A buddy just fixed me up with some 340 springs! So my next step is to purchase oversize valves from enginebuilder. For those of you that have made this purchase already, should I get spring retainers and valve locks from him as well or from another source? I did not see these on his site. Thank you for your help.

_________________
66 Lil' Red Piggie Valiant (Mater Crusher) - Thanks Zilla!!!!! 72 Demon (Number 1 Son's)

I have just got a set of those valves from Engnbldr and they came with locks.
have'nt used them yet.

regards,Rod

Definitely get the locks. Not a bad idea to get retainers from him too, if he can package them.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks for your help guys! Looks like the cylinder head may be a good fall/winter project while I am slowly collecting parts.

_________________
66 Lil' Red Piggie Valiant (Mater Crusher) - Thanks Zilla!!!!! 72 Demon (Number 1 Son's)

My last head was a longer term project that was supposed to be for my "race" engine. It has the engnbldr valves too. As it turned out I had to steal it off the shelf for my Valiant as the machine shop didn't finish the Valiant's head in time. The results with the ported head were very good though. I put the engine back together with the ported head, Offy intake, 390 Holley carb and 2 1/4" exhaust. I went from mid 19 second 1/4 mile ETs to about 17 flat at 79 MPH. The engine is now a true 8.5:1 compression ratio and has the wimpy stock cam, but it sure runs much better! The Valiant weighs about 3k lbs and I weigh about 190. The 1/4 mile MPH to horsepower calculators estimate I went from 83hp to 124hp which is nearly a 50% increase.

I can say that Comp Cams retainers look better than the engnbldr retainers. The Comp retainers are smoother and do not have tooling marks on them. The down side is the Comp retainers alone cost what the engnbldr 340 style springs and retainers cost together.

_________________
Joshua

Wow big difference! Josh did you do your own porting?

_________________
66 Lil' Red Piggie Valiant (Mater Crusher) - Thanks Zilla!!!!! 72 Demon (Number 1 Son's)

Yes, I did my own porting work. No flow numbers or anything. Just the time slips which really surprised and tickled me. Too bad I didn't win a round all weekend though. The car is moving so much faster off the line... I need to slow down a bit and quit this red lighting nonsense. -.011 is no good!

What initially prompted the head swap was oil passing by the intake guides which led me to find leaking exhaust valves as told in my Leaky Valve Fixx thread. Still using oil, but I don't see any blue smoke so the engine will stay this way for the time being. When the 4-speed goes in I'll pair it with a fresh short block.

_________________
Joshua