Hi,
Nathan Lovern here.I got my 62 Chrysler New Yorker from my brother who passed away and I found out that he for some reason put 383 heads on the 413. He said it never ran right. I took my intake and heads off the 413 and found alot of trouble. First the head gaskets that were on the motor covered up the water passaged in between the cylinders on the block and the heads dont even match the water passage holes on the block.
I read everywhere that 383 heads would work.
Second I found a bent pushrod on the drivers side and a small dent in the piston. and the piston behind that one had a small valve dent also. How could this have occured? Would the small cresect moon shapes hurt the pistons?
The motor ran ok. The timeing chain couldnt have been the problem. The valves were in thier heads.
Any advice?
Thanks
Nathan Lovern,va
58 Plymouth Plaza
62 Chrysler New Yorker

 

a small nik on the top of the pistons wont hurt anything.
the valves hitting the pistons sounds like the cam was never synced up with the motor.

 

THERE ARE NO ISSUES with BB/ RB heads, other than possibly the "weirdo's" used on heavy trucks, but these are easily identified, as they use a completely different water connection/ pump, etc. In other words, just about any 361/383/413/400/426 (wedge) or 440 head should work on any big block.

I don't know if the heavy 413 head gaskets are different or not.

Here's a picture of the "heavy truck" water pump housing, which connects to the heads:

http://440source.com/1001076.jpg

Believe it or not, under all this crap, is a perfectly good 413 BLOCK

http://media.photobucket.com/image/4...charger073.jpg

Some more picture in this thread:

http://www.ramchargercentral.com/tec...strial%27-413/

I don't remember anymore, some of the early engines used different pushrods--I had a 440 with adjustable factory rockers, used different pushrods, but---

If you get, say, a complete setup off a "raised block" (RB) I.E. 413/426/440, the pushrods and rockers should fit. Pushrods on the "short stroke" (low block) I.E. 361/383/400 engines are shorter.

The low block engines use a narrower intake, shorter pushrods, and shorter distributor. Heads and rockers should work.

 

I swear I responded to this thread a long long time ago.

383 and 413 heads are completely interchangeable. Push rod length does not change with heads and is dependent on the engine. If you are using the original pushrods then you are fine. 383 push rods would be shorter if anything and physically will not work. 413 push rods are the same as 426 wedge and 440 wedge push rods.

A bent push rod can be caused by a few things. The valve could be stuck in the head. The motor could have been over revved to the point of valve float. Or the Timing could have jumped a tooth. Something solid could have gone down into the cylinder causing the valve to hit. The nick on the piston wont hurt anything assuming the valve didn't bend.

As far as head gaskets and water passages not lining up, The gasket will seal off some of the passages, restrict others and allow others to flow. Do not expect all the passages to match up to the head gasket and the head exactly.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the help. Would anyone know what years 383 heads will work. The head gaskets are the same up to 1966. The heads my brother used are 2843906 which is 68-70 383/440 heads.
So the water pasages in the heads isnt soppose to match up to the block? The head gasket covered the center ons up on the block.
Thanks

 

Those are good heads. They will work fine. Most headgaskets list years 1958 to 1979 big block.

 

The main differences in heads over the years are different shape/ sizes of ports and combustion chambers, and in the case of later model heads, better seats for low-lead gasoline. Gaskets should be the same. If your book shows a difference, it probably was something like thinner "shim" gaskets earlier, and composition gaskets later.

Here's a page with casting no's:

http://www.mymopar.com/headcastnumb.htm

It used to be that the "915" heads used in 67 were considered to be the 'best' heads until better aftermarket heads came along.

 

Here is the skinny on factory iron heads. The 915s have good closed chambers that help with quench and combustion effenciency. There is very little change in port shape through out the years from the 915 to the 906 to what ever they used in the 70s. The 906s have bigger valves than the 915 but the 915 has the better combustion chamber design. If you open the 915s up to the bigger valve size and blend the seat in properly, you will have the good flow characteristics of the bigger exhaust valve size in the 906 with the good combustion chamber shape of the 915. They are all interchangeable though.