i have a set of heads the casting numbers at 3932441

im taking them to the machine shop tommmorrow and was wondring what it would take to get these b!tchs to SCREAM i have some flat top pistons with 4 valve reliefs on a 355.......

441s if i remember right have the same flow as the double humps but have 72cc chambers so they will drop compression a little .they were 327 250 hp heads.put 1.6 exaust valves to them and some port work and you will be happy with them.one other plus is they have the bolt holes in them

Good flow, but your static CR will be rather low.... right around 9.0:1 with stock deck height and a 1003 gasket. Not a particularly good recipe for a "screamer".

So, I guess the answer would be, it would take some other motor under them, preferably with many more CI; or, as a poorer alternative, other (domed) pistons.

Personally I'd look for some heads with 64cc or smaller chambers.

Angle mill them and put in 2.02 and 1.6 valves and port them but watch where you do the porting as these heads react well in certain spots but can be detrimental if you just go hog wild. Ralph

hey i have another question......i have some 267 - 305 heads they are 58cc heads and i think they have the same valves and maybe just enterchanging my valves and stuff....... i think it would bump my comp up a bunch....... but i need to have them surfaced and all that......

should i do that or should i just have my other 441 heads surfaced and stuff and use a thin head gasket.....

Ralph67, could you shed some more light on where these heads like to be opened up? I've got a set off a 69 350 I've been thinking of working on. I understand these heads flow similar to the old camel humps and the open chamber 882 heads. I've also heard they aren't prone to cracking like the 882's.

Some of the 305 and 267 heads are good heavy castings and work alright for a street performer if opened up and larger valves installed. I've got a set of reworked 267 heads on a .030 over 350 that surprisingly work really good. I invested about 40 hours of port and bowl work with guages into them though. If you're looking for good castings try and find the ones that are straight along the lower head bolt edge.

personally i would stick with the 441's, because like was mentioned 40 hrs worth of port work on 267/305 heads would cost a buttload of money if you can't do it yourself. i had a set of 441's that were 1972 models and they had 1.60 exhaust valves in them. they are the preferred head to use out of the factory open chambered small block heads, IMO. without knowing anything much about your combo, i would not want to go over about 9.5 to 1 on compression anyway on a factory iron head, if you're wanting to run on pump gas.

Hey Bob those heads like a cleaned up combustion chamber (clean but not real smooth) open up the area just before the valves, ive even seen the guide area relieved, smooth the radius at the bend on the floor and sides and port match the runners. Raise the roof as high as practical and try to stay away from the floor of the port in the runner area up to the bend. What we found was a high wide runner with a re-radiused bend into the chamber creating as straight a line as possible works best. I say stay away from the floor in the runner because in our experiance this area creates serious turbulance we had a set with a 1/4" of epoxy on the floor to try and correct the flow. On the exhaust side again open up the port for a direct flow usually a "D" shape with the roof raised pretty substantially. Remember to port match at the intake and the header as a mis-match will kill you. If you angle plane correct the intake side of the head at the same time, we have used .100" with good success and have gone further on some. The valves respond well with some back-cutting as well. Hope this helps Bob. Ralph

Ralph, Thanks for the info. Interesting what you said about the combustion chamber finish, the last two sets of heads I did ended up being really smooth/polished, I also polished the exhaust valve faces and backsides before cutting them. I noticed the engines seem to take forever to warm up when first started and I think the polishing is the cause. Once warm they run great though. when you say creating as straight a line as possible do you mean towards the back of the valve head or flow across the back of the valve head? I understand about the header mismatch causing problems, I wish all header manufacturers made the port openings larger. It's seems to be even worse with stock bigblock exhaust ports.

Regarding original application...

441s were OEM '69 250 & 255 HP 350 heads. We had 2 of these motors, and both had these heads (250 hp in a Chevelle, and a spare 255 hp motor from an Impala).

Bob towards the back of the valve head, as in as straight line into the chamber. If you want to get real radical we have been known to back cut the valve stems as well, but this is only for all out motors that need all you can give as far as cfm and see regular maintenance.

Cool, thanks for the info. I wonder what these are worth in terms of flow with 2.02/1.60 valves with good port work. 450HP @ 6500 probably with the right selection of parts?

Bob i gotta tell ya we had a set on an oval track car we ran at Toledo (big speed track) and it made more than 500 hp. the motor was pretty radical,6 1/8 rods,diamond pistons yada yada yada... but you had to run those style heads. Man that thing pulled like no tomorrow and ran up to 7500 rpm before dropping off! The biggest restriction was the maintenance on those heads but they worked. Screw in studs are a must and if you angle mill do all your measurements twice as everything moves a little. Ralph

It's interesting to hear what some of these old iron castings can do if worked over correctly, I worked with an ex circle track racer that claimed he pulled 538 dyno HP out of a bored 327 with 462 camelhumps back in the 70's. Not saying the new stuff isn't better, just neat to hear what potential the old iron had.

What about "041s" I have a set of these that I'm considering to use. They are 1.94/1.50 and came off a 70' Monte carlo 0014 block w/4 bbl q-jet. I will be using them on my 0010 4 bolt build up.

even better than the 441's, nicer quench and faster burn I bet. Cut them out to 2.02/1.60 valves and they'll be like new. No hardened seats in these heads though, might want to consider hardened exhaust seats.

how do these 441s compare to 882s?

Originally posted by thunderstruck507:
how do these 441s compare to 882s? according to a book i have on chevy small blocks they say the 441 is a very good head, good casting, and was basically the first step away from a high performance head with the increased chamber size (decreased compression). the same book says that if you buy an engine that has 882 heads they should be discarded. the book says they are a weak casting and not worth keeping. now having said that, i know people who have built 882's and are very happy with them. i am just repeating what the book said. as for myself i have had 441's, 882's and 186 (double humps). i now have Dart Iron Eagles, believe me there is NO comparison, even to the 186's. i wish i would have saved a lot of time and money and gone to the eagles at the very first.

I think I have that book now that I think about it...

Hhhmm just curious, my dad seems to have had good luck with them