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New Stealth Heads or use the 452’s?

Bcamp69

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What should I do? Buy a set of Stealth Heads or use the 452 heads?

I have a 78’ 440 block, cast crank, stock rods, engine guy says will be approx 9.4:1 with new pistons installed using the 88cc 452 heads. Going in 69’ roadrunner, prly use 78 tranny (someone suggested it might have part throttle kickdown), 3:23 suregrip.

I don’t know what to do. Not a strip car, just interested in a strong cruiser. Like to put some miles on it.
 
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Personally I'd use the Edelbrock RPM, made in USA and about the same cost as Stealth Heads.
 
Stealths are going for $499 ea. I see the E Street heads for $1189 for the pair but doesn’t look like I can use my factory rockers.
 
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Why are you working with an "engine guy" who doesn't know what to do about cylinder heads?
 
By the time you have the heads freshened up, you will have $600 or more invested. Id go with the Aluminum heads
 
I wanted to use my stock rockers and shafts. Think I saw some Isky rockers and shafts on here somewhere for sale in pretty good shape. Are they any good?

Oh, btw....I ask questions because this engine stuff is new to me.
 
By the time you have the heads freshened up, you will have $600 or more invested. Id go with the Aluminum heads
Bingo, exact reason I went with the stealth heads. Gave them a good cleaning, lapped the valves and checked installed height. 2+ years and several thousand miles later all is still good. Very good actually, .030 over 383 pulls strong ! Oh yeah, factory rocker shafts, rockers and push rods .....
 
If you are looking for more significant increase in performance? Brodix B1/BS heads. With 65 cc closed chamber will kick up your compression. The port out of the box will easily out flow 452s. I believe the best bolt on head on the market. Best of all? Nobody will question your decision. Sorry Eddy, Indy. The best you can do is try to match B1.
 
So AL heads flow better, but how much more flow does one get for the additional cost of $600? I have a pair of 452's with minor porting on the exhaust side, how are AL heads better? BTW, I found them on CL. Prepped by a Mopar engine builder who put all new parts in them and then won a Lottery. He is going with aluminum on his 440+6 Cuda and sold me the 452's for $200. If a guy is rich, who cares, but if there are other things that have to fit in a budget...
 
If I’m not mistaken B1 bs heads require a lot of aftermarket stuff like special rockers and head studs...
 
So AL heads flow better, but how much more flow does one get for the additional cost of $600? I have a pair of 452's with minor porting on the exhaust side, how are AL heads better? BTW, I found them on CL. Prepped by a Mopar engine builder who put all new parts in them and then won a Lottery. He is going with aluminum on his 440+6 Cuda and sold me the 452's for $200. If a guy is rich, who cares, but if there are other things that have to fit in a budget...

I am certainly on a budget. If I can give the 452’s a once over for $600, the difference I’ll save might buy a new carb, intake, and such.
 
Bingo, exact reason I went with the stealth heads. Gave them a good cleaning, lapped the valves and checked installed height. 2+ years and several thousand miles later all is still good. Very good actually, .030 over 383 pulls strong ! Oh yeah, factory rocker shafts, rockers and push rods .....
I want to use my factory rockers which is why the stealth’s appealed to me.
 
If I’m not mistaken B1 bs heads require a lot of aftermarket stuff like special rockers and head studs...
The head studs come with heads. So does rockers. (At least with mine.) It's valve springs that will need to be purchased for your particular cam profile. I'm just throwing out option and my opinion.
 
Who said I was? I asked on this forum for opinions.
You actually did in your first post?

My vote is no on the Stealth's but having a set of old iron heads gone through isn't cheap. I'd have the shop look at your 452's and get a quote and go from there.
 
You actually did in your first post?

My vote is no on the Stealth's but having a set of old iron heads gone through isn't cheap. I'd have the shop look at your 452's and get a quote and go from there.

No I don’t see where I said the guy who is building my shortblock doesn’t know which head to use. Can you point that out to me? Actually I believe he’s quite capable.

I’m not interested in digs on the guy building my engine, or my asking a question. Didn’t want to see this digress to that point. I admittedly don’t have the experience or knowledge of many here which is why I’m asking for opinions regarding the equipment.
 
I want to use my factory rockers which is why the stealth’s appealed to me.

You can use your factory shafts and rockers on both e-street, and rpm performer too.

By the time you pay to rebuild a set of iron heads with new larger valves and do any kind of mild porting you be into them for probably more than a set of e-streets and they won’t perform any where near as good.

The aluminum heads are a nice touch if you can justify the money, one thing for certain is that you can choose a slightly smaller cc’d chamber size than the stock 452’s at 88. This will help you bump up the compression ration closer to 10:1 +/- a couple points. Maybe shoot for 10.4 if you can. This will give you more power. The aluminum heads will certainly help with detonation and throwing a little more timing at the motor. I really think they are worth it. Keep in mind though, even though they are new out of the box it’s probably well worth it to have a good shop spend a couple hours going through them to make sure everything is in spec.

Odds are the stock eddy heads springs will be right near the needs of your cam too
 
Who said I was? I asked on this forum for opinions.
He obviously doesn't know, you don't trust him or you want to do something else other than what he has recommended.

You have an "engine guy". Trust him.

Or is it another engine build by committee, and the "engine guy" is going to be told that the experts on the forum are smarter than he is. He should tell you, "Just have the forum build it for you."

There, you got my opinion.
 
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I have a set of ported Stealth heads and really have no issues with the heads themselves. I am running a higher lift, higher spring pressure so the hardware was swapped out for better items and I added a set of Hughes rocker arms. The hardware that comes with them is good for stock lift cams.

If you were running higher compression ratio I would say the Stealth would be worth it. They are also quite a bit lighter.
 
I agree on having the 452's looked over. If they need guides and seats and other work it can quickly become as expensive as buying the new Stealth's (depending on the shop you work with). From what I have heard (everyone has heard some rumor or another) it is a good idea to upgrade to the 10 deg locks on the Stealth's just for cautions sake. Good luck with your build!
 
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