heads

[68gtx]

planning my future 440 build, anyone use the 440 source stealth heads??? pretty cheap when comparig rebuilding one of the 516 sets i have, would an aluminum head make sense on a 10:1 motor?thius is going to be a purely street build

 

[IQ52]

They will way outflow and good set of 516s. However, there is a reason they are less expensive than other heads. Out of the box they are of lesser value. They can be made to work fine.

Do you wish to extend the effort to do so?

Never buy an aftermarket head (anyone's) and just bolt it on, you risk destroying your engine. Disassemble the heads and check for straightness, seat and valve roundness, spring pressures & installed height, combustion chamber volume, gasket fitment, valve guide clearance. Throw away the Stealth retainers and locks and purchase good ones. Even 440 Source offers an upgrade for the locks and retainers. The Stealth ports will need to be touched up to even equal the flows of the RPM Performer.

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

I am using them and they are fine, lots of power and no issues. I have not done anything extra to them and seem to have some good foot stomping power. The only thing I did have to do was machine out a bit of material around the push rod ports to make sure the rods did not rub up against the sides, took about 5 min a head. and was fun. Used with a 493 stroker kit and smoky tires you will have

 

[goose69]

I haven't used the stealth heads before but like IQ52 mentioned "never buy an aftermarket head and just bolt it on" , this is good advice. I worked at a local speed shop and got a deal on some new fully assembled Edelbrock RPM heads from Edelbrock so I bought them. Well good thing my machinist and I looked them over really good. The seat pressure was all over the board! some of the other tolerances were questionable too. Now these may have worked on many motors out there but we were really picky on how this motor was going together. I called Edelbrock & they had them picked up & checked at their factory/assembly center. I was told they were within their tolerances.
Long story short I returned them and bought Edelbrock BARE castings and loaded them up myself to our own specs, ported & polished them and decked them to what we wanted.
I would say do some real thinking on what you want from your motor and your budget then go from there. You can still build a nasty motor with iron heads if you so desire, but look at cost.
Good luck!!

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

I'll let you know if my motor grenades because of the stealth heads. I think the first batch had issues 8 years ago or something like that and 440source gave people crap about returning them or fixing them so it's understandable that some are angry and automatically bash them, it's true 440source does recommend the comp cam stiffer spring retainer locks but only if you are running a cam with a lift of .510 or more which most people are. But like you said you have a street build and with that swapping to the stealth heads will give you more power out of the box. I am running a stroker 493 with gross exhaust lift of 538 and gross intake lift of 534, will my stealth heads be able to handle it? only time will tell I guess but they are still going so far. Good luck I think you will be fine and happy.

 

[robinsonwr]

Just bought Stealth heads for my 512 build that will find a home in my 66' Satellite. They look like really good pieces but I will definately disassemble and check components. Do not know if the springs are going to work yet with my XR286HR Comp Cam hydraulic roller or not. You could machine the 516 heads and buy components for what you will pay for a set of Stealths. I have two sets of big chrysler heads (516's & 236's). I figured out the cost vise what my return was on investment would be. Outcome was weight savings, higher pump gas compression ratios, better flow numbers out of the box, and for right around the same money as reviving a set of forty year old heads. The cost benefit analysis worked for me and I was sold. The fact is it depends on what you want. Oh the other great thing is they are stock appearing when painted turqoise or orange.

 

[robinsonwr]

Remember with an aluminum head you can run about one point more compression. My 512 build will have a pump gas friendly 10.8-11.2:1 compression ratio. We just finished a 440/500' build with a three two electronic fuel injection system and it made 638 TQ @ 4900 and 640 HP before 6000 RPM. That engine had a set of Indy EZ's with 11:1 compression and the numbers were on 93 octane gas.