High compression 360 heads

Wiseco pistons have a slightly smaller dish than stock that will give you a small bump in compression or use their flat tops instead and run E85.

purple72Gremlin wrote: Make sure you run a 360 flywheel.or faceplate. The 360 will run much better than the 304 in stock form...

Thanks, I actually ran into the flywheel issue when I installed the 304. I'll be sure to get a 360 flywheel when the time comes. I'm sure the 360 will run better but I figured I might as well get the most out of it since I'll have to get machine work done anyways.

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Thanks for the response. The casting number on my heads are, 3231475-2. I looked them up a while back and found that they were later heads with the big combustion chambers. My short block will require some machine work because it has some very mild pitting in the cylinders from being in storage. So I'll have to get new pistons anyways. Do you think it would be worthwhile trying to find the 502 heads or should I just get my current heads rebuilt and get some pistons that will bring my compression ratio into the 9.5-1 range? Basically as long as I can make somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 horsepower I'll be happy. [/QUOTE]

It certainly can't hurt to search for a pair of 502s. Maybe someone right in Vacaville, Sacramento or Frisco has a set, you never know until you try. Heck they may be in better condition than your presents heads. Check Craigslist or place a want ad on it.

A bit more advice, the block deck and head mating surface will probably need to be cleaned up regardless. Ask you machinist to mill the absolute least off the two surfaces ( one to three thousands ) if he can do that.

or, I believe Cometic makes head gaskets for AMC V8s in different compressed thicknesses. If too much needs to be milled off one or the other, the difference can be made up with a head gasket, without resulting in machining the intake manifold as well.


Edited by White70JavelinSST - Sep/13/2017 at 8:56am

11.3:1~ for a 63cc chamber and a .04 piston quench.

A little less really because of chamfers and a 4.28 head gasket.

About 12:1 with a 58CC head.

I think I have decided what to do. I found a 360 for sale that is in better shape than my engine and it includes a good set of 502 heads. If I get a set of the bull tear 9.5 pistons it will give me the compression ratio I'm looking for and hopefully still be streetable on crappy premium California gas. After looking at my current block I'm fairly certain that it's not going to be salvageable since it's already .030 over and has some noticeable pitting in the cylinders. I've been looking at cams but haven't settled on one yet. I'd like a cam that will give me some decent mid range torque while still being able to give me some top end power. I looked at the comp 268h but I'm not sure it's got the duration I'm looking for with this combo. Any suggestions?