I have a friend that wants to sell me a set of heads. they are cast # 14014416. MorTec says this,

"14014416...80-86...305..........1.84"/1.5" valves, 58cc chambers"

Is that a good head. It apparently came from a 305, and I am told that putting 305 heads on a 350 up's the compression, to make it a good hp head. Is this true. He is charging me $60 american for them, plus I need new springs, valves (one is cracked) , seals, and guides. It is 70 bucks to get the valve job. I want some real trick heads, so I would put the best rockers, springs and valves I can find.

Is this head worth it, or should I hold out for some 1.94's or 2.02's. $60 is cheap, but I will spend a fortune after all of the work has been done. I want to make sure the head is even worth working on.

 

do a search for sittingbull, he is the one who does the home porting with the 416 as his base casting. they are really good heads when ported, some claim in the flow range of vortecs...do that search though, the button is located in the top right hand corner of your screen.

 

You can put larger valves in those heads and port them, and probably make them flow pretty well, but you're still buying stock 305 heads. I gave those same heads away a couple years ago.

 

Expenses you already know you will incur:

$60 for the cores
$70 for the valve job, after they're cut for larger valves (which is too cheap - it'll be a production line job)
$160 for valves
$40 for studs
$30 for guide plates
$125 for springs, retainers, & keepers

You're up to $485, and you haven't actually cut in larger valves, cut the pockets for better springs, machined them for guide plates, shaved them, ported them, painted them, or installed them yet.

You do the math.

If you could get the heads for free, and already owned some of the hardware, it would be worthwhile; as it is, you'll come out money ahead to just buy good heads in the first place, and not fool around with a bunch of junk 305 heads.

Don't buy heads based on intake valve size. That's gotta be one of the worst ways to evealuate their potential. Any goob can graunch 2.02" intakes into any heads, even the crappiest.

 

What kind of heads should I look for then?

 

Aftermarket! You can spend all the money you want on stock heads to get them to flow, but in the end you still have crappy stock heads. For a little more you can get some really good aftermarket heads, that flow tons more and will last forever.

 

There are quite a few options. Scoggin Dickey now has vortecs that are already prepped for .500 + lift cams. It would require a manifold for vortec heads though. But with the heads not costing more that 600 that ain't bad.

There are Iron Eagles and Sportsmans that are well under a thousand bucks and are complete. Just need the ports cleaned up probably.

Then of course there are all the alluminum high priced heads. Just pick up a Summit catalog and then research the ones you can afford for flow numbers and performance data.