Big Block Heads

Anyone know the chamber volume on stock 516 heads from ‘66 4bbl 383? Came out of a Chrysler 300. I want to put the Edelbrock E-Street heads on but can’t decide whether to go with the 75cc or the 84cc chambers? Don’t want to get compression too high as this is a daily driver!

It would be best to find out how far down the bore the piston is at TDC & then decide what head to use. Chances are you will want the smaller chamber

I know that it will sound like a cop out but the only way to know is to check for yourself.
I have been told for years that the 906-346-452 open chamber heads are all in the 84-88 cc range. I checked several about 2 months ago and found that 4 of them were right at 90 ccs. One of the 452s came in at 88 ccs.
I'm building a 383 for a '70 Charger. The 383 can be hard to build compression due to the shorter stroke so with those engines, small details are quite important.
YouTube has a lot of helpful videos on how to CC a chamber.

I've had two pair of those heads(all eight chambers on both sets) that I CC to use years ago, they where all above 80.0 , some as high as 84.0 CC
if your trying to use that 1966 short block I would check the deck heights as already suggested and go from there.
I'm thinking the smaller close chamber heads would be my choice if those pistons are at least -.020 or more in the cylinders

You’ll be WAY SAFE with the small chambers IN FACT if I were you I’d shave the heads 20 or 30 .....

REMEMBER the aluminum head “effect” ..

There's no reason at all to throw pistonquench out the window and buy 84cc Edelbrock 'smog' heads.

I cc'ed a 516 head once that had hardened exhaust seats and 1.74 valves installed. I seem to recall it was 78.5 cc (NHRA Blueprint spec from the Direct Connection book was much smaller, something like 73 or 73.5 cc).

You need to measure the piston deck height and the head gasket thickness. That will tell you what head cc you need for a given compression ratio... what do you have now?

516 heads are approx. 84cc in factory form. 915 heads are approx. 79 ccs in factory form. you can still build a good quench motor with them.

Me thinks those are Mopar furnished specs, not actual as produce sizes, I believe the 516 has smaller chambers than the one year only 915 heads had

Questions about 516 chamber volumes always seem to generate numerous varying responses.

I have cc’d a few pair of unmolested heads through the years.
They were all close to 84cc.
Were they all 84cc from the factory? I have no idea...... but the ones I checked were.



The 84 and 75 cc Ede heads are both closed chamber...... same quench using either.

Quench will be determined by piston depth in-the-hole and gasket thickness.

Hey folks,

thanks for the replies! Guess I'll grab the smaller chamber heads to start with; I get measuring piston depth but I REALLY hate tearing apart an engine before I have the new parts ready on hand. I'll keep you all updated on how it goes. BTW, can stock valvetrain components be used with those heads?