Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Does anybody have any information on these heads. What castings are they based off of. Any flow numbers. Are they worth anything. chamber cc. Intaker runner cc. Any help appreciated

Greenmachine, if my memory is correct they were just ported factory Hi perf heads, a lot better than stock but old inventory 35 years plus, might be decent for a low dollar street machine or drag racer

Depending on the time frame they came from them, they could have been world Sportsman 2's also.

Frank
Advanced Performance
www.get-ap.com

Crane subbed these out to smaller shops.

D.S.S racing (now known for SB fords) did these for Crane. They were factory double hump style castings (and similar)

They did most of the "port" work on a mill and touched them up by hand.

Most of them have cracked by now, early ones had pinned studs and no acc holes, round exhaust ports, they bring $300.00 and up on e-bay that is where I sold mine

I was wondering because their is a guy trying to sell a set he claims they flow 300 cfm. He is asking 500.00 for them . Im going to look at them sometime this weekend.

Greenmachine wrote:I was wondering because their is a guy trying to sell a set he claims they flow 300 cfm. He is asking 500.00 for them . Im going to look at them sometime this weekend.

Maybe he's adding the intake and exhaust flow together

It seems you would be better of not looking at them.

$500 could be getting you that much closer to some decent heads.

Greenmachine wrote:I was wondering because their is a guy trying to sell a set he claims they flow 300 cfm. He is asking 500.00 for them . Im going to look at them sometime this weekend.

Nope not ever at 28 with those. Buy a good set for $500 more and be way ahead.

My 1978 catalog shows several castings.

Crane part numbers 11772 , 11774 , 11775 , and 11776 were all based on the "292" GM castings that had been modified.

Part number 11875 was designed for B and C Super Modified and C Econorail type classes and these were based on " 492 " castings to conform to the rules as written back then.

They also had 13864 for BBC and 38652 for SB Fords.

There was flow data in the catalog for these castings at that time.

If they based on the 292 casting they are decent heads.Just ask big joe what they are capable of.

I saw a few sets in the mid 70s that were 492s and 292s. They were decent heads for the time and would still be well worth 500 if they aren't cracked or been repaired. Word of caution back then it was common to try and cut them to 50 to 52 ccs, if the 292s were cut too much the deck would be too thin and collapse. If either were run on alky they were prone to crack on the intake side of the chamber. To tell if they have been cut too much look at the spark plug cooling hole location. If they still have the groove going from one hole to the next they haven't been cut too much if the holes have been plugged and they are in the fire ring of the head gasket leave them there! Both of these castings came with the ex seat area hardened.

I can not condemn them. They might have been "old School " with perfectly roud ex. ports. I dynoed a motor quite awhile a go with these heads. It was a 350 and made 512hp., respectable at the time. One head cracked,and I convinced the person to buy a set of World Products Sportsman heads (new at the the time). The logic, it would not be cost effective to duplicate the head. The sportsman heads would far out perform the old style heads. The motor lost power. It only made 480 hp., and I could not recover what I had lost. I'm not "bad mouthing" Sportsman heads. The Fireball heads seemed to fit the application. That was years a go and there are a lot of choices today. Put your $500 towards a better set of heads. It does not to pay to spend on outdated peices.

300 cfm, even 290 cfm if there are based a factory Chevy casting means that even the act of bolting then on could crack them!

And the reversion, dirty intake, combustion inefficiency and big delay in the start of the torque band caused by those round exh ports is criminal!

The small block Ford versions:
Those head castings were slated for production in the late 60's on the Ford 302 H.O. which never actually got into production.
Crane bought all those castings from Ford to become their ported "Fireball" heads.
If I remember correctly, they did have round exhaust ports.

At one time I had a set of 026 BBC heads that were stamped Crane fireball.