360 head advice

[gdking]

i have a 77 360 that i am building to run on a circle track. the rules state that you have to run factory heads, quadrajet carb, no more than 450 lift on cam. i have a set of stock 360 heads, not sure what the cc's are but they are from a 77 that had the lean burn. what would be the optimal amount that should be milled off of the heads. I have been told not to go more than .020. Also, max compression in each cylinder can only be 150 lbs. I have been told the chevy boys have been running high compression and using cams that have a bit more overlap to fool the tech guy. I am a ford man by birth, this is my first mopar. can anyone give me some sage advice? Thanks

[Dirt Driver]

There are aftermarket camshafts for Chevy's running lift restrictions in circle track. These are all out racing cams and are not anything like street performance .450" lift cams. You can have a custom cam made with those lobes on a Mopar cam. Use Rhoads lifters to avoid lifter pump up. Run some heavy valve springs with matching retainers. For years the one head gasket that would take the most abuse and hold up was the NAPA or Victor red head gasket. Then Fel-Pro came out with the Teflon coated gaskets and they are even better. Run 2.02" / 1.60" valves and use single groove keeper valves instead of the rotating multi groove valves. The factory style adjustable rocker arms hold up much better than the stock stamped rocker arms. Use a heavy duty intermediate shaft (oil pump driveshaft).

[RacerHog]

Swap to the Magnum heads and upperend....

[pishta]

Originally Posted by RacerHog

Swap to the Magnum heads and upperend....

absolutly. The Magnum head has 1.6 rockers so youll get more valve lift from a .450 cam, the ports are better, but youll have to run a smaller valve ala magnum size. But valve size should not be a deal breaker as magnum heads flow pretty good with a stock valve size and you are not going to care what flow numbers are after .480 anyway, its all in the velocity at low lift numbers anyway. Can you use tulip valves, like stainless? They dont have a ski jump around the valve lip like stockers.

[gdking]

Originally Posted by pishta

absolutly. The Magnum head has 1.6 rockers so youll get more valve lift from a .450 cam, the ports are better, but youll have to run a smaller valve ala magnum size. But valve size should not be a deal breaker as magnum heads flow pretty good with a stock valve size and you are not going to care what flow numbers are after .480 anyway, its all in the velocity at low lift numbers anyway. Can you use tulip valves, like stainless? They dont have a ski jump around the valve lip like stockers.

what would it take to convert to the magnum heads? Can I use my old pushrods? What cc combustion chamber are they?

[JVMopar]

No you cannot reuse your pushrods and lifters must have the hole for pushrod oiling.

[pishta]

Originally Posted by JVMopar

No you cannot reuse your pushrods and lifters must have the hole for pushrod oiling.

Yes, the majority of the aftermarket lifters will have holes in them already to conform with a wider application base (AMC, LA, Magnum) MAgnums oil through the hollow pushrods.