has in stock and will take days to get. Talk to Bob. He's your guy.
One last thing. The 392 heads suck. Chrysler cast the intake runners longer to make up the difference in the tall deck block so they could use the 331 and 354 intake manifolds. That extra length in the intake ports and extra turn down, make the 392 heads flow much less than the earlier 354 heads and the 54 and up 331 heads. It's very evident. All you have to do is look at the length of the intake port floor on each head. The 392 port floor is much longer and turns down drastically. And stay COMPLETELY away from the 51-53 331 heads. They have peanut sized ports intake and exhaust.
The best heads are the "555" or "triple nickel" heads and the 331/354 truck heads. They flow about the same. Although the truck heads have sodium filled exhaust valves and smaller valve sizes, I prefer them because they are a much heavier casting with lots of extra material in them.
People will argue the point, but the two heads are identical port wise. Once the 331 truck heads have 392 size valves, all bets are off, they are the same. In fact, one other little tidbit about the truck heads. They came from the factory with hardened exhaust seat inserts. Not induction hardened, but real hardened inserts. That means money saved when you have them worked, because you don't have to have the heads machined for seats. And most of the time, the seats are workable as is because the quality of metal back then was way better than today. Believe me, I know. I have a fresh 331 truck Hemi sittin on my engine stand in the shop.
Tony is right on the mark too. 1500 is about the going rate for a good clean bare 392 block. The fact that you can get a complete ready to run engine for a little more than twice that is insane. You shouldda bought it twice by now.
I forgot one more thing regarding the heads. If you use the 331/354 heads on the 392, you will need either a custom intake, or one of the old two piece intakes such as the old Weiand Drag Star. Since there was not an intake made for the tall deck block/low deck head combination, that's what you'll need.
Of course, if all you want is just the cool look of the Hemi in say a street rod, then don't worry about the 392 heads. They'll work ok.
