304 heads, chamber size, compression ratio, cast#?

Everything you wanted to know about AMC V8 head castings courtesy Dave Crooks.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/david.crooks/AMC_HEAD_DESIGN.pdf

bigbad69 wrote: Everything you wanted to know about AMC V8 head castings courtesy Dave Crooks. http://www3.sympatico.ca/david.crooks/AMC_HEAD_DESIGN.pdf

Mean71 wrote: I'm no expert on the matter, but I believe the early '71 heads are about 8-10 cc's smaller than the later '71+ heads.  I heard you can mill the heads to get about .2 points of compression, but even if you're gonna get the engine machined, put on the smaller chamber heads,  and if you got higher compression pistons it's still only gonna come up to about a 15-25 hp gain.  304's aren't very good for building up...in the long run you're kind of just throwing money away.  The same improvements would give you twice an improvement in a 360 or 401.  In my opinion, the best thing you can do that would be worth your money would be to get a 4bbl set up and maybe some headers.   That should put you up to about 180-190 net hp.

pauldana wrote: Mean71 wrote: I'm no expert on the matter, but I believe the early '71 heads are about 8-10 cc's smaller than the later '71+ heads.  I heard you can mill the heads to get about .2 points of compression, but even if you're gonna get the engine machined, put on the smaller chamber heads,  and if you got higher compression pistons it's still only gonna come up to about a 15-25 hp gain.  304's aren't very good for building up...in the long run you're kind of just throwing money away.  The same improvements would give you twice an improvement in a 360 or 401.  In my opinion, the best thing you can do that would be worth your money would be to get a 4bbl set up and maybe some headers.   That should put you up to about 180-190 net hp. with a good cam change and some good head work, and of course manifold changes, i believe i should be able to get 300hp and ~375 tq.... these should not be hard to reach numbers...  i got 440tq and 460hp at the rear wheels through an irs rear-end, from my 383 build.... thats well over 550 at the crank.... im only looking for 300 out of the AMC 304///......

The heads on the 304 are pretty pitiful--trust me, I've looked up all of this before because I have a 304 in my Javelin.  There was a guy on here that did everything you want to do plus he bored and stroked the engine and only made about 280 gross rated hp.   With a 360 no, those numbers wouldn't be hard to reach.   Unfortunately the 304 doesn't react much to performance upgrades...  I'm sure you could buy some nice heads for a 304, get a nice cam and do a bunch of machining, but by the time it's all said and done you could have built yourself a 360 with more horsepower for the same amount of money.

Actually, if you look up my older posts, I came on these forums originally hoping to do the same thing as you.  I've seen people literally giving away 360's.


Edited by Mean71 - Oct/20/2010 at 2:58pm

I agree - good luck............ it's not just CID, it's pumping efficiency. The 304 ain't got it, and has trouble getting it.