Did they do "head-work" in the 50's and 60's?

Like the title says, did they do head work back in the day? How did they modify heads? I am sure the pros used to do something, was it just bigger valves and springs, or did they port and polish?

I would have to ASSume that the stock 283's found in FEDs and Tri Five Gassers did not have run of the mill heads. Am I wrong?

I was thinking about this the other day while staring at my 292 Y-block, over in the corner collecting dust, and started thinking about the possibility of stuffing it in a FED frame and running the crap out of it. Knowing that these aren't the best engines to use for racing, I started to think about how to make it faster.

Could a guy modify these heads like they did "back in the day", and how did they do it? I've seen modern day fixes regarding heads and intakes, but, just wanted to see if anyone had any info in the traditional way of things.

Thanks in advance
Jesse

 

they've been doing heads since moses had his first smell of octane.
a lot of todays technics were perfected on bangers and flatheads,early caddies,olds rockets....you name it.

 

Sure did, I crewed for my friend on a blown injected flat head in the 50,s. He was the manager of the local parts store and ran the machine shop. He also worked ohv with larger valves and also ground out the intake ports and inserted pipe to hold the bolts. He would never tell me all of his secrets

 

SLEDE67...in the 60s s.b.chevys had camel hump heads, and those were the big chevy heads. so i ported and polished my own heads. PORTED means grinding the ports bigger. and believe me this was risky at best, well 1 could cut out to much metal thereby riuning heads.todays heads are very big ported, compaired to the 50s and 60s you luckey stiffs! and todays BIG valves! forget about it...POP.

 

I smell what you're cookin'. I am on the fence over this one. I want to use the Y-block, but...THOSE HEADS!!!!! They suck (as far as a performance standard goes). I have seen elsewhere that there is a guy who is supposed to start cranking out modernized, aluminum heads, but I haven't seen anything. Maybe I'll get a --ahem-- SBC and use that. Save the Y Block for a hot rod...

 

From my 265 thread that they started swapping in '53 Powerglide 235 valves and even sometimes caddy valves to open them up. I think that would have been the first place they started if they were building a Chevy V8.



I know I just took my 265 in to get built and I swapped out the 265 heads for '58 283 to start and we'll probably do some work on them to get it breathing right. I am trying not to do anything that would not have been uncommon in the '56-'59 year period.

 

Of course they did...ever heard of Mondello???

 

Ted Eaton can do it all for the "lowly Y block"..........he is near Waco....sure someone here can get a number...but if it's a Y block you are working on...He is the MAN.

M.

 

Not a Y-block guy, but a Hot Rod Mag staffer (name escapes me at the moment) had a built and customized '57 Bird back in the day....as I recall, he moved the Y-block valve locations to put in bigger valves, as well as porting, polishing, and different rockers and ??....
.

 

In the 60's we look for a wrecked police car in the junkyards with a 312, grabbed the rockers as they had a higher lift ratio than staddard. Pete

 

when I pulled apart the 54 cad motor that had been in my 50 olds from 55, the heads were obviously ported.

 

I think it was quite a while before flow benches came into common use...I would not be surprised if a lot of the early porting jobs actually hurt flow, for example by removing the venturi at the seat

 

very well said St.Joe the father of all oldsmobile things fast.

 

In 56 I completely cut the intake petition out of a pair of Y block g heads and did the big valves and polish job. They made a lot of hp and with a todays style sheetmetal intake would make more.Y blocks are not dead yet and there is a lot more that can be had with the available tec.

 

I ported and polished my first engine (a 3/4 hp briggs and stratton ) in 1954

 

gears turning...

FYI, I have a '56 Merc 292. I honestly don't know what heads, but it does have a 4bbl intake. I'm out of town on business, and everything I have in writing on my engines is on my PC.

RAY With, I'm not sure I'm following you. You said you cut the intake petition out of the heads??? How did THAT work? Got pics? I've been looking at the Blue THunder intake. Pricey, but, take what you can get, especially if it works well.

As far as Ted Eaton, I am familiar with him..I just don't have the dime to hire his services I bet he can probably do my heads for cheaper than I can buy a new set of aluminum heads....

 

In addition to mild port work around the valve stems, I'd have a good multi-angle valve job done and have the valves backcut 30 degrees, as well.

Don't open the whole port up, you lose velocity which is counterproductive to increasing flow.

 

I had the heads for my flat motor milled. when I put them on the valves hit the heads

 

I had "Hands" in Austin do a set of 401 Buick heads for me in the early 60's, He picked up one head and poked the tip of his finger in the port and said he will get his whole finger in there when it's done. Man, I miss that guy.

 

Ted is a hell of a good guy too . He specializes in engine balancing the most but will do it all for you and Mummert is the one for all the head work . Both are Y block GURU'S !
Ted does have a 6 sec Y block ! So when anyone says the Y block can't do anything , think twice !

RetroJim

 

I'm sure. One thing they've learned is that bigger isn't necessarily better; look at the "lumps" that are made to bolt to the bottom of the intake ports of Chevy 250 inline heads to improve flow. I imagine that "bigger" worked out in the early days of hot rodding flatheads and stovebolt sixes, since the stock porting was so pathetic that almost anything you did would improve flow.

 

Lynn Wineland, who was a Petersen editor (R&C, not HRM), had a '55 'Bird that was extensively modified and customized. He ran it at Bonneville and elsewhere.

Another famous modified Y-block was in Doane Spencer's 'Bird, and he supposedly did a miraculous job of headwork on his. I think Kirk White has the car for sale currently, unless it's already sold.

Unfortunately, neither Lynn nor Doane is with us any longer.

 

Don't forget the late Jocko Johnson, innovator, artist, metal shaper, sculptor, and one of the foremost porters of the fifties/sixties.

 

Lets go even further back. Ever heard of Jocko?

Frank

 

Cylinder head flow was being improved in the 19-teens. It was no big secret that more flow = more power, it was just figuring out ways to make it happen. More carbs, more lift, bigger carbs, bigger pipes, bigger pistons, bigger ports. It wasn't precise, but f'ing around with an engine to make more power isn't new at all.

 

And there was Texas' own Karol Miller who ran his '56 Victoria at Bonneville in '56/'57 at 140 something. He analyzed his valve train on the bench using an electic motor driven cam operating the valves in a bench mounted head. His story has been published on here.

 

Sure, we did head work...didn't really know what we were doing, but we copied the flathead guys' ideas, just open up and smooth the ports and more fuel/air gets in...sometimes we forgot to match the manfold ports to the head ports, and we had no ideas about flow...so the porting guys like Jocko and Mondello and a bunch of other guys who knew more than we did got into business...but they often charged a bunch (very labor-intensive) so we kept on doing it ourselves...

 

For good reading on one of the best magicians at getting more flow out of a set of Chevy smallblock heads look for a book titled "The Chevrolet Racing Engine" by Grumpy Jenkins. Tons of great info on porting heads, which castings are the best, as well as lots of other good Chevy info. I believe it's out of print now so Ebay might be your best bet. I can tell you from many years of experience that a rookie with a die grinder can quicky fuck up a pair of heads beyond repair too. Practice ALOT first on junk or leave the porting to the experts. With the changing times the theory on what works the best is constantly changing as well. In the old days smooth as glass was good, then someone discovered that slightly rough intake ports vaporize the fuel better which is a good thing, then anti-reversion where the mix flows from a smaller hole into a larger hole was played with. It's constantly changing but like I said, for old school technology that still works Grumpy is the guy...

 

WOW. Check THIS OUT!!!!

I got bored and decided to watch a DVD a friend burned me. I THOUGHT it was a MAD FABRICATORS video. When I played it, it was actually a 1965 documentary of FED racer Rick "The Iceman" Stewart, wearing a MONDELLO HEADS t shirt!

 

I have some local guys who can do it. I ALSO have an old junk set of 302 heads. I'm calling Mummert for a quote. And an intake.
Thanks for the awesome help everyone.