Re: Aluminum Head?

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2018/4/2 10:27:38

No. The aluminum head was needed to cope with the 8.7 CR, about as high as practical with an L-head configuration. The cast iron head may raise the CR even more, be less capable of handling the heat, and almost with absolute certainty give rise to preignition problems. Simply retarding the timing is a poor choice, forget about double head gaskets, there is some success reported by reworking the centrifugal spark advance but all things considered you probably will never quite achieve the level of performance the engine had when new with it's aluminum head. I replaced a failed aluminum head on my '54 Patrician with a 327 head back in the 70s, and lived with the timing/preignition issues to one degree or another for as long as I owned the car.

If going to a cast iron head, there are probably better choices than the 327 head, one with a lower CR.

Ross Miller is probably the best person to address this question, he's been thru this a number of times. If he doesn't catch this and respond here you might send him a PM.