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If they have prototype head available the best thing they could do for their cause would be get with a header manufacturer and foot the bill for a prototype header. The heads will never survive without an off the shelf header.

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Looking at that picture you can see why mopar came out with the LA....the Poly would never fit in an early A body without a ton of work.

That dual plane on the motor on the right looks a lot like a 383 Performer RPM!

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I put a poly 318 in a 66 dart one time, it would not clear the inner fenders, I dropped it down several times with the cherry picker before it got enough clearance, I used my original 273 mounts and it took some doing to get them bolted up. When your 17 and don't got no wheels you just do what you got to do.

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I can picture that in my head.

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If they have prototype head available the best thing they could do for their cause would be get with a header manufacturer and foot the bill for a prototype header. The heads will never survive without an off the shelf header.

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Why is that? Headers aren't that hard to make and I don't know of any shelf W9 headers. With the flow rates they are talking about it looks to be aimed at the race or really wild street crowd, possibly even street rods.


In this market, success is directly a reflection of price. In order to sell at a reasonable price you have to deal in volume. For every guy that will fab or have a set of headers built there are 50 or more that will not. Why do you think edelbrock and Indy heads are so successful.

I hope they make them, I'd get rid of my W5's in a heart beat.

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If they have prototype head available the best thing they could do for their cause would be get with a header manufacturer and foot the bill for a prototype header. The heads will never survive without an off the shelf header.

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I found it fairly easy to modify a set of Hooker 5204 headers to fit the Poly-headed 360 in my Dart Sport. On cyls 1,5,4 and 8 it was just a matter of cutting the pipe at the proper place and welding it to the new flanges I made. The other pipes required relocation due to the equal port spacing. It sure is nice to have 3/8" bolts with plenty of room. Cylinder 3 dumps right at the steering gear so power steering might not be possible. Notice that the Hooker 5204 has all pipes going downward from the head. An up-swept pipe would require more effort to modify for sure.
In anticipation of questions, Yes, there is pushrod interference in the lifter valley. Yes, grinding clearance produces nice windows into the water jackets. To fix it I just welded up the holes with my mig welder and standard ER70S6 wire. No leaks anywhere after many heat cycles and several full-throttle passed down the strip banging gears with a 16psi radiator cap.
For those not watching, the Weiand poly intake broke past the $1000 mark on ebay recently with others past $800. And I ported the heck outta mine

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If they have prototype head available the best thing they could do for their cause would be get with a header manufacturer and foot the bill for a prototype header. The heads will never survive without an off the shelf header.

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I found it fairly easy to modify a set of Hooker 5204 headers to fit the Poly-headed 360 in my Dart Sport. On cyls 1,5,4 and 8 it was just a matter of cutting the pipe at the proper place and welding it to the new flanges I made. The other pipes required relocation due to the equal port spacing. It sure is nice to have 3/8" bolts with plenty of room. Cylinder 3 dumps right at the steering gear so power steering might not be possible. Notice that the Hooker 5204 has all pipes going downward from the head. An up-swept pipe would require more effort to modify for sure.
In anticipation of questions, Yes, there is pushrod interference in the lifter valley. Yes, grinding clearance produces nice windows into the water jackets. To fix it I just welded up the holes with my mig welder and standard ER70S6 wire. No leaks anywhere after many heat cycles and several full-throttle passed down the strip banging gears with a 16psi radiator cap.
For those not watching, the Weiand poly intake broke past the $1000 mark on ebay recently with others past $800. And I ported the heck outta mine

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I found it fairly easy to modify a set of Hooker 5204 headers t


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down the strip banging gears with a 16psi radiator cap.
For those not watching, the Weiand poly intake broke past the $1000 mark on ebay recently with others past $800. And I ported the heck outta mine

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Was the LA block redesigned in the lifter valley? If the LA retained the Poly 59 degree angle what did they change in order to have push rod issues? Not doubting there were issues at all just trying to learn

With your build, how come you went with Poly heads? What kind of power did you end up making? Also if I remember right, can't 318 Poly blocks take a fairly substantial overbore (.100" range)?

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I guess there must have been a change in the lifter valley. I expect with the larger bores of the 340/360 it was decided to make more room for water jackets. I haven't verified it myself but I've heard that the earlier 340 blocks will take the poly heads with much less trouble.

The reason: I had a poly-powered B-body and was looking for a cheap way to increase displacement while keeping the poly engine. I'd already done the B-body 440 deal (I still have it) so that wasn't of any interest to me. At the time, cheap stroker crankshafts weren't so easily obtained but 360's could be had practically for free. I just wanted to see what it would take. I ended up selling the car after all the poly/360 technical details had been worked out but before I actually got the engine rebuilt and running. It was just sitting on a stand taking up space. Then along came the 4-speed project Dart Sport. I had planned to use a 360 in it but then noticed the 360 used for the poly project was not only drilled for a 4 speed, it had a never used bushing installed at the factory. It was all downhill from there.

I think a good dual-plane poly intake would sell some units but I have no interest in one. I've been thinking of making my own intake designed for my displacement and intended rpm range. There is a lot of potential in a new head but I think most poly owners are just old fuddy-duddies who prefer a near stock engine. I would expect new heads to be expensive to make and slow selling. I believe one reason Chryco buried the poly and all but spit on it's grave is the new SBC-knockoff wedge heads were so much cheaper to make. The poly fits fine in the '67 up cars but a little redesign work would be needed for power-steering A-bodies.

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I found it fairly easy to modify a set of Hooker 5204 headers to fit the Poly-headed 360 in my Dart Sport. On cyls 1,5,4 and 8 it wa

With your build, how come you went with Poly heads? What kind of power did you end up making? Also if I remember right, can't 318 Poly blocks take a fairly substantial overbore (.100" range)?

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Power is unknown but it did run a 13.40 at around 102. My book says a '74 Dart Sport should weigh around 3350lbs. Add a driver and subtract for the '73 rear bumper and Dart Lite hood and decklid and I figure it should weigh around 3400lbs. The problem is the small cam that was intended for the original project. You can't expect much with 222@.050" and 0.435" advertised lift (>0.400 net!). That and the fact that I'm a total newbie when it comes to running a stick at the dragstrip. The A833 OD is effectively a 3-speed in the 1/4-mile which helps me a little.
I bought an ultrasonic tester and have probed some blocks and have NOT seen a pre-1970 block that impressed me. The 319P blocks I've tested were just as bad as most '60's blocks both in terms of average cylinder thickness and variance. Nothing special there.

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Probably get for this but, it seems real easy to adapt an LS style head to the LA deck, the Ford aftermarket is already doing it (or working on it)

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