thick head gaskets

[Jeffyboy]

Hey,



My wife\'s buying me new heads for our first anniversary and the ones I want (Dart Iron Eagle S/S) have 72cc combustion chambers. The guy I bought my truck from said it\'s at 10.5:1 with 76cc heads (big ole domed pistons). I don\'t want to go too high on the compression so I can still run pump gas easily. The tech at Dart said I could use a thick head gasket to keep my compression about where it\'s at. What thickness of gasket should I be looking for? Any suggestions? Or do I even need to worry about it? If I actually am at 10.5:1 now, what compression would I be looking at with these heads and a standard head gasket?



Thanks,



Jeff

[Jeffyboy]

OK - two things . . . first, why would you sell individual head gaskets? Summit seems to do that, I guess. Second, check these out:



http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=NAL%2D12557236&N=4294925237+42 94925236+4294891421+4294908395+4294908216+42948401 40+4294889107+400129+115&autoview=sku



They\'re thicker, but it says they\'re 4.000 bore. My motor\'s bored .040 over. Will these still work? I\'m not looking to spend an absolute fortune here . . .



Thanks,



Jeff

[spacecadet]

Id go with a standard set of fel-pro head gaskets. There @ .039 -.043 compresed thick ness with 4.100 bore I think. Ultra-seals I think are the best overall. Especially if the heads your getting are aluminum.



my 2 cents though.

Space

[coppergmc]

I need some more engine specs. Most of the time engines don\'t have the compression that you think. The advertised compression from the piston manufacterer is usually a little low. What size motor? Bore/stroke, piston type/dome size? Also, what cam are you running and what are the specs? Are the heads iron or aluminum? Is the truck light and what is the intended purpose of the truck?

[Jeffyboy]

Here\'s what was in the Ebay auction:



\"Speed Pro hypereutectic .250 dome pistons running right at 10.5:1 compression\"



It\'s a 4.040 bore, standard 3.48 stroke



I\'d be going with iron heads with 72cc chambers



Cam will be a Comp Xtreme Energy 274H - full specs here:



Comp XE274 (http://www.compcams.com/Technical/Search/CamDetails.asp?PartNumber=12-246-3)



My truck weighs just under 3000 pounds and spends most if its time on the street



Thanks for the help.

[Jeffyboy]

Anyone else have an opinion?



Thanks,



Jeff

[Scotty_S-15]

A couple thoughts:

* What is the cc of the piston dome?

* Before springing the $$ for heads, I\'d want to know exactly what the dome is, and also deck height. Then do the math. This way you could \"fine tune\" the chamber size to run on pump gas.

* Depending on your deck height, and how thick a gasket you use, you may be loosing your squish area, and in theory, might be creating a situation where you\'d be less likely to get away with pump gas. As I said, \"in theory\".

* I\'d just consider getting heads with a 76cc chamber, or whatever chamber size works after you \"did the math\".

* You might consider aluminum heads, with the same compression ratio, you\'d be less likely to encounter a problem using pump gas, some say a full point in compression ratio....

[Murfys_1]

My wife\'s buying me new heads for our first anniversary



Every time I read this line I just snicker... there\'s soooo many jokes there! http://www.s10v8.com/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

[phil33875]

my heads are the victor jr 64 cc with a little over 11 to 1 compression and i run 93 octane at the track. my timing is advanced like mofo and i have never heard a ping

[Jeffyboy]

And thus the advantage of aluminum heads . . .



So, I ran some numbers through a compression calculator and it looks like I\'ll be at about 10.9:1 - a little more than I want to be at. So, it looks like I\'m going to have to find some 76cc heads, which basically means that I\'m now looking into World Products S/R Torquers, since they seem to be about the only performance head available in 76ccs. Any idea how much power they\'re capable of making with my cam and compression? Is anyone running them with success?



Oh yeah - Murfys_1 - leave my wife out of this! http://www.s10v8.com/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif Seriously, though, where are you from in the \'burbs? I live about 20 minutes South of Yorkville on Rt. 71 - a little North of Ottawa.



Thanks again for all the help, guys.

[Murfys_1]

I live in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. It\'s so far out that it wasn\'t even considered a suburb when i moved there. Most people had never heard of it. *shrug* now it\'s time to move again. I\'m not a city person and I don\'t like the busy life and tons of traffic

[phil33875]

stay away from angled plugs and raised exhaust ports. i had to get my hedman hussler headers redesigned to work for plug clearance. lots of mula...

[Knanthrup]

On 2006-06-20 23:32, Jeffyboy wrote:

And thus the advantage of aluminum heads . . .



So, I ran some numbers through a compression calculator and it looks like I\'ll be at about 10.9:1 - a little more than I want to be at. So, it looks like I\'m going to have to find some 76cc heads, which basically means that I\'m now looking into World Products S/R Torquers, since they seem to be about the only performance head available in 76ccs. Any idea how much power they\'re capable of making with my cam and compression? Is anyone running them with success?



Oh yeah - Murfys_1 - leave my wife out of this! http://www.s10v8.com/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif Seriously, though, where are you from in the \'burbs? I live about 20 minutes South of Yorkville on Rt. 71 - a little North of Ottawa.



Thanks again for all the help, guys.



I would look for something else other than the S/R Torquers... now don\'t get me wrong, they\'re O.K. heads with meat to work with, but they\'re designed to be a \"stock replacement\" head which means minimal performance gain over a good set of stock cast irons. Unless of course you have them put through the mill of being ported and whatnot. But as far as power gains go, the S/R\'s are very tame

[Jeffyboy]

The problem is that the only other 76cc \"peformance\" heads I\'ve found are old camel humps. All the other big-chamber performance heads are 72cc. I figure anything\'s got to be better than the 624s I\'m running now, too. Do you know of some others that I\'m not familiar with?



Thanks,



Jeff

[Jeffyboy]

Murfys - I know what you mean about the suburbs encroaching - we used to be out in the middle of nowhere. Now everyone\'s found out that it\'s worth it to live down here and commute. The only real benefit I\'ve seen so far is the increase in property values (unless you\'re trying to buy . . .)



Later,



Jeff

[phil33875]

i have a set of camel humps in the garage with matching numbers for my block. somebody with a 63 vette needing a motor would like to have that. brodix make a bad ass set of heads at 74cc, but they are angled plugs. dart, world class,edelbrock all make heads at 72cc. you might have to just change those pistons. you are going to have a hard time trying to find a performance head with a 76cc

[Jeffyboy]

That\'s what I figure - nothing much out there. I\'ve been doing a lot of research and it looks like the s/r torquers are good for up to about 400 horsepower on a 350. Lots of people seem to be using them on their street cars, which is basically what mine is, too, since it\'ll never see a set of slicks on this rear axle. What I was looking for was an upgrade from what I have without spending a fortune. Changing out the pistons and then still buying heads is a pretty quick way to wrap up some extra bucks in the deal. Plus I was hoping to make the heads and cam install a weekend job. Pulling the motor out will almost guarantee it turns into more than that. I appreciate all your advice, guys, but it looks like the torquers are what I\'m going to end up going with.

[phil33875]

good luck, let us know how it works. if you can find a machine shop, have them cnc the intake and exhaust runners. youll pick up some extra horsies. get a price, it might be worth it

[Jeffyboy]

Will do. They\'ve got to be a huge improvement over what I\'ve got. I\'ll also be changing the cam at the same time - right now I\'ve got waaaay too much cam for my converter and gears, so I\'m going to downsize a little bit to get a little more on the low-end. Something tells me I\'ll be a lot happier with my motor next year (I\'m getting parts together now so I can tear it apart over the winter).



Thanks for the help.



Jeff