Stage V heads

[68Charger 440HP]

I am considering buying stage V heads for my street/strip charger. I was wondering if anyone has or is using those heads on their car and can tell me how you like the performance gained from them. Is it worth buying stage V's or just re-working my 906's? Any opinions will be greatly appreciated.

[Old hippie]

Hate to burst your bubble but....the stage V steel head is a basic 452 head with a slightly improved exhaust port. Out of the box they are not going to flow much better than the 906 heads you now have. Maybe 10 cfm but thats about it. My question is what shape are the 906 heads in? Have they been rebuilt a couple of times, have the velves been sunk into the seats due to too many regrinds? Point being, you can take the cash that you were going to put into a new set of stage V heads and have the 906's ported by a reputable shop and they will flow a ton better than the Stage V heads out of the box. If you are anywhere reasonably close to the LA area I would Contact Joe Jill (sorry, I don't have a phone number) or an outfit called Quadrant Specific or Scientific???. You could also try Dick Landy Enterprises but I hear he is a bit pricy.

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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[68Charger 440HP]

Old hippie, My 906's are in good shape. They have never had a valve job so the valves are not sunk. I was also wondering how the performance of stock 906's compared to stock stage V's with large valves. Furthermore, the performance comparison to 906's fully ported with large valves versus stage V's fully ported with large valves. thanks for your response and help.

[Old hippie]

I checked Summits price for the stage V heads and they are just under $850.00 bare. Put $150.00 with that and you can have a nice flowing set of 906 heads with the big valves. If you buy the stage's you still have to spring for the valves plus the porting to make these heads run. To my way of thinking its a foregone conclusion.

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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[origcharger]

Well, I wish I would have just bought a new pair of Stage 5 heads. After surfacing, hard seat installation, new valves and springs and the valve job, I now have about $800 in a pair of unported 906s that have an eroded exhaust manifold sealing face and one valve cover won't seal without some stategic use of silicone sealer. Even after using oversize 2.14 intake valves some of my intake stems had to be trimmed and spring shims used to get the installed height correct. I have seen assembled Stage 5s advertised for $550 each and wish I would not have tied $800 up in the 30 year old pair!

[Old hippie]

I feel for ya, O'charger. I think just about all of us have been there at one time or another. The fact that you had to trim the valve stems raises a flag. It sounds like the valve seats were not properly done if you had to trim the stems. Were the spring seats trimmed? Some shimming of the springs to get correct installed height is normal but if you had to toss a big wad of shims under them then something ain't kosher with those heads. In your case a set of the 5's would have been a wise investment.
If 68Charger's 906's are still in good shape and haven't been abused and pass a wet magniflux test I will stick by my guns. While my personal preferance in stock steel heads is for the 346/452 castings the 906 heads can be built into a great performing set of heads.

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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[68Charger 440HP]

Old Hippie, you said that your personal preference on iron heads are 452/346. I also have a very nice set of 346's. They are in very good shape and have no sunken valves. Would my money be better spend on the 346's or 906's? They are both in exceptional condition. Things are pretty equal between them. What do you think is my best choice?

[Old hippie]

Actually, once the heads are ported they are a wash. The 346/452 has a slightly better exhaust port in stock form than the 906. The other advantage is in the valve seats. The 906 does not have hardened seats and, if rebuilding the 906 heads, they just about have to be installed if you expect them to live on the street. The 346 heads have a flash hardened seat that will usually live for one rebuild. The 452 heads have induction hardened seats and will live (likely get some arguement here) for several rebuilds. But, once a set of heads have had the seats cut a couple of times you usually have sunk the valves into the seats enough to cause hot spots to occur and that can and will lead to detonation. At that time you should upgrade to the bigger valves and do some mild port work. It takes very little to make a set of open chamber BB heads flow in the 225-240 range (intake port) and that makes for a nice street head. The other thing is cost. Too many people have gotten the idea that the 906 heads are the be-all that with a bag 'o chips head and want a big wad of cash for a set that are rebuildable. You can pick up 346 heads all day long for $50.00 to $100.00 a set, virgin. The cost of porting is the same, regardless of the head, as is the cost of the machine work. The only expense you should not incur is the cost of cutting the exhaust seats for stellite inserts.

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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[ChristianCuda]

I have to totally agree with Old Hippie except on one thing. The 906 and 346/452 exhaust ports are Identical. ITs the intake ports that are different. The 906 heads have a hump right before the bowl this is for the water passage. The 346/452 were redesigned to flatten this out allowing a curve down into the bowl. Chrysler didnt change the exhaust ports on thier big blocks the only ones that were different were the Max wedge heads. Why couldn't they have just kept those heads on everything.

Christian

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68 'Cuda 383 Formula S recreation
Working on adding EFI
69 'Cuda Race Parts Car
76 Duster 273 recent transplant
95 Neon 2.0 SOHC best of 16.96
84 Dodge Ram D50 transplanting 360

[Old hippie]

Thanks, CC, I misspoke (wrote?) myself. It is the intake port that has the slight differance.
Damn!
Now I gotta go to bed without my supper....again!

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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[iykit]

Well,440 Iwas considering the same thing , What hesd to run. What I found is if you have a chance to read the Mopar engines book it gives you the differences between the stock heads and the stage heads. The stage V head has material added to the port walls and smoother surfaces for the gasket sealing areas for better sealingmaterial is added to the roof on the intake to give it better sort side radius and to the floor of the exaust for short side radius. (something production heads normally don't have) They definetly flow better out of the box. I see mancinni racing now offers porting templates for stage V heads also. don't know anyone who has ported a set yet though .I have a set on a crate motor but haven't run them yet. I think I still might just get a set of Indy 440-1 heads.(haven't decided yet) IF you try aset before me keep us posted!