Well, they do bolt on so I'd make that a 'fit', the problem is then intakes. In stock form the larger 112cc chamber lowers c/r in a 331 or 354. And, as you surmise, the t-stat manifold is then a problem. On a street engine, even at elevated hp/tq numbers, I can't see any benefit to swapping heads. The vaunted 55-331 head has been called the holy grail for too many years w/o anyone suggesting why.....perhaps the small 100cc chamber that would raise c/r a wee bit is/was to blame. My 2 cents.
Again.....NO details !!! WHAT...............do you want to do with the car, boat, truck, lawn mower ? 1 - The 392 heads work fine with proper intake port porting if performance is your goal. 2 - The 354 are a little better for the drag strip (YES...THEY DO FIT). But they need spacers for any intake manifold to work. Also need intake port, porting to work well for performance. 3 - 331 heads...na. Mike
I think "most" 392 builds run 392 heads. If you look at Hemi pictures, very few have spacers to accomidate low deck heads on a 392. The water crossover is the same for low deck and raised in stock form. Low deck heads on a 392 screws that all up.
by most popular, do you mean now or back when there was an abundance of parts available, today its whatever you can come up with
I heard the same thing. Personaly I think the 354 heads are the same, but i am no expert by any means. somehow i doubt there were few if any changes in the low deck passenger heads after '55. Do these questions stem from your quest a few years back to have a water crossover made like the one PAW had?
When I built my 354 for my roadster, I used a block from a 58 Dodge 2 1/2 ton truck. One head was busted because the truck was hit from the side and broke the head. Truck heads didn't interest me anyhow and I started looking for 56 354 passenger car heads. I found out that 55 331 triple nickel heads were exactly the same except for part number. I called everywhere looking for for a set of those heads. If I found a set or 56 heads, they were outrageously expensive and was told that ALL the drag racers used them on 392's because they had the best short return radius on the exhaust ports. BUT, if I found a set of 55 triple nickel heads then THEY were the best and all the racers used THEM on 392's because those heads had the best they had the best short return radius on the exhaust port! They were also outrageously expensive. I was at my wit's end when I remembered Joe Reath. When I worked flight test for Douglas, Joe had his shop across the street from Douglas on Cherry Ave in Long Beach and we would hang out there when we had time. So, I called Joe to see what his opinion was, since he has been involved in racing since they raced using 3 inch wide wheels. I told Joe about the cost of 354/ 55 triple nickel heads and how everybody said that the ones they had were the best. Joe laughed and said, "Have you ever heard of a named Don Garlits?" Of course I had and Joe continued, "Well, he ran 392 heads on his 392's and beat EVERYBODY!". Joe had a pair of 354 heads salted away and offerected them to me. They had been ported, 426 valves, triple valve springs because Joe only knew one word with hemi...blower. I asked him how much he wanted and he said $900, ready to bolt on. Most of the 354/triple nickel guys wanted $500 for one bare head. I snapped them up, replaced the valve springs with ones to match my Schneider cam and have been happy ever since, 40 plus thousand miles later. Apparently drag racers are as bad as sprint car racers I used to run with. They NEVER had a problem driving a car fast, it was all the fault of not having the same equipment as the really fast guys had. Monkey see monkey do, rather than admit that no matter what the equipment, they just didn't have the talent the "really
331 Heads have the best performance potential 354 next then 392 then 1953 or earlier are last. 331/354 heads require a 5/8" intake spacer to work with the tall deck 392 block. Most popular would be a 331 head on a 392 block.
Joe Reath sold us a set of 354 street pistons. They were an 1/8 inch down in the hole. He wouldn't take them back. We contacted the piston manufacturer (Silvolite sp?) and they said they'd been making them like that for Reath for years -- to his specifications.
In '88 when I built this 392 with 55 heads, as per Gene Adams instructions, I remember making some stepped dowels to fit the larger hole in the 55 heads.
"392 heads on 331" Water crossover would have to be custom, unless HH or someone has them made up special. Intake manifolds won't fit unless you use a twin log style or get an unwelded U-Fab style.
That's what Garlits said in the Tex Smith hemi book. 392 heads vs 55-56 heads. On the 55-56 heads w/o valves you can see in the intake port & see right out the ex port, which would be good for flow if you could run one w/o valves, or if it was a 2 stroke engine. The 392 heads are squished down a bit & you can't see all the way through, but where it's a 4 stroke engine it apparently doesn't make much difference.
Gene takes a stock 3/8 pushrod and cuts little length pieces to press into the head to fit over the smaller dowel. At least that's the trick he taught me.
Nobody makes the crossover for what you seek. Going to need to cut and weld one up. Arias Racing Components has one that you can add some material to.
Pretty sure he is looking at manufacturing one to sell. He has talked about it before not sure why it seems to be a secret now.
This: https://www.hothemiheads.com/water_pumps/crossover_and_housing.html Take out the hose, replace the fittings with hose barbs, and put a different hose in it. Straight hose is easy.
Yes...the thread description got sent into fiber optic orbit and tough I'll probably never run a hemi, I was enjoying the conversation and education removing the title is a novel way to get us to go away
I thought I read someplace (I believe it was on this forum) that truck heads had some of the largest ports and were among the best if the sodium-filled exhaust valves were replaced. I have a '56 331 out of a dump truck and it has the 4 bolt exhaust manifolds, which were used on the 300's. This says something to me.
The only problem with the truck head is the water crossover instead of exhaust. Perfect for that truck running 20hrs straight in an Iowa wheat field, but not needed for pass cars. The port is tall and skinny so needs to be 'shrunk' to match pass car intake and its easy enough to do. Nothing wrong with the sodium filled exhaust valves if you keep the rpms down.
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