Technical Game over for double hump heads?

My brother just had a goat 400 rebuilt, the shop convinced him that seats were a truck thing, and his car wouldn`t be loaded enough to worry about it? I`d want them. what say you all?

 

I can sympathize with the machinist that is recommending to go with new low-budget iron heads like the Iron Eagles. Not much cost difference from doing a good rebuild on a set of double humps, with hardened seats and new guides. But having a performance benefit with the new heads from latest port and chamber tech. So the machinist is trying to look out for the customer's best interest. However, for a vintage build, it is not always best interest that wins the decision. Accept that and make your choices.

 

If it was all about what is cheapest and offered the best performance, we would all be messing with nothing over 20 years old, so the HAMB would not exist. My '32 Coupe rides like shit, sucks gas, and would get stomped by 80% of the tuners out there. And it probably cost me twice as much as said tuner. I don't care. That old technology is what I want.
BTW, I have 3 pairs of hump heads sitting on my shelf that if/when I need to build a SBC I will spend the cash to have redone.

 

The voice of reason, 38Chevy454. Such a rarity on web boards. I get nostalgia, just not for everything. Would love to see contact info for recommended machine shops. The closer to the Cincinnati/Louisville/Lexington region the better.

 

People keep telling me to put 305 heads on my 283.
I guess I just dont get it.

 

I was at a swap meet a couple years ago and a guy had a set of iron eagle heads he bought from a shop in Wisconsin. The shop has a cnc program to machine the ends of the heads to look like double humps. They looked pretty good.

 

Another option, If your little heart is set on having double hump heads, you can get aluminum copies complete with big valves, screw in studs, etc,, ready to run from Speedway and other vendors...all you need is a can of Chevy orange engine paint.
part 2:
If these 461 heads are such hot items, how come nobody ever wanted these?
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...inder-heads-sbc-fuelie.1232809/#post-14222917

 

With that said, it sort of depends on your end goal. I have a set of Brodix Track 1’s I picked up for $800. They were new and used for mock up, then the guy changed his mind. They are a 2.08”intake and a 1.60” exhaust. Aluminum and they flow probably about 3 times what a 462 does. Would a guy on the street utilize all of this? Probably not. Unless it is really rowdy.

 

Would a set of heads like that kill the bottom end?

 

Probably on any small journal build. It has like 221 cc runners. That’s why they are still in the rafters. I was pondering a 427 CID Hilborn injected build on Alky.

 

I'm too far away from you for this to make sense. I just disassembled old mangy, my 327-250 hp truck engine, and it had 290 heads. Now these are low rev heads, 72 cc chambers, and 1.74??? Intake valves. Just what a 283 needs valve size wise. And they have the dromedary single hump marking on the ends. You can say they're special low performance single hump camel hump heads. I'm not going to be using them, and they need a tune up, but the price is right. Free for whomever wants to stop by and pick them up. Not worth shipping costs...

 

One would have to check but some of those truck heads have hardened seats from the factory that work as long as you don't get carried away and grind past the hardened part.

I'd say it still comes down to the simple question of does a rodder want to probably spend more having a set of cool old heads redone as apposed to buying new heads that will perform better for the same or even less money when all is said and done. Now if we could just convince one of the head manufactures to cast heads that look like the camel humps from the outside but have all the new tricks on the inside.

 

They do. Check out the Trick Flow DHC-175’s.

 

If I didn't already have 4 pair of 462's, a pair of 461's and a pair of 291's, that would be my first choice! I might go with the Trickflow's anyway, just to see how they work. Double Hump's forever!!!

 

https://www.chevyhardcore.com/tech-stories/engine/double-hump-heads-trick-flow/

 

Last set of double hump heads I had grew legs and walked off. Along with my set of pink rods, brand new forged pistons, and recently ( at that time ) machined 327 block and steel crank.

Had a pretty good idea who got it all, just couldn’t prove it. Never saw the stuff again.

 

Awww man, that sucks.

 

That's what I was thinking. I've been told simply, "It's not worth it"
At a different time without thinking, had my neighbor ( I was longhaulin' ) take a pair of 327 angle plug heads to his buddy for exhaust seats etc. etc. $759. At that time, 8 bills woulda got me Trick Flowed.

 

Damn straight!!!
NOS late 67 cast date 291's, came with new GM valves, springs, "O" rockers, keepers etc.
Found them at a swap meet in the eighties, guy ran a small time speed shop.

 

I hate that shit. Waiting for some one to start the thread about stuff that 'got legs'
But don't get me started. At least the stuff I lost, was not brand new, I'd had some pleasure.

 

I didn’t get the memo that it’s over for double hump heads. My 186s have 90k on them and look great. Always used premium gas and have had 2 standard valve jobs since new.

 

No. That myth died when the EL ES motors made their debut...

 

A couple side oiler blocks got dropped off at the scrap yard. The owner spotted em and called the po po.
guy got the blocks back and maybe one or two heads. The 4 speeds never showed up

3 double hump heads were there last month.

I bought an intake dated 12/69 for a 396 for $5
they gave me an 375hp 396 air cleaner. The one stamped to fit a double pumper.

crazy stuff shows up

 

Best heads I ever had for street heads were 300-327 heads with 1.94 intakes and not ported. Street, high velocity ports and small chambers. Pay attention. Instant torque at low rpm. Rip your head off torque. That's where it's at on the street. If you want 7,000 rpm heads, buy the cnc fake heads. When there are so many heads around cheaper why?
JMO Lippy

 

I love the old camel hump heads for nostalgia's sake , but Brodix , Promaxx and a couple of other head companies make sbc entry level heads at about a grand that will kick the shit outa a camel hump. So by the time I spend $600 + doing my own machine work to do screw in studs and guide plates + the price of said parts I am better off buying aftermarket aluminum heads. That being said I have camel humps on two of my current drivers. But if I really need it to haul ass , Its probably gunna have some modern technology on the top end.

 

My machinist will fix whatever I drop off. He quoted me 350 to fix guides and install hardened seats in my 186 heads (1969)I have not to this day installed hardened seats , based on the rpm and load I turn. No recession issues yet, on 3 engines I've built in the last 20 years

 

Still waiting for phone numbers for these machinists. I can drive. Nashville, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis….

 

The shop I used to go to closed about a year or so ago, I think due to health issues of the main machinist. There is another shop nearby that has been in business a long time. It original owner passed away and they continued in business. Took a block over there recently to have it cleaned ........the place looked like a dump inside with stuff piled everywhere.....yet people continue to go there. Decided I'd try another shop nearby that I didn't know much about but been there quite a while. I was immediately impressed with how clean and organized it was. Guy showed me a Pontiac stroker motor he was assembling and the room was immaculate. Then he told me he was booked solid into next year already.
Going to check out another place when I have some time.

 

Thanks for the response. These are the same issues I’m having. Good shops are now closed because the owner died, in one case my buddy took a 428 for his GTO in anyway to let his son do it. Disaster. Any shop with a decent reputation booked out forever. Dart Iron Eagles don’t ship until after Christmas. I want my 406 on the road next spring, like most here would rather not have to use aftermarket, but I just can’t figure out what to do.

 

The old camel hump heads on my Austin gasser I bought simply for the nostalgia they have. They're small 59cc chambers, and had been completely rebuilt with new parts, so I grabbed them for $400 and my old non camel hump cores. But they're really not much of a performance head compared to what is available these days. Even some stock iron late model SBC heads have much better flow characteristics. I'd probably gain a lot of HP, and lower my high compression 11:1 ratio if I bolted on a pair of fresh 487x heads I have sitting here.
I had the 487x heads on the 350 roller motor in my '39, but with the pistons in it the compression was down around 9:1 and it ran fine, but needed more compression. I swapped on a almost new pair of Dart SHP aluminum heads with 10cc smaller chambers and a better 180cc runner size, and the good performing engine became an awesome performing engine. Yeah, they're not traditional, but for $700 they were well worth the work to swap onto my engine, and really boost performance.