283 build - 601 heads

So we had a sort of sunny day and I pulled the heads out of the box to start cleaning up the bowls. The factory throat cut on the 14022601 mid 89's lightweight cylinder head leaves a nasty ridge around about 1/2 of the bowl. Got the grinder out, chucked up a carbide and started in.

Head one was pretty easy, but head two looked like they threw dirt from the foundry floor into the mold. It was rougher then a cob in the exhaust ports. Took a while, but it cleaned up OK. Not too much metal to take out, just blend away the crud and flash. Monday they go back to the shop to get the seats cut and re***embled. Z28 springs and three heads worth of valves to choose from should yield a decent pair.

I cut Somender grooves in these to see how that works? Supposed to really help at low speed with cheap gas. Eliminates ping and detonation. We'll see? Used an old gasket to pattern mark. Kept them shallow and away from the cylinder wall. I put the grinder through the bad head to see how thick things are. 0.230" worth of iron in the quench area so I kept the grooves to about 0.040"

So I guess most of the 305 SBC lightweight heads have a little less than 1/4" of iron in combustion chamber surfaces. Not a lot to work with. Just though I'd let you all know what I found

Happy holidays

 

Thanks for the report. I have a pair of '416 HO heads I'm getting ready to do the same thing to for my '66 C10. A guy at another forum I frequent is a bit of a 305 guru and does a lot of work on the '416 and '601 heads. He has mentioned that the 416's are often cleaner castings than the 601's. With a little elbow grease they are both great heads for a small displacement engine or a 350 low RPM torque build.