[Tom63LeMans]

Looking for help finalizing this build of a ‘70 400 with early heads and Weiand blower. A few years ago I picked up this engine with a Weiand 671 blower on Weiand WP 671 manifold and ‘59 531395 heads. It was supposedly fresh and ready to run but I saw enough mismatched bolts to warrant a tear down. There was some serious porting done on these heads with the intakes measuring 1.23 x 2.22. It is set up with oil through push rods, Spotts screw in rocker studs and aftermarket roller rockers.
Here are the short block details; ‘70 block with 4 bolt billet caps, ARP main studs, Eagle forged rods with 8740 bolts, Jahns forged +.030 pistons with 18cc dish. The heads are 87cc and with zero deck my static compression is 8.3 to 1.
I had the heads flowed by DCI and a picture is attached.

I’m looking for help in a cam recommendation and also blower drive speed to get as much reliable HP as I can.

I would like to install it in my ‘56 Chieftain gasser at some point and not slow down. It currently run 10.40s at 126, 3600# with pump gas 461, turbo 400 and 3.70 gear Dana.
Thanks,
Tom

[Jack Gifford]

Are they really '59 heads? The chambers don't look like '59. The valves don't appear to be at 20 degrees. And I'm not aware of any roller rockers for '59 heads. I had to custom machine the rocker stud bosses of my '58 heads to use SBC roller rockers.
Is the 6-71 normal helix? Teflon'd? Will drive be a Gilmer belt?

[Tom63LeMans]

Originally Posted by Jack Gifford

Are they really '59 heads? The chambers don't look like '59. The valves don't appear to be at 20 degrees. And I'm not aware of any roller rockers for '59 heads. I had to custom machine the rocker stud bosses of my '58 heads to use SBC roller rockers.
Is the 6-71 normal helix? Teflon'd? Will drive be a Gilmer belt?

Jack,
They are definitely ‘59 531395 heads. I think the rockers are Ford only markings on them are 7/16” 1.5. From a post I did a while ago in the race section it was believed that these studs are from Paul Spotts.
The rotors are helix not teflon stripped. The drive that came on it has 1/2” pitch 3” wide pulleys. I haven’t done a tooth count yet. Pictures of head and drive attached.

[Jack Gifford]

I'd be interested to know what the rocker arms are from.
Didn't all '59 heads have bathtub chambers?

[Tom63LeMans]

Originally Posted by Jack Gifford

I'd be interested to know what the rocker arms are from.
Didn't all '59 heads have bathtub chambers?

I started a post 2 years ago in the race section about using these heads. I remembered someone commenting about the chambers being milled out and it turns out it was you. I probably should have just tacked onto that post but my new questions are boost related.
http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=850881

I since found a 1963 Pontiac Performance Handbook that shows a picture of Mickey Thompson’s heads on his 2 cyl. with very similar chambers. I CCed all my chambers and they are all 86-87cc.

Thanks

[blueghoast]

Tom what cam did you end up with?

GT

[Tom63LeMans]

Originally Posted by blueghoast

Tom what cam did you end up with?

GT

I’ve not figured anything out yet. Kind of working backwards from what I have. Measured spring height and it’s at 1.670 so I’m figuring about .550 lift to be my limit.
Any suggestions, GT?
Thanks

[Jack Gifford]

I wouldn't be too concerned about cam profiles. When my hemi was broken for 1 1/2 seasons I ran a 6-71 blown alcohol 400 (-16 heads) with an ancient Crane hydraulic cam (from 1958) with good success. I would guess about 800 HP, based on comparison to dyno numbers of my competitors.

[steve25]

Yes to those chambers being reworked from there original bath tub shape.

I would be very curious to know what the Exh to Intake flow ratio is now on those heads.

[performerrpm]

Originally Posted by Jack Gifford

I wouldn't be too concerned about cam profiles. When my hemi was broken for 1 1/2 seasons I ran a 6-71 blown alcohol 400 (-16 heads) with an ancient Crane hydraulic cam (from 1958) with good success. I would guess about 800 HP, based on comparison to dyno numbers of my competitors.

im kinda following along on any blown pontiac threads i see, do you think the 800hp mark is pretty easy to do with a 400 or 406? and a blower.

[Tom63LeMans]

Originally Posted by steve25

Yes to those chambers being reworked from there original bath tub shape.

I would be very curious to know what the Exh to Intake flow ratio is now on those heads.

I posted a flow sheet in the original post. It’s 68-69% from .400 to .600 lift.

[steve25]

Yes I see the flow numbers now.

You can surely make 800 Hp ( at least for a while )
as the blown SD 421 Nitro cars where making in the mid and late 60s, but they where also splitting the factory blocks in half right down the middle.

I really think that with running boost that you need a much higher exh to intake ratio.

This is what I was getting on the exh side of a 389 head that oiled thru the push rods with a 1.60” valve.
Note that this was a center port and tested without a header tube which would add another 3 to 5% to the exh flow numbers above .300” lift.

These numbers where also with no back cut on the valve which would have added a bunch of low lift flow.

And to tell you the truth I do not believe that the 1.60” exh valve was passing 84 cfm @ .100” lift , as even 1,77” exh valves can’t do that.


Flow @ 28”

.050.” 26
.100”. 51.4
.150”. 76.5
.200”. 100.8
.250”. 124.9
.300”. 142.6
.350”. 156.8
.400”. 162.7
.450”. 166.6
.500”. 168.5
.600”. 169.5

[Tom63LeMans]

I wouldn’t have a clue where to start to bring those exhaust numbers up.
Is 650 hp possible off this combo as is? I’d be happy around there without breaking the bank or the block.
With my current NA 461 I shift at 5800 and go through the traps about 6300.
My other option would be using my current 340 cfm Eheads at 83 cc. If I do that I wouldn’t need to build another set of fenderwell headers.

[Jack Gifford]

Maybe I should say 750 HP (on gas) would be easy with a 400, since mine ran methanol through a Hilborn 4-port, 12 PSI boost.
I doubt there would be any bottom end problems with about 750 HP. My mini-puller used a cast crank and 2-bolt mains (but aluminum rods). It was still going strong after a season and a half- 25-30 runs (up to 8,300 RPM).

[steve25]

You would certainly hit your target 650 Hp easier with the E heads, but a blown factory iron headed motor is way cooler to me and I think for you also seeing as that’s the reason that you purchased these parts.

If you have porting tools and time I can guide you in picking up your exh flow numbers out of those iron 389 heads.

One of the first things I would do however is pop out one of those steel plugs and fill that now unused rocker stud oil passage with a nice big epoxy pour.

On the heads I did last year to get my intake flow numbers of 215 I felt I was coming very close to breaking into that main oil feed passage .

This is part of the reason why I only used a 1.92” valve because geometrically I knew that to make good use of a 2” valve I would need to bust into that passage + do more unshrouding in the chamber.
On that intake manifold be sure to reset your pop off valve springs to maybe 4 psi more then the boost level you will run.

All too many times unknowing folks will bolt on a blower to a motor with a far higher setting and then when something screws up and the motor back fires there’s a high chance of bending the blower rotors and blowing out either the blower gasket or the intake gasket if the throttle is closed.