Vintage CRANE SBC heads

[al_inbancroft]

Hi Everyone,
Does anyone have any pics or info on theese? A freind of mine used to runs theese onhis roller 302 D/gas 5 chevy back in the day.

Were they made by Crane?, or someone else for Crane? Any info would be apreciated.
Regards.
Al

[RacerRick]

I have some old ad's for Crane Fireball heads. They were ported 292 'turbo' heads according to the ads.

[Bruce Lancaster]

I think there were several generations...they ported whatever head was the current hot choice from Chevy at the time

[ProEnfo]

Originally Posted by al_inbancroft

Hi Everyone,
Does anyone have any pics or info on theese? A freind of mine used to runs theese onhis roller 302 D/gas 5 chevy back in the day.

Were they made by Crane?, or someone else for Crane? Any info would be apreciated.
Regards.
Al

Info from Jim Hill (longtime Crane employee):


"The "292" heads were also referred to as "Turbo Heads" by many. They were of the angled spark plug design, and used the then-new, "peanut plugs", which were considerably smaller than the old style plugs. These heads came from GM with 2.02" intakes and 1.60" exhausts. I'm stretching my memory here, but I seem to remember they were also equipped with screw-in studs (3/8" diameter) and pushrod guideplates, and had 72cc combustion chambers.

The Turbo heads were a considerable upgrade from the 461 or 461X head castings and out of the box, untouched, made better power than modestly ported 461 castings.

Crane Cams sold these with a mild chamber rework, intakes and exhausts opened up to gasket size, 3-angle valve job and a valve spring and retainer upgrade to Crane stuff for roller or flat-tappet cam. They were marketed as "FireBall Heads", and Crane literally sold thousands of sets of these because they were reasonably priced and made really good power when matched with the correct cam, valve train and intake system.

They could also be ordered with deck surface milling, to reduce chamber size and increase static compression ratio, another guaranteed power-adder, via the head surfacing mill.

GM did their homework on these castings by increasing the quality as well as the amount of molten cast iron alloy poured to create these. The added material made the heads stronger and more resistant to cracking, a problem that plagues late model, cast iron small-block Chevy heads, especially those of the late 70's and 80's emissions equipped engines."


-Jim Hill

[Bruce Lancaster]

They were neat heads...I found a set in the junkyard once, very noticeable because of the screw in studs, better than stock rim for valve cover, slanted plugs...I think also no heat crossover? The junkyard guys were always interested in what I picke out, and demanded a short lecture on why I had picked out THAT set. Never looked them over closely. They had been worked on considerably...would they be marked if they were Crane ones??

[jchav62]

Very interesting stuff. What years were the "292" heads produced by GM?

[blownonfuel]

Early to late 70s? I think they were fased out in the 80s by the cast iron Bowtie head which you can still buy. If my memory is correct the turbo castings had a problem with cracking.

[hotrawd]

I ran a pair of Crane heads on my smallblock gasser in the early '70's. They were 461 castings. The ports were opened up quite a bit,they had screw-in studs, and were cut for big valve springs. I don't know if they ever saw a flow bench but they seemed to work pretty well (I won a lot of races). By about 1973 they were obsolete.

[RacerRick]

292's have no heat crossover and the last book I have that mentions them as being the hot setup was printed in 1980.

The ones in the books I have all have CRANE stamped in the ends of the heads.

[al_inbancroft]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen. I take it now theese are the old angle-plug heads I can remember reading about/etc years ago.
Keep the history alive.
Regards.
Al

[moparsled]

I gotta go back and look again...

My boss bought a set new to run on the 327 in his '39 Chevy coupe. During a regular Saturday afternoon street race gathering in front of the shop, his then-employee missed a shift, over-revved, and snapped a valve. Wiped one head. The pair is still in the back room.

I pulled one out recently, I thought I remembered it being a 462 casting, and straight plug. Like I said, gotta go back and look again. Later on, it's my intention to flowbench and measure the good head, and attempt to match it, to complete the pair.

[INLAW MODEL A]

I found this on ebay last month.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/rare-...3A1|240%3A1318

[yekoms]

Crane did small block Ford heads also. Yes they were stamped with Crane in a semi circle like a frown. The big tell tale sign from the outside of the Crane heads was the perfectly round exhaust ports. The combustion chambers look like they were done on a milling machine because the radius look to consistant to be done by hand.
Smokey

[mart3406]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster

They were neat heads...I found a set in the junkyard once, very noticeable because of the screw in studs, better than stock rim for valve cover, slanted plugs...I think also no heat crossover? The junkyard guys were always interested in what I picke out, and demanded a short lecture on why I had picked out THAT set. Never looked them over closely. They had been worked on considerably...would they be marked if they were Crane ones??

--------------------------
If the junkyard guy happened to notice the word Crane"
stamped on the heads and questioned you on that, I
suppose you could have told him that they were "just
some old Chevy industrial heads....you know....from an
industrial engine...used in a crane"!!!
mart
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