286 Max Wedge heads...to use or not?

I have a Max Wedge clone, that I'm working on. Its 493 ci, and I am on a tight budget. I have a bare set of 286 casting Max Wedge heads and I've heard good and bad things about them. Should I use them or sell them ? Its just a grocery getter but I would like it to run pretty decent. Thanks for any input.

It depends on the conditions those heads are in and how much power you want out of them. Look closley at the seats to see if the valves will be sunk or not and if thier sunk how bad Also make sure there are absolutely no cracks in them before deciding to use them or not If you really want the most power you can get out of a stroker buy a new set of ported aluminum M.W. castings like the Indy SR, EZ wth teh big ports or the ported 440-1 would be the better choice IMO How much HP can your car hook up now

Its not really about my car hooking up. Its just a street car to ride around in with the wife and kids. Its a 64 Belvedere four door. I'd like to make decent power. The heads have 11/32 valves and have had seats put in the ex. They are milled to 73cc. I also have a stock set of 915 heads but they are bone stock and need everything.

I have been racing the max wedges since 1982 and there is nothing wrong with them. Just like any heads, make sure of no cracks , seats are good and valve guides are in good shape too.

So it's a stroker, the heads are halfway done.
I'd say use'em except for one thing; milled to 73cc.
Iron heads, max compression of 9.5:1, calculate the amount needed above the piston:

493 / 8 = 61.6 cubic inches
Convert to CC 61.6 X 1000 / 61 = 1010cc

R = 9.5, R-1 = 8.5

Gasket = 12cc

CC / (R-1) = cc above the piston at compression ratio R

1010 / 8.5 = 118.8 cc

118.8 - 73 - 12 = 33.8

You need 33.8cc more in the combustion chamber.

R.

Responding to later post:
If 10:1 is fine, then 112.2 above the piston, minus 72 and 12 = 28.2cc needed

You may want to use a D-shaped dish to let the squish work, 10.0:1 is pretty high for a bigblock on pump gas.

I can run a dished piston and be fine. 10 to 1 is fine I think

We have a set of max heads too went from 915s to the maxs with no other changes, was running 1140s all day with the 915s when we put the maxs on it, we went 10.80s all day ! Oh I did put a dommy on it also ! No port work just valve job and indy intake ! I love them ! Still got them on that old 440 ! Just going to use it as my back up motor !

Were gonna magnaflux them this evening and we'll see.

My old 440 with 906 heads I ran at 10.1 comp. I did use the quench pad pistons and I had no pinging with 38 total timing that came in fast. I did not use a vacum advance as the dist did not have one. It ran 11.49 @ 116 best in my 3700 lb 63. Ron

Look for horizontal cracks on the outside of the heads. They all crack under the two center exhaust ports, above the head bolts.

Quote:

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Look for horizontal cracks on the outside of the heads. They all crack under the two center exhaust ports, above the head bolts.

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I've never seen a OEM M.W. head crack under the exhaust ports like the 906 heads do Never the less have them magnafluxed and check for cracks