[b-man]

What type of cylinder heads are on your V8 street Pontiac?

If you own multiple cars, how is your favorite Pontiac equipped?

Choices:

1) Iron D-port

2) Iron round-port

3) Iron RAV

4) Aluminum D-port

5) Aluminum round-port

6) Aluminum RAV

[72LuxuryLeMansLa.]

My current engine is a very tired 350 with 7H1 heads. I have a set of Dave's 265cfm 6X-4 heads for the 433ci engine I will someday build.

[PunchT37]

Iron d ports now. Soon to be round port aluminum.

[JLMounce]

KRE D-ports currently.

[Chris65LeMans]

I looked up the 96 heads that came on my car - 2 of the experts said they were D port to one vote for round port. D port's my selection.

[Will]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

I looked up the 96 heads that came on my car - 2 of the experts said they were D port to one vote for round port. D port's my selection.

What year are those #96?

[pontibeast]

6X-8's iron d ports ported to 260, milled to 90cc for 9.8SCR and waiting still for engine to be installed.

[Chris65LeMans]

Originally Posted by Will

What year are those #96?

How can I tell?

[moontower69]

Iron D-ports on both ponchos. #11s (converted to 2.11/1.77) on the GTO and 4Xs (4-H) on my Lemans.

['ol Pinion head]

prob shouldn't have answered...

[74Grandville]

Iron d-port (5c-8)


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[1oldgoat]

Iron Round Ports for me. 197's and 7F6's!

[i82much]

I think I bought my 87 cc e-heads back around 2006, I don't even recall if there were aftermarket D ports at the time? Anyway, I did not have headers so it didn't make much difference, I probably would have gone round port regardless.

[West Coast GTO]

Round port aluminum

[rassr58]

Iron D Port heads on 350 looking to upgrade


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[The Boss]

Iron round port for me - 96, 197, 7F6, 16

[Will]

Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans

How can I tell?

Look for the date code. Should be in a similar location to what's shown for this 6X head.



It'll be a letter followed by 2 or 3 numbers. For example "A121" which would be for January 12, 1971. The letter corresponds to the month and the last number is always the last number of the year, so the number or numbers in between are the day of the month. Another example - "B21" would be February 2, 1971.

The letter "I" wasn't used as it can be easily confused with the number 1, so a September casting would have the letter J on it, October would be K, etc.

#96 D-port heads were 1971 model year heads so would likely have a casting date between September 1970 and August 1971.

#96 round port heads were 1968 Ram Air heads so would most likely be cast between September '67 and August '68. If it turns out you have these heads, you've got some rare and valuable heads on your hands.

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Will

Look for the date code. Should be in a similar location to what's shown for this 6X head.



It'll be a letter followed by 2 or 3 numbers. For example "A121" which would be for January 12, 1971. The letter corresponds to the month and the last number is always the last number of the year, so the number or numbers in between are the day of the month. Another example - "B21" would be February 2, 1971.

The letter "I" wasn't used as it can be easily confused with the number 1, so a September casting would have the letter J on it, October would be K, etc.

#96 D-port heads were 1971 model year heads so would likely have a casting date between September 1970 and August 1971.

#96 round port heads were 1968 Ram Air heads so would most likely be cast between September '67 and August '68. If it turns out you have these heads, you've got some rare and valuable heads on your hands.

The letter "I" was only NOT used in the 1967 model year - evidence has been shown that it was used every other year before & after.

The 1968 "96" castings were first produced in March of 1968 and showed no casting date at all or one on an angle over the spark plug on the side of the head. The next batches of heads were cast on April 22 & 23 and then continued on as needed up until January of 1969 when the last sets of service replacement heads were produced.

The March cast heads and the Day shift castings of the April 22 (D228) heads did not have the raised 96 on the center exhaust ports. Those first appeared during the night shift castings on D228 but then were present on all others cast afterwards. A raised R & A on the two end ports are present on all of them.

[Will]

Originally Posted by The Boss

The letter "I" was only NOT used in the 1967 model year - evidence has been shown that it was used every other year before & after.

The 1968 "96" castings were first produced in March of 1968 and showed no casting date at all or one on an angle over the spark plug on the side of the head. The next batches of heads were cast on April 22 & 23 and then continued on as needed up until January of 1969 when the last sets of service replacement heads were produced.

The March cast heads and the Day shift castings of the April 22 (D228) heads did not have the raised 96 on the center exhaust ports. Those first appeared during the night shift castings on D228 but then were present on all others cast afterwards. A raised R & A on the two end ports are present on all of them.

Thanks for correction on the "I" casting month. Also, thanks for the round-port minutiae...

I must also correct myself. The months I listed as likely months for the castings are probably off - those dates would roughly correspond with when '71 model year (or '68 model year) cars were available new, the heads and other drivetrain parts could easily have been cast a few months before as that year's models were built in preparation for going on sale.

There's some thread-drift for ya.

[68 Firebird]

Very lucky to be running the original 16's on my firebird.
Motor trans and read still numbers matching !!!

Gerry