smallblock head choices for a warmed over street dart

My son just bought a 73 dart with a 318/904 combo and is mulling over the idea of turning up the power by building a nice pump gas 360/408 stroker deal, head selection is one of the first things on the list as everything below them is kind of dictated as to what head, chamber volume, chamber design, port size/volume,etc you have to work with,, with the exception of Edelbrocks, (which I have no beef with) what aftermarket heads are available to give good service life and make reasonable power for a car that will be 95% street and once in a great while a trip to the track.

I'd probably use an Edelbrock aluminum Magnum head on an engine like that. The Magnum head gives you a bunch of nice upgrades over the standard LA design.

You might as well just put a big W head motor in it now, cause you know how its gonna end up.

9.73@135 mph with more left on a worn out 408 so you know what head I would recommend (edelbrocks). He can do a slight clean-up on them now and port them went he needs more power. When and if he wants something better down the road he still has a very sell-able head.

If you are not going crazy with anything, mostly street use, I would buy a pair of indy cast iron LA heads for around $499. Most are 915 castings with 2.02 intakes - new valves, guides, springs, seals, and valve job. Take them apart, do some pocket port work on them and port matching. If you are running a mild hydraulic cam, you can use most of your existing valve train over again ( and intake ). For the $, best bang for the buck out there IMO for a street small block. As mentioned, aluminum Eddy magnums would be a nice step up in performance from my suggestion, but more $. That's what's sitting in this project.

sorry but a w-headed anything will go in mine first.LOL

that sounds interesting.

Outstanding advice.

Hard to beat the performance capability and casting quality of Eddies.

W2 heads. I love em on simple cool street builds

Maybe the indy RHS X head that Brian at IMM sells. His CNC ported ones might even be better
http://www.immengines.com/indyimmironheads.html

Andy F......Can ya let us know what those upgrades are??? What about the Indybrock heads??

I thought about those also but he definately wants an aluminum head, I had even thought about putting my lg port commando's on his but the new victors seem to be a unlikely choice for me since Edelbrock seems to not want to sell them.

Brett has the pro comps flowing well.

Your only going to go so fast with an Eddie or a pro comp, no matter which you use.
No way I would go with the inferior casting quality of a pro comp for something that going to be driven on the street a lot.
Eddie is a known good, long term reliable head, same is far from having been proven with the procomp.

I've got a set of new ported Brodix B1-BA's with new Jesel shafts that I'll make you a killer deal on. Don't know why they had so many variants in this head as far as flow, but this set is 314 cfm @ .600 with awesome low lift numbers. Koffel's did the port , flow, and valve work. They designed them and seem to know how to make them work.

Best bank for the buck? Two letters: EQ

Up to 450 HP: As cast valve sizes, bolt em on and go.

Up to 580-ish HP: With 2.02 intakes and very slight porting.

While you have to run magnum rockers, it helps that you can get OE replacements for less than $100. Bonus: 1.6 ratio.

You can even get them drilled for an LA intake!

You're welcome : )

We should ask, how fast your boy hoping to go?

I dig this, I'm a young dude too, went sorta fast at 326" with W2 heads on a budget with a bottle

As sad is it is to say Don the pro comp that I did back to back with E - heads I was doing at same time pro comp was nicer head.......

I don't know but he told me last night he scored a dana for it.

now you just made me slobber all over my keyboard.lol

EQ Heads, Roller cam, Nice Intake, He'll be Happy. I'll let you know going to be ordering a set soon. 408 build. A lot of good write up's.

I was going to ad that the header selection might be a factor.....

I've been happy with my EQ heads.
I'd be happier if they were Aluminum and I could shed that extra 50 lbs. on the nose, but they will have to do!

anyone have a link for the EQ heads, we are kind of down to those and the Eddy magnums, this is not supposed to be a high hp exotic type of build just want a good parts selection for a good running street build.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performance+Products/555/514210/10002/-1

Thats LA intake pattern, also available assembled. Nice price with the NHRA discount.

Id say decent potential based on:
http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/1304phr-skmfx-budget-small-block/

Guess I misread the OP. With the addition of the above to the list, I guess just about all the SB heads have been covered. Would be interesting to include the $ cost between - say 265 cfm ( my "bottom feeder" suggestion ) and 314 cfm ( above).