engine buildups using early 1951-53 heads, porting results ?

[oldngood]

I see a lot of info in print dissing the early Chrysler hemi 331 heads, saying they are no good, only for restoration- for a smallish 331-365 CID range engine using stock stroke and 4" bore, how bad can they be ? ports look at least as good/better than what other 350-size engines have, and these have the HEMI chamber- why not just port them ?

has anyone ported the early heads and what kind of flow numbers did you get at 28" ??

[budmspeeco]

Daytona Auto Design , in one of their listings on eBay, stated they had ported a set of them and had gotten better flow than the aluminum heads sold by Hot heads. I think that would be referred to as making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Since they are the only ones I have seen doing any work on them , perhaps you should look on eBay for contact information and see exactly what they did. I could be wrong on this, but everything they build is smoother, cooler , quieter and longer than anyone elses stuff. Since they are tooting their own horn the claim should be taken with a grain of salt? Personally , why go to all the trouble of porting the little heads when you can start with bigger unported heads that outperform them to start with? Even D.A.D.s rockers are better because they are multi-colored . My two cents!!!!!!!!!!1 Buddy

[oldngood]

It's the cost aspect- early heads are $125 a pair now. The problem with the aftermarket Hot Heads is resale value- any aluminum head goes down in value 50% the day after it's purchased, like a new car purchase.

Another thing- the exhaust port on the early little head, is higher in the head, and smaller- that may actually be better ! Higher exhaust velocity and a straighter port.

I searched Ebay for Daytona Auto Design and can't find them.

there looks like a lot of material around the early Hemi head intake port, to grind open larger- especially raising the port which would definitely pull flow numbers up-

[budmspeeco]

D.A.D.Continue.
www.daytona-auto-designing.com/
I googled Daytona Auto Design. There is a web site they have built. It is a study in mind control and excessive self praise. They allegedly do everything better than everyone else. The photos show they are into multiple colors on all of their products. I don't see the value of it except to show the items in contrast. It is entertaning but I can't see how it makes their product quality better or worse than others. It will give you contact info so you can see the work they did on the early heads. Buddy

[oldngood]

ouch- I have to be careful there- every vendor with that attitude, usually turns out to be a negative experience

the multi colors- sounds like they got marketing advice from a "professional" with a marketing degree PHD- the best way to sell more of something, is make it in more colors-

like M&M's- imagine if they were all brown, or all red

[oldngood]

D.A.D.Continue.
www.daytona-auto-designing.com/
. It will give you contact info so you can see the work they did on the early heads. Buddy

I don't want to be a PITA, but could you be more specific ? I combed the site quickly and only found pics of them reconditioning later heads with front water outlets, i.e. 1954-58 heads. When you say "contact info", do you mean I have to email them to find out about it ? Or is there a webpage detailing this work ?

[budmspeeco]

Look up item # 130203214779 on eBay. It is one of their auction sites for a flat rate to get heads worked on. The basic valve job and surface from them is a mere $550.00 for a set of hemi heads although I guess the price is the same for any other set you send. Figure that and about $150.00/$180.00 for shipping both ways and you have a huge chunk of change invested, over $700.00. I would think that any medium to large city in America will have a performance repair shop or two that could do wonders on a set of heads for that amount of money. The painted heads are the small port set they do. The exhaust ports have been ground to the very edge of the sealing surface. The metallic colored set is a later head since it has the water outlet in the front and rear. Read the description of the work they do and see if you can understand exactly what is and isn't furnished. If all your valves. springs, guides, retainers, and seats are bad they replace them with____ ???? Maybe new parts, maybe parts in a bin left over from other work. And for only $550.00 . Buddy

[wayfarer]

...For $700 I would invest with ExtrudeHone...

[dan miller]

The best heads, no question, are the 1954 and 1955 331 heads. The pre '54 heads have smaller ports and valves, and the post '55 heads have smaller ports. The 392 heads have extra material (about .625") cast on the ports to compensate for the increased deck height. This allowed the use of existing intake manifolds. It's been said that the ports were made smaller after 1955, as the cars were getting heavier and the smaller ports were needed for the extra bottom and mid range torque.

Bob McKray does our heads, both iron and Hot Heads, and gets over 360 cfm out of them. The factory iron, Hot Heads, and even the AJP billet heads all end up flowing about the same. We have to utilize OEM iron heads on the Junior Fueler, and they work nicely, but the Hot Heads are VERY hard to beat when considering cost, weight, availability, and performance.

Danny

[budmspeeco]

I bought three Donovan heads on eBay a while back. Two of them are going to need extensive welding to be used. Has anyone ever seen flow numbers on these heads? I want to use them on a blower motor so the flow is OK but I am really using them for the weight savings. It is going in a street car. Buddy

[MAW]

I'm using a pair of '53 round port heads on the 331 going in my '37 Dodge PU. The intakes were matched to just under the outline of a '55 manifold gasket. The exhausts were matched up to the round port header flanges I'm using which came out to 1-5/8" diameter. I blended back around 1" into the port on each intake and exhaust. Light clean-up in the bowls, no big removal of material.

The valves are oversize Manley Race-Flows for the small block Ford, 1.85" Intake and 1.60 Exhaust, 11/32" stems. New bronze guides installed. #110 springs since I'm only using a 0.450" lift cam, modest boost levels, and have no plans on seeing any higher than 5500 RPM.

I have no idea how these are going to flow, but since I'm going turbocharged on this application they should work good enough. They have nowhere near the port volume of my massaged 555 heads, but I don't think I need it.

Regards, Mark

[oldngood]

thanks much good info