Making Aluminum Heads Legal for all SuperStockers

[Mark Callanan]

Originally Posted by 69ss/rs

Mark Callanan, let's not get dumb.Nobody is saying get away from the basic combination. I don't know if you own a SuperStocker, but with us being able to port and polish intake,exhaust ports, along with the combustion chambers what is the difference than the material the head is made from? Like I said before, sink close to 7500.00 into a good set of iron heads and see what it cost to fix it if one or both get hurt as compared to aluminum. I didn't say change carb,compression or any of the original combo. The aluminum heads usually come with the mods that we pay so much to the Head guys to perform.

Yeah thats it keep making things better ...
So what do you want next?
How do you want to water down stock / ss racing?
Give us a few ideas???
And as sad as this is 7500 isnt anything for parts for a class engine...( or most parts for one)
It is called step up or find anouther class to race

[Jeff Lee]

I agree with allowing aftermarket replacement heads on any Superstock. Heck, probably Stock as well. Reason being is what's good for the goose is good for the gander. That's what grandpa used to say.
If your argument is "you knew what was in the rulebook when you started racing SS" well, no.
At one time you could look through the blueprint or casting numbers and determine if you should or should not build a particular engine. Maybe you found an advantageous set of heads. You build your car. A few years go by and now your competitors, the ones who may have had inferior heads from the factory, now have a "one size fits all" and all of the sudden that lowly go to the grocery store engine is a killer. So why does one segment deserve these wonderful choices and not the other? Who wants to shut the door on the rest of us? That would be those that want to preserve their own advantages (recent advantages I should point out) to retain an un-level playing field or as X-Tech stated, want a corner on a market.
So I'm not even arguing price. High prices are a given in SS (and Stock higher classes). I'm arguing equal opportunity for all. Edelbrock makes heads for almost every brand out there, even the lowly AMC. You can even find aluminum heads for Cadillac.

[Frank Bialas]

Originally Posted by x-tech man

someone needs to get edelbrock to reproduce the max wedge heads and 383/440 heads accurately with the correct valve size and c.c's in alum. (along with others) and get nhra to approve them. Someone went out of their way to do the same for the 428 cj fords and 427 ford fe medium riser heads and nhra deemed them legal replacements in stock and s/s in the past. The gm alum head was made a legal replacement for stock and s/s even though the exhaust ports are wrong, the intake port is a cross between a square port and an oval port and they came with 11/32 stem valve guides which was a pain to make into 3/8 size. That material was hard as hell to cut or hone. I wont even mention the latest gm intake manifold for big blocks that was made a legal replacement with the plenum cut resembling the l88 intake (also known as the "grumpy" modification.) so whats wrong with making it fair for the mopar guys and the amc, olds, buick, and pontiac guys also? As far as you guys bitching about "rules changes" this has been going on for a long time for the fords and gm big blocks.

thank you, would be nice for the b-body mopar if no hp adjustment and it made a difference, can always use a little help chasing a 396!!!

[Casper68]

Allowing aluminum heads, across the board, would seem to put all of those cast iron head combos at a disadvantage instantly. As previously stated, the aluminum heads will come with many benefits the cast iron heads do not have initially. I do not have a SS, but hope to graduate from Stock eventually. Running and older car, I would not want to see my efforts in developing a combo from '1968 available pieces', next to the same car with new parts.....it would certainly make entry into the class easier, but seems to further distance from anything left in the 'stock' part of the class. Their are plenty of newer alum head class combos, so I would say don't water down the old iron just yet. Just my 2 cents....so, I probably owe ya'll a dollar.

[69ss/rs]

Casper 68, that is what I have been saying. If you are planning on making the move in the future from Stock to SuperStock, you are going to have to pay alot of money to upgrade the heads you have now to be competitive. Saying that do you want to take the chance that those heads will not leak,crack or fall apart shortly after you have bolted them on. Or would you rather start with a new fresh set of heads. I have a 69 engine combo, so any heads that I use have to be produced before 70; and when you start welding , grinding and doing what they do on 30 plus year old stuff, you don't know what you will end up with.

[69ss/rs]

Mark Callanan, did you not read the original post; I said SuperStock, not Stock. I can tell you don't own a SuperStocker or you would know what I am talking about. If the manufacturers still produced these heads I wouldn't have a problem, but they don't. If you have and older combo the head supplies are getting limited along with the quality, and if NHRA doesn't address this issue soon than there won't be any older motor combos out there any more. So as you put it stepping up isn't the problem. Mopar is the only one that has stepped up by producing new old stock for the Hemi.

[Ernie Neal]

Definately no to the aluminum head suggestion. I don't where you get the cheap to repair thing. I had to get all my seats replaced with a better material for the seats were being beat into the aluminum. Ernie

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by Bob Pagano

Terry the GM heads have a gm part # I dont know about the fords, if the fords dont then you mite have a case. Also the next question will be can he sell Max heads, or is the market big enough. NSS can run any head so that cuts into that count. I will email and see what kind of response I get.

Bob,

Mopars answer to this problem should be putting a part no. on Indy heads and then you'll hear the Chevy boy cry foul!

JimR

[PONTIAC'S REVENGE]

Good question!

As I understand it, and it was true in our case, that the aluminum heads are only considered as a replacement when the heads are extremely rare and almost unattainable. To purchase a set of Pontiac hypo heads, for example, your looking at $3k-$4k for castings that more than likely have been welded or leak, if you can find them at all. I bought 3 sets before I could even start porting and it took 4 years to find them!!! The "don't go chrome it" car collector guys are all over that stuff making it very difficult to run your favorite combo.

I cant think of any logical reason to open it up to plentiful heads that you can still find readily attainable and affordable.

As a business owner I think NHRA should move this direction in certain cases on a strick individual basis. It took Lynn several years to get ours approved, but if you have a legitimate case and are persistent NHRA will listen.

As all these combos start getting older, I'd hate to see some of the older hypo cars disappear because the manufacturer is oob or unwilling to participate. Hats off to you guys that happen to have a manufacturer that willing to participate. Its way easier for NHRA to deal with an aftermarket company that's a potential sponsor. The big three are too busy trying to survive against all imports and the epa

Stacy McCarty
GTAA PONTIAC'S REVENGE

[Mike Keener]

Personally I don't see any problem with begining a blend of approved aluminum heads into the mix in SS as long as racers wishing to run their current iron headed combo's can run off their status quo index and HP factors. In other words if you want to run your 327-275 Chevy with iron heads- you can. If you elect to run the aluminum replacement head at a new HP factor that's fine as well.

What we don't want or need is being forced to build new heads to be competitive because of any rule change. This way everybody wins and the "have your cake and eat it too" theory is alive and well.

There are already plenty of classes where an aluminum head and a cast iron head combo already exist so in reality much of the system I speak of is already taking place. And, let's face it, sooner or later alumminum and cast iron replacement heads will have to be accepted for the very reasons Stacy pointed out in his thread.

I can certainly understand the reluctance of any racer not wishing to pour the cost to prep a set of competitive SS heads into a pair of 30 year old castings never knowing how long they will hold up.

Mike Keener