*Correction* I state in the video that R/T heads could be found on the R/T Dakotas and Rams. They were actually only offered in the aftermarket and not on a production vehicle. All production 5.2s and 5.9s came with the same heads.
As far as catching the metal chips , I saw a guy that used a shop vac and pinched the vac tube to fit it into the port opposite the side he was working on. Looked like it worked good. Just a thought.
The biggest detractors for magnum heads in my opinion is 1: the pushrod pinch is absolutely terrible on the intake ports. 2 the intake bolt pattern is different than the LA stuff. 3: pedestal rockers, getting rid of one of the greatest features of the standard LA head. Granted they do make an RPM airgap for these heads but you’d have to buy another one if you already had an LA version. It sucks they have so many negatives because the chamber and valve arrangement is a vast improvement over most of the LA stuff.
I just pulled 2 318 heads off a 97 jeep grand cherokee 5.2. I got em with all the pushrods and everything for 20$ at my work😅 with my discount I buy so much stuff lol I have a assortment of driveshafts, axle shafts, heads,calipers ect for when I need em because they are so expensive new. I really enjoyed this video and subscribed
The heads on my 360 were cracked in between the valves and I didn't even know that was the case it ran so good. Plus I did a compression test and the two cracked cylinders passed with flying colors. They were within ten percent of the non cracked cylinders(within 20 percent is considered a rule of thumb pass). I'm in the middle of doing a build so I'm going to take a chance, port the heads and reuse them. Besides I'm mostly a see what happens type of guy. Don't like to spend more money than I have to.
@@sorta_stockone other thing the coolant return hose can develop a crack. It will deliver coolant to the reservoir. But will suck air back in. Eventually lowering coolant level. That one last romp. And starting missing when I got home. Lost a head. It was in a 93 Dakota reg cab short bed with 3:90 gears. And used the stock trans. I enjoyed your video.
NOT 93 92 318 was magnum. RT heads were over the counter never came on RT cars.(edit I just saw your correction) I have RT heads on my 92 Dakota My stepfather drove with no water and really cracked the oem heads. I had been a zone rep and a friend at a dealer scored me a set for $300 came with good springs I've replaced with bronze gides knurled reamed and honed for holding oil, viton seats backcut intakes and tulip exhausts almost 250k miles on them I had access to a SERDI and did pro valve job and pocket port. No narrow seats on this tow vehicle about the only thing I have done for maintenance is change the timing chain and convert to the later post style dist cap, spiral wound mag (nickel) wires compression still good I have a 360 block all ready to go but no need The TransGO kit was developed on my vehicle at about 50 k miles and it is still going strong but that's another story
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the RT heads. Sounds like yours stood the test of time as well. Did you feel a big difference after you replaced the cracked OEM units?
@@sorta_stock not much just having a fresh valve job and new seals helped but they still have good compression 20 years later maybe 200k miles they did come with good valves and springs 3"54 gears/ Shure grip
I'm getting conflicting answers online. Some of our fellow gearheads tell me they're dry studs, Summit Racing told me they're wet. When I find out the real story I'll try to let you know (the weather has to get much better here before I can pull the manifolds). Thanks!
Its a little surprising that they made the magnum head flow better only to choke it with tiny lift an duration camshafts plus wasnt the barrel intake manifold restrictive? Maybe they had efficiency in mind not performance.
They definitely choked it down with the cam and intake. Must’ve been for emissions. The 318 magnum I put together has performed better than I had hoped for with such a low budget setup.
In 92 both the magnum and LA 318 we’re offered. The magnum is a great head but, the late LA 302 heads are also good. Smaller ports but, they have good quench
@@sorta_stock la 302 heads have quench? pic please we developed the KB quench dome pistons, a must for LA headed motors but today al heads is a better plan
@@jmflournoy386 I’m all for the aluminum head options (especially these days). For budget builds, the 302/308 and magnum heads offer a better quench than the earlier designs. I can’t post a photo here in the comments but, the 302/308 castings offered a heart-shaped combustion chamber in approx 69cc. If you assisted with designing KB pistons then you’ve probably seen these heads. They’re have a quench pad and are often referred to as the swirl port heads.
I think the reason most don’t is due to the fact that the labor involved to repair the cracked set costs the same as a new set. The Eq or Promaxx iron magnums run about $450 each (assembled) and are really good castings. Shop rates here in San Diego are in the $150-$200/hr range. In my situation, the 318 these magnums went on was for a junkyard build-off and drag race challenge. I’ve only got $600 into the entire engine.
It didn’t matter whether they were cracked or not for the budget build I was doing. I was gona run them anyways. Many cracked magnum heads are still on the street. This was just a junkyard engine going full send on the strip. I’d highly recommend a hot tank and magnaflux for any other type of build.
*Correction*
I state in the video that R/T heads could be found on the R/T Dakotas and Rams. They were actually only offered in the aftermarket and not on a production vehicle. All production 5.2s and 5.9s came with the same heads.
There's more cracked magnum heads still running out there than not. Ha!
As far as catching the metal chips , I saw a guy that used a shop vac and pinched the vac tube to fit it into the port opposite the side he was working on. Looked like it worked good. Just a thought.
The biggest detractors for magnum heads in my opinion is 1: the pushrod pinch is absolutely terrible on the intake ports. 2 the intake bolt pattern is different than the LA stuff. 3: pedestal rockers, getting rid of one of the greatest features of the standard LA head. Granted they do make an RPM airgap for these heads but you’d have to buy another one if you already had an LA version. It sucks they have so many negatives because the chamber and valve arrangement is a vast improvement over most of the LA stuff.
Great video!! Run em!! We're waiting for Friday ever so impatiently...
I just pulled 2 318 heads off a 97 jeep grand cherokee 5.2. I got em with all the pushrods and everything for 20$ at my work😅 with my discount I buy so much stuff lol I have a assortment of driveshafts, axle shafts, heads,calipers ect for when I need em because they are so expensive new. I really enjoyed this video and subscribed
Thanks man! $20 for a set of magnums is a score. You can get them cleaned up and ready to use when the right project comes along.
The heads on my 360 were cracked in between the valves and I didn't even know that was the case it ran so good. Plus I did a compression test and the two cracked cylinders passed with flying colors. They were within ten percent of the non cracked cylinders(within 20 percent is considered a rule of thumb pass). I'm in the middle of doing a build so I'm going to take a chance, port the heads and reuse them. Besides I'm mostly a see what happens type of guy. Don't like to spend more money than I have to.
These cracked magnums passed a compression test as well. They’ve worked for me so far and even impressed me on the dyno!
Up grade your cooling system.
The cracks between valves is to be expected and 99% of the time a complete non-issue.
@@sorta_stockone other thing the coolant return hose can develop a crack. It will deliver coolant to the reservoir. But will suck air back in. Eventually lowering coolant level. That one last romp. And starting missing when I got home. Lost a head. It was in a 93 Dakota reg cab short bed with 3:90 gears. And used the stock trans. I enjoyed your video.
Nice. Having not done this before, seems the key is to reduce the edges if I'm getting that right.
Yup. Edges, casting marks, and matching the intake and exhaust ports to the gasket size are the 3 biggest things to help improve flow.
Great video,What is the highest safest cam lift that Magnum heads can take?
NOT 93 92 318 was magnum. RT heads were over the counter never came on RT cars.(edit I just saw your correction)
I have RT heads on my 92 Dakota My stepfather drove with no water and really cracked the oem heads. I had been a zone rep and a friend at a dealer scored me a set for $300 came with good springs
I've replaced with bronze gides knurled reamed and honed for holding oil, viton seats backcut intakes and tulip exhausts almost 250k miles on them I had access to a SERDI and did pro valve job and pocket port. No narrow seats on this tow vehicle about the only thing I have done for maintenance is change the timing chain and convert to the later post style dist cap, spiral wound mag (nickel) wires compression still good I have a 360 block all ready to go but no need
The TransGO kit was developed on my vehicle at about 50 k miles and it is still going strong but that's another story
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the RT heads. Sounds like yours stood the test of time as well. Did you feel a big difference after you replaced the cracked OEM units?
@@sorta_stock not much just having a fresh valve job and new seals helped but they still have good compression 20 years later maybe 200k miles they did come with good valves and springs 3"54 gears/ Shure grip
Truly like the RT head 180cc intake runners great heavy duty head
Nice one!
Do those exhaust manifold studs on the middle cylinders penetrate the water jacket?
That’s a great question. I’m not sure on the magnum heads but, the outer studs on LA 360 heads do penetrate the water jackets
I'm getting conflicting answers online. Some of our fellow gearheads tell me they're dry studs, Summit Racing told me they're wet. When I find out the real story I'll try to let you know (the weather has to get much better here before I can pull the manifolds). Thanks!
Kick Abs video brother!!!
A proper valve job could have netted more gains than what was done here .
Being San Diego, plenty of shops around.
Definitely. This was done on a very strict budget for a competition. I ended up a couple hundred over so, every dollar was crutial.
Its a little surprising that they made the magnum head flow better only to choke it with tiny lift an duration camshafts plus wasnt the barrel intake manifold restrictive? Maybe they had efficiency in mind not performance.
They definitely choked it down with the cam and intake. Must’ve been for emissions. The 318 magnum I put together has performed better than I had hoped for with such a low budget setup.
engine quest
👍💪
👍
Are the heads on a 92 318 good ones
In 92 both the magnum and LA 318 we’re offered. The magnum is a great head but, the late LA 302 heads are also good. Smaller ports but, they have good quench
@@sorta_stock la 302 heads have quench? pic please we developed the KB quench dome pistons, a must for LA headed motors but today al heads is a better plan
@@jmflournoy386 I’m all for the aluminum head options (especially these days). For budget builds, the 302/308 and magnum heads offer a better quench than the earlier designs. I can’t post a photo here in the comments but, the 302/308 castings offered a heart-shaped combustion chamber in approx 69cc. If you assisted with designing KB pistons then you’ve probably seen these heads. They’re have a quench pad and are often referred to as the swirl port heads.
Why not braze the cracks with bronze rod ???? Somebody......
I think the reason most don’t is due to the fact that the labor involved to repair the cracked set costs the same as a new set. The Eq or Promaxx iron magnums run about $450 each (assembled) and are really good castings. Shop rates here in San Diego are in the $150-$200/hr range. In my situation, the 318 these magnums went on was for a junkyard build-off and drag race challenge. I’ve only got $600 into the entire engine.
The cracks are more superficial than anything. They never go any deeper
The crack would have been discovered if you had the heads professionally cleaned and magnafluxed. Not expensive at all.
It didn’t matter whether they were cracked or not for the budget build I was doing. I was gona run them anyways. Many cracked magnum heads are still on the street. This was just a junkyard engine going full send on the strip. I’d highly recommend a hot tank and magnaflux for any other type of build.
U can see the cracks and feel them with your figernail NOT A PROBLEM unless really bad