[DeTomaso] What's a good price for a cleveland motor?

[Barry Seib]

Hard to beat the value for money in a good set of 4V closed chamber heads on
a 351C. If you use either CC head, I think it's really worthwhile to zero
deck and make sure your quench area is close to 0.035" - 0.040". If you
don't do that, a lot of the advantage of the CC heads is lost.

Some people prefer 2V CC heads, but personally, I think they are more
suitable for a heavy vehicle or towing, etc. than a "sports car". That's
just my feeling and there are lots who think differently.

I've heard that the 4V open chamber heads are very useful on a 400 or other
long stroke builds because the bigger chambers help keep the CR down if you
don't want to buy dished pistons.

Mention has been made of aluminum heads and while the weight saving is very
real, I've read that iron heads make more power at the same CR because they
lose a lot less energy (heat) to the cooling jacket than aluminum. This
leaves more in the chamber to force the piston down, so most or all the gain
from the higher ratio allowed with alum heads is offset by losses to the
coolant as compared to iron heads. I'm not saying aluminum is not
worthwhile, but there are some benefits to the iron heads besides lower
costs.

If you want to learn about clevelands, I suggest you google > cleveland Dan
Jones <.

This link has some stuff:

search for Dan Jones on here too

http://www.network54.com/Forum/119419


Barry


-----Original Message-----
From: cullen mccann [mailto:clarkwgriswold2nd at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 4:02 PM
To: 'Barry Seib'; 'DetomasoList'
Subject: RE: [DeTomaso] What's a good price for a cleveland motor?


".....US market 2V heads are pretty close to worthless.

Only the closed chamber 2V Australian heads have any value......."

got it...I think......I have been trying to follow all of the head casting
discussion...its very interesting...but it does seem that opinions are still
somewhat across the board. Seems like there are factory 2v and 4v heads,
open and closed chamber, then the 2V Australian heads, then the gamut of
aftermarket heads both iron and aluminum....and a slew of opinions about
what has performance potential and what doesn't, and what's the best bang
for the buck....for any given application...either race or street...

it *seems* that one can conclude that the best factory casting heads (for a
450 hp +/- street application) are the closed chamber 2V Australian heads,
and with aftermarket heads that CHI 3v's are very popular....haven't really
heard anyone say they DON'T like them....

if you can't or don't have a set of Australian 2V heads, what's the next
best thing in a factory casting? Closed chambered 4v's? I know this is kind
beat to death but I am trying to conclude my understanding...basically
asking what the best iron head options are in order from best to worst.

first best = Australian 2V
second = US closed chambered 4V
third = US open chambered 4V
worst = US 2V

????????

Reason why I ask is I might run a factory style iron head until I get my
other issues sorted out like keeping the body intact....LOL....then buy the
dream set of aluminum heads later...