Best heads for a 400?

What are the best heads to put onto a 400? also which would be the cheapest?

or better yet which heads are better out of these no.12 no.13 62 72

or if you know of a different set thats good please tell me

I hear that Hooker Super Competition Headers are Cheap as hell and sounds sweet. But u have to work to get them on, i heard they dont go on easy. :banghead:

heads as in cylinder heads not headers

oh...i knew that ummm yeah

I hear that Hooker Super Competition Headers are Cheap as hell and sounds sweet. But u have to work to get them on, i heard they dont go on easy. :banghead:


in summit, Hooker Long Tube Headers (says "same great features as Hooker's legendary Super Competition headers") are $409.95.... so if that's cheap, then there you go....

then says "off-road Y pipes""$169.69" , what are OFF-ROAD PIPES? does that just mean no cats or something?


as far as cylinder head goes, i forgot your question...... i probably couldn't answer it anyway.... see if you could answer mine for me though...

dart heads, dart heads are the sickest heads around, there so tricked out they are illegal for professional racing, as for headers im biased because i love holly, so go with the holly!

ok dart heads may be good but how much do they cost??

well i dunno how much USD it is, but my shop sells them for $1000 canadian for a pair of chevy style you would have to look around for a pontiac pair, remember u pay for what u get, go big or go home

yah well edelbrock has their heads for chevys for 1000 can a pair but the pontiacs are like 2200 so i mean the price difference is huge

true pontiac is a much more expensive engine to build, but its the car you chose so you have to pay up if you want the power, edlebrock= shit
if you want extreme no bullshit last forever heads then u want dart, if not buy a pair of pontiac 6x heads and plain the shit out of them

but this is why im askin what the best heads are if you look i have a list at the top and I am wondering what the best are out of them or if there is anther set of factory heads which are good

im currently running the pontiac 6x heads and i plained the down .040 and im getting about 10.5:1 compression with about 350-375 HP if your looking for that power go with the stock heads and modify them, u can also look for a pair of heads off a 300 pontiac and put them on your engine, that would also raise the power a huge amount

well i got a 301 now and your saying to put those heads on a 400?

but what about the flow rates and all of that arnt the 301 heads crap?

so wouldnt buying a pair of 1970 heads be alot better?

yes, buying the heads off a 70 would be much better for your 400, you dont seem to want to put much money into the heads so just take the heads the 400 comes with and machine them down, do a 3 angle valve job and call it a day

how much do you think it would cost to do all of the machine work?(in canadian dollars)

and would they still flow as well as the 70 heads?

which heads do you want work done to?
plaining will probally cost about $100 for the pair, all lot of places (like my shop) will plain down the heads to any compression the customer wants for a flat fee, valve jobs and cleanup will probally run 300-400 and if you want new springs, rockers ect your lookin at 500-600 tops for modified stock heads

If you mill 6x heads 40 thousands it would be just under 9:1 compression not 10.5:1.

well cant you mill them more then that? if not then im deffenetly going to need a different set of heads

you can't mill 6X enough to be effective on a 400. here are some more casting numbers 97,997,12,48,670,16,31,12,722,614. These all have 72cc chambers.

exellent finally someone comes through with the info i need

thanks

and those heads wont need any work will they i could just find a set clean them up and put them on?

just clean them up, do a valve job, replace seals and maybe replace the valve springs and put the on.

alright thanks

i machined my heads personally and right now with my 355 i am getting 10.5:1 compression and my engine hasent even been broken in yet they are 6x heads, and if i am getting that much on a 355 im sure it will be greater on a 400
same idea as putting 305 chevy heads on chevy 350 instant huge compression
also though i machined them so much my intake no longer fit and it had to be modified

also a good set of pistons will help in compression and a .30 overbore

on a .060 over 350 pontiac 72cc heads with flat top piston will give you 9.5:1 compression. 6X heads have 92cc chambers. .040 cut off is equal to about 10cc that puts you at 82cc. With that size chamber on a 355? (i guess you mean .030 over) you will be sitting at around 8-8.25:1.

the pistons that i plan to get are 10.25:1 comp with a 67cc so that is around a high 9:1 with the 72cc and i want to get as little machine work done to my heads as possible because it costs so much

and arnt 62 heads good?

sorry im not familiar with 62 heads

alright thats fine

and with those 6x heads on a 350 isnt the comp low? cause they are 91cc heads made for low comp 400's

some no. 62 heads are 326 heads they have 68cc chambers. That would push your compression up too high for pump gas. There are some '68 model no.62 but those have 75cc chambers. Then from '69 on they are 72cc. Just be sure on which you have.

yah i saw a couple sets of '69 62 heads on ebay i was just seeing if they were any good

well i hate to burst everyones bubble here, number games are nice but i compression tested my engine several times and its steady 10.5:1 compression with .040 shaved and flat top pistons,
dont really care what anyone else thinks i know what i runs and i like facts better then numbers

compression test gives you psi not ratio and there is no accurate way to convert the psi number to a ratio. there are too many factors which can give a lower or higher number. most stock engines do have an acceptable psi range to check for compression loss. but if you change cam or other components you can throw those numbers out the window. a comparison test between cylinders can help diagnose a problem but thats about it.

nah my compression gauge has ratio's and psi on it

i would agree i rather liked my 6x heads ran smothly and my car was pretty quick without much other mods to it

yah well im lookin on ebay and such for no.13 heads and there are some out there i just gotta pay a bit for them

but ill be paying alot less then for edelbrocks

yea getthem there not to shabby so have u replaced your 301 yet??

nope im still in the process of finding a 400 or 455 if i can find one

i would preferably like to get a 400 because 455's are to bad on gas cause its gonna be a day to day application with weekend drags

too bad youn i canada i have a 400 here for sale

and it had 6x heads on it but they need work well hell the whole engine needs work i got it as a fixer upper

yah well what year is yours anyway?

and if i did buy it there is always shipping

but instead of fixing it up i found 76 formula for sale i bought so i bought it instead cause it had a 400 with a hurst 4 speed for 900 bucks i was omg

its from a 73 i think not positive its in storage

haha sweet

yah ive been lookin for a 400 and to make my car a 4spd but i heard the 4 spds are shit and have a long first gear and that you cant put high gears in them

see i found a 79 firebird i bought a while back i am slowly fixing up but i got tired of it i found it for 50 bucks so i said what the hell why not tinker with it but don't have the time or tools to getthat runnin but if i could sell them togethr it would be a hot runnin lil car once fixed up

yah thats cool

and your 400 that u have for sale has 6X heads on it?

this is an aftermarket tranny and it hauls ass im very inpressed with it. it can outrun most other new trans am around and there isn't much mods on it yet

yes it does

ic this after market tranny could be bought where?

because thats what i would like to do or buy a newer tranny from an 80's bird cause i bet the gearing in it would be better

ic this after market tranny could be bought where?

because thats what i would like to do or buy a newer tranny from an 80's bird cause i bet the gearing in it would be better
im not to sure it was already on the car is yours standard or automatic???

you can always have it rebuilt for very cheep old cars are great about getting tranys rebulit for cheep

auto but makin it a standard wouldnt be to hard its just it would be more expensive if i broke stuff like clutch and such but i would still rather a standard for racing cause im not gonna run fast enough to need an auto

just go to a local tranny dealer and tell him what u want they can find them pretty easy

really exelent

but thats after i build my 400 and get it in

cause i would rather do 1 thing at a time and get it done b4 i start on something else or else ill have 60% of a car haha

tru tru but the 400 swap is easy so don't worry too much

i know that its just gettin parts and all that and tryin to pass air care

u interested in my 400??
if so i will let it go for 100 bucks

i am

and is that 100 usd or canadian?

and dose it come with everything if i bought it?

like starter alternator and all that

and do you have pics of it?