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Big Block heads

Jerry Hall said:
Give me a deal, I'll make them big valve heads very quickly. :)
Click to expand...

The Closed Chamber 2780915's are a totally different Intake Port than the Closed Chamber 2406516 Heads.... TOTALLY Different !
IMO, still not cost effective to rebuild any Cast Iron Head these days, but the 915's can do work.
 
My uncle had a 66 300 440 HP rated at 365 HP. 67 HP was rated at 375 HP. 68-70 rated at 375 HP. Wouldn’t stand to reason that if you put 174 valves in 516 head and the same cam as 68 maybe change the intake that would give 375 HP. Just wondering.
 
Challenger340 said:
516 Heads ?
the question would be WHY for ANY application ?
I mean let's get real here..... other than for if it was some strange numbers "absolutely HAD to have them" reason ?
WHO can afford to rebuild them even half-assed decently for even the mildest performance application ?
They ain't even worth buying the parts for ? let be the labor ?
Click to expand...
the heads I have now were in decent shape so I just cleaned them up cut for the new valves did some port work and stuck them on. I also have a valve grinding machine....and the heads were free.
 
Challenger340 said:
516 Heads ?
the question would be WHY for ANY application ?
I mean let's get real here..... other than for if it was some strange numbers "absolutely HAD to have them" reason ?
WHO can afford to rebuild them even half-assed decently for even the mildest performance application ?
They ain't even worth buying the parts for ? let be the labor ?
Click to expand...

Come-on Bob, don't hold back. :D

Kinda agree though.
 
Challenger340 said:
The Closed Chamber 2780915's are a totally different Intake Port than the Closed Chamber 2406516 Heads.... TOTALLY Different !
IMO, still not cost effective to rebuild any Cast Iron Head these days, but the 915's can do work.
Click to expand...

I have two sets of 915's. I really like both. Both sets gone through many years ago at a race shop in Ohio. One set totally gone through - high quality work- including new replacement valves and comp valve grind - no porting - $1,000. Second set the same with SS valves and porting - $1,800. They run great. The first set (non-ported) will put 30 hp in any stockish 440 with factory head.

But at the end of the day, its not logical to spend this amount of money on a factory head unless you simply want a factory head and performance is secondary
 
Restoration or class racing market only. Shipping is the killer on all iron head sales.
 
For those not in need of 516’s for restoration purposes......

“IF”....... all of this applies.......

-You already have the heads, or can get them in your possession for an extremely low cost
-know of a shop or friend that has some basic valve job type tooling in his garage, that likes puttering on stuff for cheap money
-same as above for mild porting, or you can do it yourself
-the bar for your performance goals for these heads isn’t set very high

........ then, they might be a viable candidate for you.
 
PRHeads said:
For those not in need of 516’s for restoration purposes......

“IF”....... all of this applies.......

-You already have the heads, or can get them in your possession for an extremely low cost
-know of a shop or friend that has some basic valve job type tooling in his garage, that likes puttering on stuff for cheap money
-same as above for mild porting, or you can do it yourself
-the bar for your performance goals for these heads isn’t set very high

........ then, they might be a viable candidate for you.
Click to expand...
Seems to be the negative nannys didn't notice the ones that had the "junk" heads and running damn good with them and/or had access to their own or other's machining tools to fix them up. Free heads plus a set of 1.74 exhaust valves plus a bit of porting knowledge AND the ability to do your own porting will wake these "junk" heads up. Yeah, they may not perform like a set of 906's after doing the same thing or even doing the same to 915's but when you have a decent set to begin with and have the ability......well, why not!!
 
I have heavily ported 516's 2.14/1.81 on a 440 motor home motor I ran in my Dart car went 11.00 with 750 carb car weighed 3000# these were done years ago motor now in my 67 Satellite haven't got any runs in it yet with 850 on it hoping for 11.50's
 
little more on my motor 590 cam TTI headers edelbrock torque 2 intake
 
what andyf said in post 10
what u know about porting later heads does not work (ruins) 516s
 
What I mainly did to mine was clean up the valve pockets.
 
I think it comes to what do you want and how much money can you spend. Where should you spend your money.
I like originality , can I afford a 5 or 6 speed NO. So what do I do. I take my 915`S because I have them or do I spend about 1600.00 US for aluminum heads? I can get seats in my 915`s for way cheaper than buying aluminum heads. Put my money elsewhere.
In one of my posts I talked about my Uncles 66 365 Hp 300. Right now those 516 heads are on a 1972 440 in a 67b Charger. Street car.
It boils down to what you want.
In travelling with 67 Chargers since 1970, it appears that not many owners want to drive their car much over 350 miles to a Charger Meet. So if you are going to trailer your Charger, by all means spend the extra for a truck trailer to haul it and enjoy the car show.
Our car won’t be factory correct, but when people have seen them they give a thumbs up.
Enough boredom for now, maybe more later if I am not banned.




I
 
440 4 speed said:
I think it comes to what do you want and how much money can you spend. Where should you spend your money.
I like originality , can I afford a 5 or 6 speed NO. So what do I do. I take my 915`S because I have them or do I spend about 1600.00 US for aluminum heads? I can get seats in my 915`s for way cheaper than buying aluminum heads. Put my money elsewhere.
In one of my posts I talked about my Uncles 66 365 Hp 300. Right now those 516 heads are on a 1972 440 in a 67b Charger. Street car.
It boils down to what you want.
In travelling with 67 Chargers since 1970, it appears that not many owners want to drive their car much over 350 miles to a Charger Meet. So if you are going to trailer your Charger, by all means spend the extra for a truck trailer to haul it and enjoy the car show.
Our car won’t be factory correct, but when people have seen them they give a thumbs up.
Enough boredom for now, maybe more later if I am not banned.




I
Click to expand...
Why would you be banned? Fixin to do sumtin? lol
 
Are 906/346/902/975/452 castings that much more expensive than 516 castings?
Because that’s the only additional cost there would be in doing any of those heads instead of 516’s.
Minus whatever a shop would charge you to recut the 516 ex seats for 1.74 valves.

Of course...... the other heads all flow more than the 516’s when the exact same amount of work is done to them....... which is the primary reason they would be preferred........ if you’re looking for power.
 
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It's interesting how much 516's come up on the forum. Seems like it is the most talked about iron head for some reason...maybe because you can get them free. Lol

From my experience head porting with a flow bench I could not get 516's to run with any of the newer heads. The 516s lack of short side radius and the bumps in the exhaust port certainly don't help port flow. Our ported 516 heads maxed out at .5 lift and after a ton of time looking for flow we finally threw in the towel. I am not suggesting that we tried everything and others may have found some magic that we overlooked.

Imo.. The 5 cc less closed chamber was not worth the loss in head flow. Running 516s in a original type rebuild with moderate cams I feel has its place and they can run respectably. But if it's a non original performance build and you are wanting to start with a iron head it takes 2 much port work for the diminished returns. I would take any open chamber over a 516.
 
quality seats and quality guides?
multi angle or 2-3 angle stock valve job?
 
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