i just bought a plymouth volare turn key race car with b1 bs heads . it's a 400 block , 500 cu in . alum rod , roller cam , m1 intake , 1050 dom carb , giant headers , 2-1/4"prim. and 4" collectors . we have snow flying here so no way to do any testing but the previous owner says the car ran 9.40's at 140 mph . it's a dana 60 w/4.56 gears , 727-8" conv , big tire car . tube chassis , a-arm , ladder bar coilover . all alum floors , lexan all around . f-body volare , that may be acid dipped even . i'm guessing a weight of 2600-2700 lbs ? body is all gutted steel but the hood is fiberglass (way too heavy street version , we make fiberglass , so that has to go !!! ) .

i will end up tearing this down and having the heads flowed eventually but just wondering how much can a b1 bs head be ported on ? how much flow is possible ?
i have built and raced many mopars over the years but have not played with any of the std port alum mopar bb heads . i have run many ported 906 and 915 heads in the past , as well as hemi stuff , and stage v conversion hemi heads .

in the past , i have built engines for others using iron wedge heads ported by ed vickroy in fontana calif. (this was pre - edelbrock days ) when i lived out there . the cost back then for fully ported 906 heads was around $1200.00 with new big valves , new guides , retainers and locks . ed's work was beautiful and i made some really happy customers with his port work . i still have the flow numbers (never ever throw away tech info on any engine parts ) from several heads he did . we never ran gigantic cams , most guys were under .650 lift .

one set of 906 heads 2.14 int. x 1.81 ex. ( not the highest flowing ones he did but they performed well ) were flowing right at 300 cfm at .650 lift . i had that pair on a all steel 63 plymouth sport fury . it was heavy , it still had the stock iron single master cyl, drum brakes , stock radiator , iron water pump even . the car had 2 batteries and an alt. , 10 point .134" cage , 2 full sized batteries . it also had a dana 60 with 4.56 gears and a full spool , and a 300 lb driver ! it did have 2 plastic buckets with no other seats . i'd guess it was 3700 lbs with driver ? not sure ?
we ran those 906 heads on that car with a 440 with the stock crank , .030 with trw 2295 piston , ly rods , and a used .500 lift (after lash ) lunati flat tappet solid cheater cam from a friend's A/SA max wedge nhra stock eliminator car . , 1.5 isky cast iron rockers , a box stock team g 4500 top intake , box stock (jetting only ) #7320 1150 dom carb . 09j coverter ( you could hold it on the line with the brakes on hard , it would stall at 4800 rpm ), plain old 727 trans with man valve body , , 11.5 x 29.5 W tires (13.5" tread ) it had 2" hooker slip fit headers , with some 3-1/2" diam 18" extensions , no mufflers . i only shifted that car 6200 rpm , and it went 6900 or so in the lights . it went 10.68 at 127 mph and a 1.45 60 ft . one of the items that shocked people was the orange mopar electronic ign box . the car had been running on the street previously and ran great , mid 12's with low comp. small cam , and i felt why change it all at once , we were planning to put an msd ign in it but started with the existing ign. this was all done in so calif. at sea level at terminal island in long beach , in 1995 or '96 . that track was as sticky as a national event prepped track , street racers poured vht on it every run , and the track crew used a ton of the vht every weekend .

according to the flow #'s , the flow bench formula said those heads should be capable of 615 horsepower at best .

for the fun part ??? what would that same car have run with properly done b1 bs heads ? i know the name cab burge , from other friends out west like darrell parks and rich harrell mentioning him running nhra class cars . cab would know about the cheater cam and how much power they make . sad that they dont live as long as the std pointed cams but i loved the power it made .
to this day some of the other big block mopar guys out west wont belive that '63 didn't have a a stroker crank and giant roller cam or nitrous hidden . most could not get out of the 11's with bn-bodies , their iron heads .
the owner of that '63 ply lost his job and sold it , i had health problems come up and soon after we moved back to michigan and my playing with mopars was limited .
i plan to do some testing with this big tired volare and see how well i can get it to run with the b1bs heads . i know modern cyl heads is here in mi. and muscle motors . who would some of you recommend for head work (ed vickroy recently has had some heart issues so i doubt he's able at the time to take on any work ) . i have not had the engine apart yet so they may already be ported on ?

sorry for the long long post but i am excited to get to finally have some fun testing and tuning again .

Modern would be an excellent choice to have head porting done.

From what I've seen, the biggest issue with the b1bs heads(if you're trying for max air flow) is they can have some core shift that affects how thick the heads are at the pushrod pinch area.
When they're shifted like that, you'll have two where the wall is really thick in that area, and two that are really thin(before porting)....... So, without putting holes in them, you end up limited in how big the pinch can go, which does put a limit on the flow.

The chambers are pretty tight to the valves, as cast, so the ootb low lift flow numbers are kinda weak.

This may not be a factor at all with your new ride, but using off the shelf headers in stock chassis door cars, spark plug access is usually not fun.

A lot of heads have come on the market since those heads arrived on the scene, and many offer better bang for the buck(IMO) at this point in time.
Doesn't mean those arent any good, just that there are "better" options now, if starting from scratch.

thanks , this is the kind of info that helps . so maybe they add tubes in them if the go through them ?


i wonder how many members are running the bs heads ? and if they have flow numbers ? if i were building this car originally , i would not have put the bs heads , but probably the original b1's since it's never gonna see less than 4500 rpms .

which are better as for max power per dollar that are better than the bs heads ? ?

1. stage 6 mopar max wedge port

2. eddy victor max wedge ?

3. trick flow max wedge ?

4. indys ?

My Friends Charger has been running 8.60's with them for years. Tom Hemphill ported them for him

nice to hear they can make good power . the charger is pretty light ? 2500 lbs or less ? it looks like about 8 inches or so was cut from the length of it , what are my eyes seeing there ? the rearend looks forward compared to the roof , they did a nice job on it

Not sure what all has been done to that car over the 40 plus years that I have known him. Lots of updates.

is he running the original b1 heads with the huge ports and the big tall single 4 bbl intake , or the smaller b1bs heads that fit the normal intake manifolds etc .

There is no doubt that with the right port work, sitting on the good short block that the b1bs can make good power.

One combo that used them that I thought was pretty impressive was the one that Chuck as Best Machine had in his black 65 Coronet.
As I remember it...... 511 cubes, Indy x-ram manifold, small tire car.....I'm thinking it had to weigh at least 3500lbs....... Dipped into the 8's at I think 150-ish.

One of the sets I did, retaining the std port opening(and still used the stock style valley pan), went on a 528 with the MP TR with 2x750's. 14:1, .690 lift roller....... In a 3750lb 68 Charger it went 9.70's at 139-140....... Shifting at 6k....... Through the lights at 7k.

I think there are a few flow numbers on the Stan Weiss site.

Ultimate power potential aside....... There are certainly heads out there now that are "easier" to get the big(-ish) flow numbers from.

I guess you are talking to me. Tim runs the B1-BS heads with an old modified Weiand tunnel-ram with I think two 850 Holley carbs. He ran high 8's for years with this combo but would break a stock block about every 1-2 years no matter what band-aids they did to them. He bought an Indy block about 7-8 years ago and all is well. We both race the heck out of our stuff and they rarely miss a weekend from April 1st to the first weekend in November.

Doesn't Koffels Place have a CnC program for the B1BS head?

It is amusing that the new owner has spent BIG $$$ on the engine in that car including more cubic inches and still can't replicate Chuck's results. Chuck is a sharp cookie for sure!

I think it was "EPD racing heads"(or something like that) that had a CNC program for the b1bs heads.
Afaik, Koffels doesn't have a CNC head porting center(unless they've acquired one in recent years).

Of the stuff Ive had the opportunity to grind on...... If we're talking about retaining the true std sized port opening..... I'd say the Victor head is probably the easiest to get 350cfm out of.
The next would be the std port EZ if you fill in behind the lip in the roof...... Then probably the SR.
If starting with a std port head, but opening it up to MW size, then the EZ is the biggest bang for the buck(most gain/least work).

That's just my experiences with these various heads....... As they say.......YMMV.

Edit: Did a little search...... Looks like Brodix offers the B1BS CNC ported now, done by "STS CNC, INC".
From the Brodix site:

Ootb, 230cc, 65cc chamber;
Lift--------in/ex
.200---145/123
.300---204/155
.400---248/184
.500---284/206
.600---294/222
.700---295/233

CNC ported, 243cc, 80cc chamber;
Lift--------in/ex
.200---145/126
.300---214/171
.400---267/211
.500---305/238
.600---337/255
.700---348/279

Oh....... And the CNC ported ones are in stock at Jegs...... $1761.56...... Each.......bare

$2455.03 each, assembled with 1.55 roller springs and Ti retainers.

My Fast68 ported heads flow 328 at 600 w standard ports.

Ive read....that mw bs heads allegedly will go 350 at .600 wouldnt hold my breath on that.

Not bad castings, but def better on the market now..and much cheaper.

Just a quick question about the Volare, did you get that from a guy here in NY by any chance?

no , it was a guy in rochester hills , michigan . he had it posted on racingjunk .

so according to those cnc numbers , a little over 700 hp capable with their work . since i own these heads , cost is smarter to use them . not sure how much is done to these yet . no proof on paper from the seller tech wise . he didn't have time slips , or flow numbers . he claims he ran the car at lapeer raceway and it ran 9.40's at 140 mph . i know it should be able to do that if what he was told is in the engine . 500 inch 400 , with alum rods , roller cam unknown lift (i'm gonna check it at the retainer) , 13.5 to 1 comp. has huge header tubes , i'm guessing 2-1/4" but may even be 2-3/8" . has the nice dual ext line oil pump and dragster pan , ati damper , but i know for the weight and big tire , a wedge should go 9's with no problem if it is done right .

Did he possible buy it from NY? A good friend of mine raced one that looks just like yours many years ago. Had a W5 396 in it with a tunnel ram back when I knew it. Ran 9.90-10.0. Sure looks a lot like his old car.

i'm not sure where all this car has been , trying to find out more , the cage cert sticker has a ca on it , any calif guys know if this means it was certified in calif ?

It was ET performance....pretty sure they sold the program though. Just don't know to who.... for some reason Scott Brown comes to mind.