Show your rare chevy parts..

[novadude]

Do we know why they abandoned the aluminum head program in 1960? What issues were they having?

It would be interesting to get these on a flow bench and see if they are actually any different than 461 heads.

[black69]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: novadude</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Do we know why they abandoned the aluminum head program in 1960? What issues were they having?

It would be interesting to get these on a flow bench and see if they are actually any different than 461 heads. </div></div>

That's a great question. What I do believe they did hit the 315HP target mark on a 60 283 fuelie (same rating as 1961 with cast iron 461x heads), as I do believe all they were going for was endurance testing verification. I read they had water passage cracking issues, warping, no steel valve guides, etc. Not exactly reliable. The metallurgy of the heads just were off, and that killed them.


I read somewhere, the new head gasket technology that exists today (o-ring), may solve the issues <span style="font-style: italic">some</span> of these early heads would have had.