Y-Block Guys! Don't waste your time and money on ECZ-G heads

Anyone who has had a car, pickup or Hot Rod with a Y-Block in it knows that you just have to have a set of ECZ-G heads if you want to make any power, NOT TRUE! Although if you are making a race engine the "G" heads or 113 castings are prefered, if you are just running on the street you can make decent power with a set of old truck heads. That's right! all those C1TE, C1AE and C0AE castings that everyone just passes over are very good heads with a little work.

To start with they have 76, 72 and 75cc chambers respectively, the "G" heads have 69cc chambers but with a little milling you can get the volume down and all these heads are "Posted". Bonus! Rule of thumb is .005" off the surface 1cc reduction so take .020" off and that's 4cc's.

Now for the fun part. I've been using early 351w valves in these heads, 1.54" exhaust and 1.85" intake they come stock with 1.64" intakes and the bowls lend themselves well for some clean up work.

Stock chamber


I cut the exhaust first since the stock valves and the Windsor valves are very close in size but the intake has .210" to gain.

After cutting the seat


The next step is to cut the excess meat in the bowl left after cutting the bigger seat.



Now all that's left is to grind the rough edges out and make a smooth radius from the port to the chamber. You can polish this as much as you like but the biggest gain is from cleaning it out not making it shiny.


I use stainless swirl polished valves and you do need to cut the giudes down about 1/8" so the retainers wont hit with .500" lift.



You can do this on other heads not just Y-blocks just make sure you have enough material before you cut, you don't want to hit water.

These heads are going on a 292 that will power our LSR Unibody for some testing, although this engine is not likely to break any records (158 mph is the D/PP class record at Elmo) I do hope to better 130. I'll keep you posted.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=531700


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awesome tech!!!

 

Where were you when I was building mine? I was lucky and someone had put ECZ heads on it already but..... I know this for next time! Thanks.

 

Good Stuff to know. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

James

 

Awesome tech!

 

Some more help full advice. Thanks Tim.

 

Now that is very interesting, great job.

 

type of machine and rpm of your cut sir.

 

You left out any information on port size and flow.

 

The machine is a "Serdi" and the rpm will vary depending on what type of cut I am doing. I can change the range from almost nothing to about 1000 rpm but most seats are cut around 250 and when cutting out to insert a seat it's down around 100. It can be a little tricky and you just get a feel for waht is right after running it for a while.

The throat size is about 1 11/16". I don't have any flow imformation, Ys generally don't flow the best anyway, but you might see 200 cfm on the upper and 180 - 190 cfm on the lower. (the lower port is the problem on most all Y heads) The G heads with a little work can flow 210 - 220 but if you want the best #s you will need to lay down some $ for a set of John Mummerts heads. All I offer here is a way to get a little more volume without having to break the bank. I can tell you this from running these, they give you a good kick in the seat of your pants and the will turn 6000+ rpm with the right cam.

 

Thanks for the info seeing as how I have more of the truck heads in my stash!
Kinda funny but my 57 Ranchero had late 60 truck heads when I bought it and my newly aquired 63 Unibody had a set of "G" heads. Gotta look at them all, lots of parts swaping over the years!

 

HEY KIDS!!! These heads are downright sexy. I have a set that Tim did for me for a 292 going into a 50 shoebox. They are gorgeous I tell ya! I can't wait to get the bottom end sorted out (Tim I believe I need to call you again...) and fire this Y up. Not to mention that Tim is one heck of a guy - always informative, helpful, and honest with his word and his parts. Great tech post sir!

 

Damn tech that is really tech. Its nice to see someone out there isn't just buying off the shelf parts and calling it good.

Thanks for the info I wasn't aware that Windsor valves would work in a Y Block head and not I don't have to do a ton of research to find out.

 

Nice looking machine work !! And thanks for the info !!! >>>>.

 

Excellent info. Thanks for taking the time to put the tech article together. This is the stuff that seperates the HAMB from other sites.

 

Great Tech Tim! I was considering doing just that with the set of truck heads that I have. But opted to search for the 113 heads I've got. They bench flowed 218-222 intake and 158-160. So I'm a happy little camper.

Thanks again for the post. The dawg

 

The "G" and 113 heads are still the more disirable but for the guy who is just running on the street and wants to make do with what he has this is a pretty good way to go. I hope to have a good timing slip with this engine and these heads to show that it is possable to run "junk" truck heads and still make good power.

 

Here's a couple more pix, one of the guide cut down and the others of how you can clean the ports up with a little more work. This head is from the LSR engine.

 

Tim I always thought you just mill down some of those other heads and do some port/polish work and still have a fairly lively motor when you got through with the right cam. I also thought a long time ago too on the valve size which you addressed. Make good sense to me. I've seena lot of guys also use "C" heads too with great results.

Michael

 

Great tech info! Thanks for sharing.

 

Nice work! Beautiful finish on the head surface too!
Don

 

Thinking outside the box as always Tim.....nice stuff.

 

Nicely done, Tim and well explained for those who want to know how to do it themselves.

 

Thanks Don, done on a Van Norman machine.

 

Thought I'd add that I did somewhat the same thing with Bigredtodds 472 Caddy heads, although everything was bigger. These heads just like the Y heads were begging to be opened up.

 

Great thread, Tim --- thanks for posting it!!



Malcolm

 

Thanks Tim,

I appreciate the info.

 

I like Y hop up tricks, cool.

 

I am gathering parts for a y block build in my roadster. I have a set of ecg-z heads no valves mild port to manifold match to tri power that is the way I bought them. The question I have are the valve's you installed larger then the stock ones & I assume they would give me more hp if larger then stock.

 

Wow, great info. Thanks! I'll keep this in mind in my search for more horsepower with my 312.