Hi everyone

I always read in forums that If someone has a smog engine one of the best modifications will be to swap the stock LA Cylinder Head to a Magnum Cylinder head due to this one will have best compression and will make best power, best MPG and a smooth ride.

I was looking for a pair of Magnum Cylinder Heads on ebay and they're cheap but I don't find Magnum R/T Cylinder head.

Really worth making this change using the stock pistons?

 

The heads from the last of the LA engines are good. The magnum heads require more parts than just a swap.. Lifters, push rods, head bolts, change to Magnum intake, rocker arms

 

In my case my engine is not one of the last LA engines, mine is a low compression 1974 360 LA. I was thinking about to consider a cylinder head swap in a near future to raise a bit my engine compression and get extra power for my car. So the change will not worth?

EDIT: I was looking at hughesengines web site and they sell magnum cylinder head with LA Bolt Pattern like this also they too sell Edelbrock perfomer intake manifold that fits in Magnum Cylinder head

 

the magnum heads will bolt on but theres more to it than just that. and honsstly i wouldnt waist my time with them. there are far better choices out there. there is no diffrence between a r/t and a normal magnum

 

Like TVLynn said, the last of the LA Heads from around 1990 & 1991 360's & 318's were pretty darn good...I think the last 3 digits of the head castings were "308" on the 360's..... and "302" on the 318's ??
The problem is finding them nowadays, not to mention in re-buildable shape ??

The Cast Iron LA Heads on the Hughes Engines website, I am pretty sure are just Engine Quest Heads, which can be purchased direct over here....
www.enginequest.com
and are in fact for the early LA Engines, part # CH318B with far superior flow & power potential... they use the LA Intake Bolt pattern, however, they do require magnum Style Rockers, check them out here...http://www.aamidwest.com/enginequest...r-magnum-head/

 

Short of a complete rebuild.. Take your heads off and have .050 cut from them.. Also not sure of the conversion but you need to also cut the intake side of the heads. A repo 340 cam would also help

 

my heads are shaved. 60 lol i needed shims under the rockers. and both sides are ported. add that to a nice cam and intake and u have a good runner

 

I already rebuilt my engine but now i want to have a bit more power without affect mpg and I think the best way to do that is to raise a bit the engine compression with new heads and pistons. I dont want to modify my stock heads, i want to change them and keep them stock

I sent an email to hughesperformance people and they recommend me this heads http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...=&partid=25739 them looks nice, cheap and I dont need to drill them if im going to use an LA manifold

 

If any of you had ever done the Magnum head swap you would be talking differently.

You use Magnum head bolts
You use an aftermarket lifter for a MOPAR (the ones you buy over counter already are oil through)
You use 7.625-7.650 hollow pushrods ($48 at Summit)
You use stock Magnum rockers
You open the pushrod holes a little in the heads

For anything LA to match the performance you have to pay someone to machine them & by parts as well Why Waste the extra $$$$

Hughes sells a bunch of them for this very swap I guess for no reason for they aren't worth the time or the performance gain I don't even know why they take the time to drill the LA pattern on them

 

I've actually done this swap a few times so I can give an educated answer on it

 

Aw Snap! I just remembered
You can do roller rockers for the Mag heads (using Chevy rockers) for around $270 shipped to the door

But you have to order 1.6 because that's stock Magnum ratio (LA ratio is 1.5)

Even stock Mag rockers will boost a stock cam a little for more flow

Just a few more reasons why to use them

 

Thank you Dodge Adict!

What about this LA Head?

If I'm right the stock LA heads for 1974 has a 84C.C combustion chamber and this one has a 62C.C combustion chamber. I want to do an upgrade to my engine but I want to keep the low rpm torque.

 

That's all Magnum features with LA oiling & rockers & such

My first Magnum conversion was done using their heads & parts 8 years ago or so

I use a few parts from them when I do Magnum engine conversions

 

84cc is Big Block territory, most La heads are around 68cc

 

I've a question about this two heads:

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...=&partid=27827

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...=&partid=25739


Both has a small combustion chamber but one of them has bigger valves so this will give extra horsepower but what will happen with MPG? The logic says that more power equals to lower MPG but what happens if I have more power with the same amount of fuel? i think this is the reality of this ported heads compared to my stock LA heads

 

As mentioned above. Not hard.

The LAX (RHS) and EQ casting shouldn't require any pushrod clearance now. You can use any small block gen 1 chevy rocker. ARP makes a 5/16 to 3/8 rocker stud.and add guide plates. Comp use to sell kit 1425-kit that had this conversion all packaged.

 

I Think EQ can sell the Heads with all the mounting hardware (they have it on their website). I'll love to have ported heads with the stock camshaft but I'm worried about low rpm torque and MPG. Will be a lot of difference between a ported head and mid ported head?

EDIT: Here's the rocker arms http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...0&partid=25405

 

The rockers are narrow body Small block Chevy (Center bolt heads)
The Comp Cams #'s are as follows for roller rockers
4825-8 for V8's & -10 for V10's Guide plates
4542-16 Studs
1018-16 1.6 ratio rocker arms
7632-16 Hardened Pushrods Roller engine

For a non roller you will need to calculate length & add however much preload on the lifter that you want

 

Magnum head on 72 LA 360. I could really use your help I'd like to know if you could tell me what year Magnum head and exact part list so I could try this swap would love to try what you're talkin about

 

Ron net time you post to a thread try looking at the last posters profile it will tell you waswhen he or she was here last. The member you quoted hasn't been here since Nov of 2015.