Re: 359 head

Posted by HH56 On 2022/7/15 13:48:41

The heads are interchangeable and many aluminum heads were replaced by cast iron when the aluminum corroded or was otherwise damaged. There is a need to use the correct cast iron head from specific years. The wrong one can increase the already high 359 compression ratio to an almost undriveable ratio where no hi octane gas or distributor setting will get rid of the ping. If the car is driving and sounding good then the head should be one of the proper ones.

To check if the entire engine has been replaced look at the motor number stamped on a smoothed pad on the block a few inches above the starter. The 54 359 block will start M6xxxxx. Any other letter is a different year and any second digit other than 6 in conjunction with the M is a smaller engine.