Re: [FWDLK] Wanted: 383 cylinder head(s) for '59 Dodge

----- Original Message -----

Does anyone have anything for sale that would work for me?

I'm having my '59 Dodge (D500) engine rebuilt and the machine shop found hairline cracks on one of the heads around the bolt holes for the intake manifold. They said they can probably repair the head, but I thought I'd see if anyone is selling any. I think I have 3 choices:

1) See if I can find a single matching head (same valve and port sizes to minimize machining requirements)
2) Buy a pair of heads that match each other.
3) Have the machine shop repair what I have.

Given that I was also going to retrofit the car with an alternator, I was considering having the bolt holes tapped in the passenger side head to match the '62 alternator bracketry I have instead of using an adapter on the exhaust manifold generator mount (in an attempt to minimize risk of exh manifold leak). Now that I have to replace at least one head, perhaps it would make most sense to use a head that is already tapped from the factory ('61/'62, right?) but I don't know if any of those heads would match the "good" '59 one that I have or if I need to plan to buy a matched pair (not that I expect it to be easy to buy a single head instead of a pair).

IIRC, they were all over the map on valve sizes, etc over those three years and across models. As for port sizes/runners etc, I have no clue.

Hmm, also, what about 413 heads?

Any leads or advice is welcomed!

Thanks,
Lou

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At the time of my engine rebuild for the DeSoto, I had a lot of motorhead friends who were pushing me to make a go-fast

engine out of it. I wasn't interested in the losing battle of weight vs. all it would take to make it go fast, and angled more for

mild improvement (if possible) and better fuel economy. What my "scientist" friends and I arrived at was a head and cam

change, and as it pertains to your question, I will relate that part here.

After 63 (?) Mother Mopar got tired of the leak-prone 4-bolt valve covers and went to a six-bolt pattern. The valve sizes

remained fairly small until 1967, when the 915 closed chamber heads were introduced. These had much larger valve

porting, but kept a tight combustion chamber for higher compression. In 1968, the 906 head was introduced with large

valves, but an open chamber, reducing compression.

Upon sage advice of my motorhead / builder friends, since I wanted a driver and not a racer, and angling for the greatest

fuel economy without loss of power, the 906 head was chosen, with a Crane cam of some specs that everyone felt would

maximize my interests.

Wanting to keep the car as stock in appearance as possible, I found the earliest 6-bolt valve covers I could, that had the

same general shape (later ones were more rounded off on some corners if I remember right?), but more importantly, lacked

most of the welded-on bracketing that the later ones got. I removed what was there so they were "clean" like the 50's 4-bolt

units, welded up the holes, prepped and painted, and except for the two extra bolts, the system largely looks like a dead-

original 1958 top end.

On the "up" side, the difference in go-fast was stout, and my mileage over a cross-country trip was a 75% improvement over

the pre-changeover fuel economy ! And all this while running on the WRONG pushrods - a mistake I would not figure out

until I got back home.

The early heads for all B/RB blocks are the same from year-to-year. You want to look for casting numbers and work a "science"

off of that. What was impressed on me at the time was that the small valve size early heads can only be worked so far and were

a large factor in limiting performance before engineers got wise in the muscle car era and opened them up. While time is making

my memory fuzzy on the details now, the best easy and cheap fix possible was locating the 906 casting number heads and giving

them a rebuild and slapping them on with a matching cam.

As an aside, my friends told me to stick with the original push rods. This was wrong and I ran the aforementioned trip with slightly

open valves that burned up several sets of mufflers before I got home. In spite of it, the car have solid lift-off and did great for fuel

consumption. I plan a more thorough rebuild / tweaking with a windage tray, finer carb tuning, higher gear ratios, and hope to break

30 mpg for open road running.

Let us know what happens.