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SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING?

Posted By: Mopar Mitch

SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 05:05 PM

Are there any small block aluminum heads on the market that appear relatively stock, for example, from the outside, having the front/rear, with the core plugs? Without those plugs, its a dead giveaway that the heads are aluminum.

I'm aware that the BB heads have some stock appearing aluminum heads (from the 440-Source company?).

T/Anks ahead!

Posted By: SpareParts

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 05:40 PM

Nothing comes to mind
Posted By: jcc

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 07:04 PM

"stock appearing"?
Posted By: HotRodDave

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 07:08 PM

Nope! And every one will jump down your throat here for asking about one
Posted By: B1MAXX

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 07:09 PM

Battens come to mind.
Posted By: Guitar Jones

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 07:20 PM

Just get some iron W2's if you want performance and the stock appearing look.
Posted By: HotRodDave

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 07:24 PM

Yeah! Good luck finding some of those
Posted By: ademon

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/14/14 11:56 PM

Mitch the only performance head besides some of the W2, that look somewhat stock to me is the iron head RHS X head. You could probably fill in the RHS on the head with JB weld, it's a nice close chamber head but not aluminum. Mike
Posted By: J_BODY

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 12:10 AM

Define stock appearing.....
Posted By: SpareParts

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 01:45 AM

Quote:

Just get some iron W2's if you want performance and the stock appearing look.




+1
Especially if you get an older casting that doesn't say W2 on it
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 06:14 PM


The answer to your question is "There isn't one"

There are a couple candidates that get close, neither has been manufactured for many years, and both are fairly rare to find.

Batten Heads: While not an exact match to factory 915 castings, these looked the most like stock castings, water jacket plugs in the ends, rough cast ends, etc. they would fool most anyone if painted orange. These were made back in the 1980's or there about, no longer made. They had some pretty well known casting issues, porosity, leaks, etc. Some were good, some were junk, total crap shoot. Most I've seen were already ported by someone, again, total crap shoot, it either improved them or turned them into junk.

Diamond W2 heads: These have rough cast ends which resemble cast iron when painted but lack the core plug on the ends that stock heads have, again, you'll fool a lot of people with these but sharper eyed Mopar guys will spot the lack of the plugs. These were made my Diamond Racing products back in the 1980's (Diamond is still in business making pistons but not heads). These were in the Direct Connection catalog for sale to racers back then, VERY expensive for the day, and good castings, the flowed BIG numbers if given even a mild port job. There were some reports of some porosity issues but I've had a few sets of these and all of them so far have been beautiful. Same story as Battens, hard to find, often ruined by previous porting efforts, etc.

The typical racer mentality seems to be "Who cares what it looks like if it works" but I feel there is a good potential market for a stock looking aluminum head, there are a good number of guys that I know whom would like to keep their car looking stock but would like to improve the performance.


*Batten heads shown on this engine

Attached picture 8331977-BattenHeads.JPG
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 06:15 PM

Diamond Heads

Attached picture 8331978-DiamondW2End2.jpg
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 06:15 PM

Diamonds 2

Attached picture 8331979-DiamondW2End.jpg
Posted By: Streetwize

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 09:10 PM

Cast Iron W2 for comparison

Note: not an 'end shot' but best one I have, looks pretty OEM in the most aluminum heads are slab sided like a bar of soap and easy to spot.

Attached picture 8332113-image.jpg
Posted By: JohnRR

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 10:25 PM

Quote:

Define stock appearing.....




And whom are you trying to FOOL ???
Posted By: pittsburghracer

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/15/14 11:31 PM

With some splash-zone epoxy and paint anything can look stock.
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/16/14 04:09 AM

W2 iron head end view

Attached picture 8332485-w2iron.jpg
Posted By: JohnRR

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/17/14 08:25 AM

Quote:

With some splash-zone epoxy and paint anything can look stock.




Until you hit a certian ET and they start looking under the valve covers for casting numbers and looking of ALum part that should be iron.
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/17/14 03:47 PM

Right, you won't likely be fooling anyone in FAST or Pure Stock racing, but if you just want a stealthy street car, the above options are all there is.

If someone were to make some SB aluminum heads along the lines of the 440Source Stealth heads that looked something like Battens I'd buy a couple sets for sure.
Posted By: Mopar Mitch

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/17/14 09:25 PM

Thanks to all for their feedback, tips, suggestions, and 2-cents. etc.
Posted By: Streetwize

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/17/14 10:05 PM

440 W2 small block going in this:

Heck, it's just a little 273!

Attached picture 8334162-8105162-wagon2.jpg
Posted By: ScottSmith_Harms

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/18/14 04:37 AM

This one has a 422 inch 340 (4.00 crank) iron W2 heads with a full port job, 9.5:1 Diamonds, hyd. roller cam, TTI headers, Holley 950hp, pretty vanilla pump gas stroker build backed by a 4 speed and 3.91's. Made 530hp/519tq on the dyno. On street tires it's more than enough. 11.40's on Mickey Thompson ET Streets at Mission Raceway first time out with no tuning.

Attached picture 8334591-DemonBurn.jpg
Posted By: Tobbe

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/23/14 09:27 AM

its strange that anyone not start making a aluminum "replacement" 5.2-5.9 head ...
Posted By: thehemikid

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/23/14 11:55 AM

Probably like hens teeth, but what about the old Arrington heads. Seems like the exhaust side looked fairly stock, but I can't remember what the ends looked like.

Sold a set several yrs ago that were used in the green duster in KOS of the late 90's.

Was a Koffle (sp) built iirc.
Posted By: 72Swinger

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/23/14 01:07 PM

Quote:

This one has a 422 inch 340 (4.00 crank) iron W2 heads with a full port job, 9.5:1 Diamonds, hyd. roller cam, TTI headers, Holley 950hp, pretty vanilla pump gas stroker build backed by a 4 speed and 3.91's. Made 530hp/519tq on the dyno. On street tires it's more than enough. 11.40's on Mickey Thompson ET Streets at Mission Raceway first time out with no tuning.


That one looks like its about to paint that chain link fence Citronella lol!
Posted By: 72Swinger

Re: SMALL BLOCK ALUMINUM HEADS - STOCK APPEARING? - 11/23/14 01:11 PM

You could always pop some soft plugs in these lol!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/zackweiler/newpix001.jpg
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