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Aluminum big block cylinder heads

RAHess

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I am looking for a pair of aluminum heads to put on my .030 over 383, it has a 284/484 street hemi purple shaft cam and i'm going with TRW domed pistons. I had 3 sets of heads that were stolen from my garage. I was going to use a pair of Stage 6 heads I had. These are about impossible to find any more. I really want a pair of raised intake port heads but I'd settle for stock port locations for this engine. Leaning toward the Performer RPM heads at this time. Anyone have any recommendations?
 
There's 440 Source, Trick Flow, Indy, Pro Comp and I'm sure some others. Others will chime in with real world knowledge.
 

culinder heads. :rofl:




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Just messing with you. I really don’t have any recommendations, but for something different I would look at 440 source first. I have had good luck with them for other parts and they are a very good company to deal with. I never heard of them until I joined this forum, and I gotta say they were a great find.
 
I am looking for a pair of aluminum heads to put on my .030 over 383, it has a 284/484 street hemi purple shaft cam and i'm going with TRW domed pistons. I had 3 sets of heads that were stolen from my garage. I was going to use a pair of Stage 6 heads I had. These are about impossible to find any more. I really want a pair of raised intake port heads but I'd settle for stock port locations for this engine. Leaning toward the Performer RPM heads at this time. Anyone have any recommendations?
Have you scanned the for sale ads here? There's usually someone that has some for sale....
 
Everything about the 383 build tells me the stage 6 is overkill.
440 Source makes the most sense to me, with a flattop at zero deck.
 
I’ve had used the Edelbrock RPM heads on my 383 with dome pistons.
Worked fine so far BUT, make sure you index your spark plugs with the strap in the 12 o‘clock position. Before I did this, some pistons hit the strap and quenched it to the electrode. It will depend on the combination (piston, heads, deck hight, …). Just want to safe you some headache :)
 
I've had very good luck with 440 Source and their tech support is very helpful with component combination and setup.
 
75cc Combustion Chamber Edelbrock RPM Heads (about 40 hp over 906 stock)
are probably the best head/bang for the buck, for the $$$, for street/strip use
make about 30-40 HP more out of the box, than the Stealth Heads
(like 65#+ weight off the front end too)
have better heart shape combustion chambers, that have 14mm x 3/4" angle plugs,
out of the box none ported, 210cc/290+cfm flow at 0.600" gvl 'without any porting'
with porting can easily be done to 330cfm @ 0.600" gvl with a good professional porter

the Stealth head are like 212cc/259cfm flow (about 20hp over stock)
about $400-ish less than the Edelbrocks (40hp less too),
have straight plugs & look more like a stock head, & make less power

the best head about $600 more than the Edelebrocks ($2,000-ish a pair),
they are CNC ported, well worth the extra $600, for porting alone
would be the Trick Flow 240's std port

no such thing as too big, (to an extent, 'too big' that BS old wives tales)
383 likes to rev, they will love the bigger std ports, more flow
even the TF 270cc's flow like 330cfm, have a MW raised ports (75-78cc)

(you will have to grind a small 1/4 moon shape for the intake valve
on the cylinder tops, so it will no be shrouded
& effect flow, outside of that, no too big deal
)

they don't show much if any loss in bottom-end toque,
& another 20-40 HP over the TF 240's
technecally means, "they are still a too small intake port, for max power"
& it means, they can still be even bigger

(TF's have minimally bigger intake valves than the EDDYs, but smaller exhaust valves
you could run a smaller diameter tube on the headers, you need at a min. inside tube diam.
the size of the exhaust valves
)

(BBC canted valve alum. heads, have a rect. port that flows 330cfm on a 396 425hp
no shrouding issues with the BBC, canted valves
)

(cylinder wall valve clearance can come into play on a BBM wedge,
with the smaller std 4.250" 383 bore & bigger intake valves
)

with the correct induction/intake carb etc., right cam & converter, gears etc.
even on a 383, it will be a beast
motor doesn't care it's an air pump, more air the better
what goes in must flow out, freely
don't buy the BS too big of ports, until you get into the 300cc+ range (400+ cfm)
for a street build, even then it depends on the combo

flow is flow, don't impeed flow, it's a HP killer
MoPar knew that even when they made the MW heads,
they were still way too small, even on the 413, but way better than the std wedge ports

watch the MotorTrend 'Engine Masters' (3) episode/s on Wedge Head compairison
there's several of them, the 3rd itteration was comparing the 240 to the 270
it was still too small to effect the bottom end torque
on the exact same mild 440, they tested the OE 906 iron, vs Stealth, vs the Eddy RPMs,

zero deck flatops, work great, w/valve reliefs,
with the smaller chambers can get 11:1+ compression, with a valve reliefed flattop piston
depending on the headgasket, you can get form 0.018" compressed shims,
to 0.050" Cometic/ML gaskets, the thicker will kill some compression, more quench too
I ran their 0.025" x 4.35" Cometic gaskets (every lil' bit helps)
a std. Fel-Pro Permatorque/Blues is 0.039" compressed
 
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I am looking for a pair of aluminum heads to put on my .030 over 383, it has a 284/484 street hemi purple shaft cam and i'm going with TRW domed pistons. I had 3 sets of heads that were stolen from my garage. I was going to use a pair of Stage 6 heads I had. These are about impossible to find any more. I really want a pair of raised intake port heads but I'd settle for stock port locations for this engine. Leaning toward the Performer RPM heads at this time. Anyone have any recommendations?
First going with a dome piston really limits your choice of heads as almost all the aftermarket heads have closed chambers. Nobody much builds engines with dome pistons anymore. They use a flat top piston with a small comustion chamber. I am really impressed with trick flow heads because they run very well and don't require a lot of special parts like rockers etc. to make them work. I was working on an old 440 with max wedge heads and dome pistons last summer took me 4 months to get replacement dome pistons.
 
Is this a Wedge, or a Hemi?

If it's a wedge you can't use that cam, as it's ground different.

Wedge and Hemi cams are not the same.

Tom

The early version of the MP 284 degree wedge cam was called “The hemi-grind”
 
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First going with a dome piston really limits your choice of heads as almost all the aftermarket heads have closed chambers. Nobody much builds engines with dome pistons anymore. They use a flat top piston with a small comustion chamber. I am really impressed with trick flow heads because they run very well and don't require a lot of special parts like rockers etc. to make them work. I was working on an old 440 with max wedge heads and dome pistons last summer took me 4 months to get replacement dome pistons.

A domed piston will probably fit with the Eddy and Stealth heads. Some clearancing may be needed.
 
First going with a dome piston really limits your choice of heads as almost all the aftermarket heads have closed chambers. Nobody much builds engines with dome pistons anymore. They use a flat top piston with a small comustion chamber. I am really impressed with trick flow heads because they run very well and don't require a lot of special parts like rockers etc. to make them work. I was working on an old 440 with max wedge heads and dome pistons last summer took me 4 months to get replacement dome pistons.
Why can't you use a dome piston? And nobody uses domes? Really? Yes you may have to trim an edge fo piston to head. Depends on what compression you want. There is no mention of how much dome there is on this poster's TRW's. An Open Chamber Edelbrock with the small TRW 11.5 compression dome will yield right about 10.0-1 on an unmilled block. I've built one with this combo. Though it uses the .557 Mopar solid cam. Using pump gas with a 4.10, good converter, slicks in a street 65 Belvedere has been 11.40's for years. That being said a pair of Eddy RPM"s, Trickflow 240's, or Ported Stealth's should work. Also if needed the dome could be milled flat on the TRW's
Doug
 
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Why can't you use a dome piston? And nobody uses domes? Really? Yes you may have to trim an edge fo piston to head. Depends on what compression you want. There is no mention of how much dome there is on this poster's TRW's. An Open Chamber Edelbrock with the small TRW 11.5 compression dome will yield right about 10.0-1 on an unmilled block. I've built one with this combo. Though it uses the .557 Mopar solid cam. Using pump gas with a 4.10, good converter, slicks in a street 65 Belvedere has been 11.40's for years. That being said a pair of Eddy RPM"s, Trickflow 240's, or Ported Stealth's should work. Also if needed the dome could be milled flat on the TRW's
Doug
The engine in my post I built 20 years ago originally using Ross shelf dome pistons. Part number is still current in the catalog. BUT they had no piston blanks to make them. Took months to finally get them. Look online and I believe you will find very few companies still make a dome piston for a Mopar big block. At least last summer NOBODY could supply them to me. Tons of flat top pistons available from many sources. Since all the aftermarket heads I know of have closed chambers just a no brainer not to use dome pistons. More power from a flat top. If you mill the domes on the old TRW you have to rebalance the engine. Cost and time of a balance job in my area equals close to a set of pistons. Most cost-effective way I find to build an engine is a balanced rotating assembly with flat top pistons, extra stroke gives you extra compression with a flat top piston.
 
Diamond, Weisco, Racetech all make anything you want. Most of time Ross can as well. If you were to buy new pistons? Yes there are plenty of flat tops available. But the original poster already owns the domed pistons and cam. Both are old school, but that doesn't mean they won't work. I would bet many if not most race engines use some kind of dome. Yes a flat piston can work well. In fact my race engine is 15.1-1 with flat pistons. If you want over 11-1 it's likely not going to happen on 440" without a dome.
Doug
 
Since all the aftermarket heads I know of have closed chambers just a no brainer not to use dome pistons.

Certainly you don’t think a closed chamber precludes a domed piston. I think the old TRW 2293 (domed 383 piston) will need a little clean up around the spark plug side of the dome with the 82-84 closed chamber aluminum head.

The OP has a 383. 383 flat top pistons with valve notches on most aluminum heads will not have much of a compression ratio.

The new ICON catalog piston, 687, has a 0.146” dome, and a 10.4:1 compression ratio with an 84 cc Eddy/Stealth heads, if you mill the block deck.
 
If he's already got 2293s (original post said TRW domed piston) and he wants it to run on pump gas with that smallish cam..... op better do some calculatin' to figure out what compression ratio he wants. That will determine which heads to look at.
My suggestion would be the open chamber rpms.
(I have 2295s domed trws in a 440 with iron heads, and it will run on 91, but it has 40 more degrees of cam than the op, and lots of converter and gear, and I still add a bit of 100LL cause I can).
 
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