Stock Hemi head flow...I had no idea how good

Recently I was able to buy some Hemi parts from a friend of a friend. The guy is a early B body/Max Wedge fan that along the way had picked up some Hemi parts with the intent of building a 64 Hemi Plymouth clone.

So Joe had some later 66 and up stuff too. Joe tells me his buddy had a machine shop and his buddy retired. In the shop there he had some 1966 Hemi cylinder heads that a customer dropped off 30 years ago and never came back for. Joe bought them from his buddy. Joe realized he wasn't going to be building any Hemis so I got a call.

One of the heads has had guide liners and a valve job, the other is a virgin original head. As in Chrysler valve and valve job never monkied with AND in good condition. I passed these heads off to Dwayne Porter in the spring to be freshened up. The other day he had them on the flow bench. At .470 valve lift they flow 280 cfm with the stock valve job and valve. That is as good as my best ported wedge head at .600 lift. At .600 lift the Hemi heads flow 299 cfm. The low lifts crush the wedge heads too.

You would always hear rumors about some guy back in the day that would throw some 4.88s,headers,rat roaster,3/4 race cam and some big slicks and go out and run in the tens with a otherwise stock Hemi. With heads that flow like that I believe it! Some bad ass stuff for 1960s technology.

I don't have the heart to mess with them. I'm not going to deck'em or port them for the sake of it. I think I'd have a hard time coming up with a nicer set at any cost. Dwayne told me about when the Mopar Performance heads came out all the stocker guys were upset that they weren't as good as the originals. At the time he thought it was BS. Now we have the hard facts as he has had some MP heads across the bench. In some lifts they are 20 cfm down from the original castings!

I realize to most of you guys out in the internet land these numbers are just numbers,keep in mind that I have had multiple sets of cylinder heads done and flowed by Dwayne. So to me I can compare the numbers of my other heads to these.

I thought it was intresting is all.

Thanks, for sharing Tommy......That's cool info.......

I have run iron heads that looked nearly stock and flowed more than my current Indy 426-1 heads....It takes a bit to beat those old numbers with factory heads from that era, but now a days, a small block phord head will just about flow what the newer hemi heads will. Just scary.

Currently, mine flow right about 395cfm and it comes on real quick...just not exactly where I wanted to be, a little disapointing, but I am not paying huge $$$ to have someone else work on them for now.

back in the day a simple 5 angle valve job done as per direct connection info would keep you competitve in any class. very little if any other work was allowed in stock or super stock back then.

I think thats how the old saying started, "If a hemi gets in front of you the race is over.." or something to that effect. They just keep pulling. The new 3rd gen hemis flow great out of the box too.

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You would always hear rumors about some guy back in the day that would throw some 4.88s,headers,rat roaster,3/4 race cam and some big slicks and go out and run in the tens with a otherwise stock Hemi. With heads that flow like that I believe it! Some bad ass stuff for 1960s technology.

I

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That was exactly how my 71 Challenger was set up. Stock stroke. 4.88's. Unported heads. Racer Brown cam, Tank heavy slipper skirt pistons. Synchronized tranny with super shifter setup. Mildly modded RR intake and Comp series carbs. Hookers, slicks, etc. Untouched body.

Ran best 10.40's

MB