Head is coming off...I'm going in!!!

[FrankBoss]

Yes... the old 170 head on my 144 is coming off... a pair of burnt exhaust valves are hendering its performance...

I'm scrounging for another head to work on... I have a 200 out of a 72 Comet the log looks much bigger than the 1963 head. I will have to deal with a new carb and such on my stock motor.

but for now any sujjestion on valve ect?
I was thinking of keeping my ajustable rockers on any head I replace it with..
later in the summer I will rebuild the bottm end of the 200 but for now I have to drive the car and do a head swap on the weekend..but I dream of a very mild hydrolic cam and a good cast manifold(those Pacemaker headers are kewl looking),But out of budget.

Frank

 

[CZLN6]

Howdy Frank:

Yes, keep the adjustible rockers and pushrods from the early engine. They will facilitate adjusting the pre-load on the hydraulic lifters.

The stock cam in '72 is very mild. '72 was the year FoMoCo begin playing with retarding the cam timing by changing the cam gears. A '78 or later OEM cam with Pre-'72, straight-up timing set is a nice step up, but still very mild. The Comp 256 is in the same range as the later stock cams, but with a steeper profile and much higher lift- about .400" as compared to .378" stock. Check with AZ Mike. He may have a better idea.

The '72 head will have 1.69" intakes and 1.38" exhaust valves, which will be fine for your purposes. Check the volume of the chambers and mill to your CR goal. Be sure to add a three angle valve job, with an additional back cut on the intakes. The extra CR and valve flow will be very useful in the idle to 4,500 rpm range.

On CR, you'll have to mill considerably to have decent CR on the 144. It will not be the same on the 200. If you can find a .025" OEM steel shim head gasket for using this head on the 144 and a .050" composite for use on the 200- that would help.

Adios, David