'68 440 woes

[William Parker <parkerw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Several have mentioned the probability of a sticking valve
stem causing the bent pushrods.  I wanted to mention that it
may be more cost effective when rebuilding heads to simply
buy a reconditioned set from Aerohead in Indy.  They
advertise in some of the Mopar magazines a price of $499 for
a pair, outright, of either big block or 360 heads, with an
additional charge of $80 for adding hardened exhaust seats. 
Last summer I decided to rebuild the heads on my 340 Cuda
and took them to the local machine shop.  These are the '72
and up style 340/360 heads, not X or J.  They skimmed the
surfaces, installed new .500 lift valve springs, hardened
exhaust seats, ground the valves (I needed 1 exhaust valve
and 2 intakes), new exhaust guides, and added new umbrella
seals, the total cost was nearly $800.  The Aerohead deal
also includes new valve springs capable of over .500 lift,
and the other things named.  I wouldn't have to consider
shipping since I live about 50 miles from their shop, but
shipping should be around $150 to the furthest reaches of
the lower 48 I would suspect, making a grand total of $730
or less.  If one of your original heads has a crack
anywhere, add $100 per crack for fixing them, that's what
they charge in this area anyway. So it ends up looking
pretty good.  I haven't tried them myself yet, but I'm
condering getting a set for my '65 Imperial, which really
needs a valve job pretty soon.  I might add the extra $100
to obtain 915 heads to retain the full compression ratio.

Bill Parker, South Central Indiana
'62 Plymouth Max Wedge; '64 Dart Convertible (Kathi's car);
'65 Imperial; '65 Barracuda \6 (Kathi's other car);'68
Barracuda Fastback 340-S; '69 Barracuda Fastback now 360 (20
y.o. son's car); '72 Cuda 340