I was following the recent thread regarding a 440 build using iron heads.

I believe this question is slightly off topic from the original poster's question in that thread so thought best to ask in a new thread. I have a set of the old Stage IV iron heads that were sold through Direct Connection back in the early 1980's. Are there any advantages to starting with these heads versus any of the production castings? I would appreciate any thoughts from anyone who has worked with or used these Direct Connection iron heads.

Thank you.

The biggest advantage imo would be that you’re not starting out with a core that’s already been heat cycled 100,000 miles worth.

The down sides are, they’re supposed to be used with intake rockers that have more offset than std heads use, and they don’t have particularly good lower lift flow on the intake side, since there is no height on the short turn.

I found the exhaust port to be tough to get good numbers out of for the amount of work involved.

Imo, I didn’t like them as well as stock heads, but on a rather high effort type build where you really needed some extra volume....... they are a little bigger than a std head....... so that might pay off.

The “If it were me” answer is........ find someone who wants them...... and take whatever you get for them and apply it to new aluminum heads.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. That is exactly the information I was looking for. I appreciate your help with this.

They have a lot of meat for porting.I have a set with 2.14 intakes and 1.83 exhaust ported and polished. Good enough on a 440 to get a B Body into the high tens. And you can get away with standard rockers if you grind the pushrod side of the port.

A friend of mine ran a set of them on his S/G car, that was a long time ago in the mid 1980s, you'll be a lot better off buying a new set of modern aluminum heads now if you want more power and performance than the stock heads had

there's pro's and con's to either alum or iron. I've done both and I think choices depend on what your expectations are.

Direction Connection Stage IV heads... nostalgia parts!

I saw my first set (and not many after) at a big car show in Portland, OR, in 1978 or 1979, when Hershberger Motors, a Direct Connection dealer in Woodburn, OR, had a set on display. I didn't know sh!t 'bout heads then (and I only know about a quarter of a sh!t today), but I WANTED a set... cuz they were new and I ASSumed they would be great on my '69 383 4-speed Super Bee.

The small-block W-2s had come out and everyone was hoping for a cool new head for the big blocks... and this is what DC came up with. Hmmm... nostalgia parts!

Hershberger Motors is a name I haven't heard in a while. They were THE place to go for Direct Connection parts for decades. I know Kenny, who was their parts manager for years and Chris was their performance parts guy. Too bad that when old Ward Hershberger retired, his son Tim wasn't able to carry on the family tradition.

Here’s a “YMMV” story......

One of my customers had a very low use set that had zero porting, and a fresh VJ done at Barton’s for 1.81/2.14 valves, along with 16 newly installed bronze guides.

They wanted to put them on a FAST stroker build.
I ported them, they put the motor together and ran it.

The car ran pretty good, but after a handful of trips to the track they started getting nervous about not using the correct heads, so they had me do some 906’s to replace them.
They weren’t happy with the idea of losing power with the head swap, but iiwii.

They brought the motor here and we did the head swap on the dyno.
Both sets of heads had the same valves and springs...... both flowed 280cfm.
My recollection is the 906’s made about 30hp [i]more[i/] than the stage iv’s on that particular motor, and the car ran a bit quicker with them too.

Went 10.10/137 at Palmdale (LACR) with a 470/stage 4 in a Duster in the mid 90's. That would translate to 9.60-9.70/140 at sea level on a level track. You need someone that knows how to port the heads.

Ok, I'll bite. Who might that be?

See post #13 in this tread. This old fart could port them in 1982.

Portin DC Stage IV iron heads.

The guy is retired. Haven't talked to him in years.

I haven’t seen a set in 15 years........ but how I remember them is...... they’re a little bigger than stock heads, but I didn’t feel as though the shape of the port was anything special.
The floor was basically flat, with almost no height at the short turn.

They completely reshaped the intake port for the stage V.