Thread: Help Me Pick Some Heads For Christmas Present

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Originally Posted by Nuckingfuts

I've gotten through some of the reading regarding cam choices and their relation with regard to CR but I'm still getting hung up on the proverbial "did the chicken or egg come first?". In my case, do I install the heads or cam first?

What's the proper approach here if I want to target a SCR of 9.5:1 (assuming iron heads), do I

a) Choose a cam that best works for 9.5:1 then install heads/shim gaskets (and possibly pistons) to achieve the target SCR?
b) Choose a head to achieve my target SCR first, then install a cam that works best for the new SCR
c) Match, spec and install the cam and heads at the same time

Ideally I would think option 'c' would be the correct answer but because of constraints, this option is out. If I go with option 'a' do I just use my target set up to make the choice? This puts me back to square one, choosing a set of heads to increase my SCR which after established would help me to choose the proper cam per everyone's advice. Thoughts?

Remember I said earlier that the last two things you buy for a project are the cam and the torque converter?

I was under the impression that you were not going to change pistons. Are you going to leave the stock pistons in the block or change them out? Because that could change the whole complexion of this project. You might begin thinking 383.

It's just a matter of alloting a certain amount of money per month to the project. Few of us have had a lump of cash to build what we wanted to right out of the box. I used to work on a $50/week budget in the early days. Sometimes a project would take 5 or 6 years to fruition, but it was something that I loved doing, so I kept at it. Mama was good with it because it kept me close to home. I remember waiting 10 weeks to buy a set of coilover shocks on a roadster project.

The closer I got to finished on a project, the more interest there was among my friends and their friends and sometimes, someone would offer me more money for the project than I thought it was worth at that point and it would go down the road and that would give me a jump-start on the next project. That's what happened to my 392 hemi in an MGA roadster on a chopped Galaxie chassis and my '27T roadster on a homebuilt 2" X 6" chassis with a 429/C6/9" projects, as well as several others. Some other projects, like the VW bug on a '62 Olds Starfire chassis with a 394 were stillborn and sold off for parts. Not everything turns out like you envision it. For me, it was always about the building it, rather than the driving of it.

I keep thinkin' that there is one more project in me and that's what keeps me going at my age. I would love to do a blown 302 in a Miata with a paddle-shifted 6-speed. That's one that I would want to drive.......
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