W2 heads - closed chamber, looking for advice pls...

Someone locally is selling a set of these W2 heads.

They are a closed chamber pieces, un-matched, meaning, 1 is used and 1 is brand new. However, both look to have been prepped in the same way and they look to be machined for 2.08" intakes and have some sort of machining done to the shaft mounting blocks and potentially re-located shaft bolt mounts.

Please take a look at these attached photos and give me your opinions on whether it makes any sense to pursue the purchase of these? The gentlement selling them is asking $350 CAD, so about $250 USD for both.

BTW, I have a set of brand new Econo Long valve open chamber heads already and was going to use them in a stroker 408 build this upcoming winter...since these heads are a closed chamber I am thinking of the opportunity to max the quench area build without getting into any specialty piston requirements (quench pad I suppose?).

Thanks!

I'd say that is a very fair price,a deal even.

Sounds like a deal to me.

Great deal on the heads. But the expense will come from the rocker gear and getting the geometry correct with the rocker shaft blocks.

Trying to figure out what the "circles" are from in the machined pads around the bolt holes. They do look like inserts with possibly "corrected" bolt hole locations?.

Are they ported? The exhaust ports look big on the painted head.

Did they move the rocker mounting holes or is it a repair.

If they moved the holes, you need to know why. You can't just move the shaft in and/or out on the head with out consequences.

If they are repairs, how did they screw up 10 holes.

Buyer beware. Do your research.

The price is cheap enough, you just have to wonder why.

I don't care for the way the guides are cut down so far.
Looks like it might cause a little hassle to get the spring cup/seal situation sorted out(I'd probably just install new flanger guides myself).

Since one of them is used, you know at least that one was running.....so maybe you'd be able to get a look at what they were running for valves/rockers/stands, then maybe you'd have a better idea of what you're getting into.

Isn't the combustion chamber something like 47cc? It's going to take a huge hole in the top of the piston unless you are looking for 14:1 compression.

Otherwise it looks like a decent deal to me.

R

Exactly my thinking and thus a bit of the worry part.

The inserts look like they were put in place to change the shaft/rocker arm to valve geometry. Not sure if this was meant as a "fix" for something, or that the valve-train required these changes though.

The gentlemen selling them obtained them through a purchase of a bunch of another racer's inventory...he is a Chevy guy and does not know anything about the history of the parts, although he is aware of the value of the W2 heads.

The blue head ports did seem a tad bigger. The seller said he thought they were somewhat ported, but again, no details.

In hindsight, I should have snapped some shots of the chambers itself as well.

As far as I've understood, the closed chamber W2's usually don't have holes for rocker shaft oiling. These seem to have them. I have similar in my 340, they were very lighly ported, wanted to keep the port small, Mahle flat top pistons takes the CR a little over 12:1 and it made 587 hp at 7000.

In an older mp catalog they list a few different chamber volumes available for 59* w2 heads, the smallest being 55cc.
I assume those would be closed chamber.

Depending on how much power you're looking to build, there could be more cost effective heads to reach your goals, after you factor in the w2 specific rocker gear and intake manifold....... the latter also not having a big variety of choices available new.

Something else has been bothering me so I've been looking up W-2 heads on the internet. The ones I've found don't have their stands milled anywhere near as much as what's shown in the pics. That may indicate that it may not accept the standard Mopar or Harland Sharp rocker shaft blocks for milled stands. It may be custom or some other rocker company set-up.

Are the heads confirmed OEM closed chamber or could they have been milled to closed chamber?

Too many unknowns for me.

The only thing nice about milling more than needed is you can always shim up. Like most do on B1 heads with T&D rockers. Up is easy.

They've been milled for Jesel Sportman Rockers. I got a set for my friend for his W5 heads, he had to mill quite a bit down. The relocated bolt holes I would question, they may have decided to run a valve longer than 5.300" and needed to move the rockers back. If you don't go with them post a link, they might be of use to someone else

Hey, sorry about the delay guys.

I reached out to the seller letting him know I would not be interested in picking these up...but...I wanted to share the link to his ad with the group here, and specificaly I wanted to put this up in the FOR SALE section of Moparts...I waited a while...but got no response. I went back looking for the ad today and was just going to post in this thread only...but no-go..add is gone and the seller never responded to my emails.