[blues balls]

"The 360 and larger heads came with 2.02 intake and 1.685 exhaust valves. Also if one wants to have a motor that will turn some higher RPM's, then it is easy to use a 11/32" vavle stem instead of the stock 3/8". This allows for higher RPM, and the reduced weight will benifit the horsepower numbers. Chevy valves are almost direct drop-ins in this case."


Pulled that off a site and was very interested in finding out more. Unfortuanately they have no contact info that I could locate. So I thought I'd ask here.

What I'm doing is dropping 360 heads on my 304... But I need valves. as you might imagine AMC valaves are getting more expensive everyday and more rare too. so this interested me. Anyone familiar with Using Chevy valves in the AMC heads. Particularly the part about "almost drop-ins"?

 

[Mo]

you get that at froadin.com?

 

[Mo]

What I'm doing is dropping 360 heads on my 304... But I need valves. as you might imagine AMC valaves are getting more expensive everyday and more rare too. so this interested me. Anyone familiar with Using Chevy valves in the AMC heads. Particularly the part about "almost drop-ins"?

why not just drop in the whole 360??? It's as simple as

disconnect bellhousing
disconnect fuel and electrical connections
disconnect radiator
remove engine
connect radiator
connect fuel/electrical connections
connect bellhousing.

 

[blues balls]

Why not put the whole 360 in? cause I only have the heads and not the whole engine. Plus my 304 is runnning strong. The reason for swapping the heads was that I have a hairline crack behind #8 cylinder in the water jacket, and I figured rather than swapping to 304 heads, why not grab some more torque with some 360 heads... and a whole engine swap due to a crack in the head didn't warrant me swapping a whole engine. A crack in the block... SURE. kinda like your water pump goes out.. you gonna swap the whole engine..

yep, read this on Froadin' but it didn't go into any explainations as to what "almost dropin" means

 

[muttly]

I'm runnin' a 360 and I got chrysler valves. Try http://pub8.ezboard.com/bamcforum, they know it all...

 

[madmarx]

Blue Balls, I think you REALLY need to research this before you do it. I am 99.99999999999% certain that the valves on a 360/401 head will hit the cylinder walls on a 304. I believe you need to flycut the cylinder walls to get the clearance needed to fit the valves.

 

[rockcrawler304]

Blue Balls, I think you REALLY need to research this before you do it. I am 99.99999999999% certain that the valves on a 360/401 head will hit the cylinder walls on a 304. I believe you need to flycut the cylinder walls to get the clearance needed to fit the valves.

I know the valves will NOT hit the cylinder walls. I have done the swap from 304 to 360 heads on 3 different 304 blocks with no problem. The main thing to look for is the correct casting number heads. It's been a while so I forget the GOOD number to look for but if you get the heads with the bigger combustion chambers you will loose a lot of power and torque.

As for the chevy valves....sorry but I can't help there. Never heard of it.
Anyways, I hope this helps and GOOD LUCK!!

 

[Hammer]

By almost dropping in I meant you have to replace the valve guides as well.

And the heads matter for valve clearance issues with the cylinder wall. But IMO, it is all wasted effort even if they don't hit because these larger valves in the smaller bore motor will be quite shrouded. And you will loose more then you gain for most motor combinations.
You will absolutely gain more power by running an appropriate size valve and doing some bowl work on the heads. These are the biggest bottleneck in AMC heads, especially in the 304 castings.
Btw, I don't list much in the way of contacting me mainly because I rarely have time to look at my own site and answer questions.
But I have listed my email in a few places. And the site is all mine, so any email there I will get.

Oh, and the link to http://pub8.ezboard.com/bamcforum is a great one. Lot of guys there that really know their stuff. And have stayed current with AMC trends, unlike me.

 

[jeep family]

Just rebuilt a 360 and the shop wanted $180 for new vavles Found another set of 360 heads and one was cracked but the valves were in good shape. do you need them? Let me know. I also have two more sets of 304 heads sitting around as well.