Exhaust leak sound, but no leak??

I am in Central Florida near Daytona Beach. Might be a bit of a drive on that one.

 

I found a set of rebuilt heads cheap. What do I need to look for to make sure they will work? The heads I am looking at have a casting number of 3212990-1. Supposedly out of a 71 Javelin. I havent looked at my casting numbers yet.

 

OK after a little research, I have found that my heads should be bridged rockers and the 71 has single rockers. Can I use my rockers on the 71 heads?

 

You can interchange bridged with non bridhed but yuu need to get the bridges rockers and bolts. I believe the push rods and lifters are the same.

 

Can I use my parts from my old heads?

 

If you do a little looking, you should be able to find a motor for next to nothing. I wouldn't bother spending any money to rebuild a amc v8. If you are a Chevy guy you will never be happy with a amc motor. As for a "rebuilt" motor with 25,000 miles on it, un less you know the rebuilder and know that quality parts and machine work were used then it is probably about done for itself. It just seems that the quality of the work on rebuilds is VERY low these days.

 

I thought that too Daryl. However, I am finding that it is harder than you think to find a decent engine or heads cheap. I found a set of used heads that had known burnt valves, and when I made a preliminary offer of $25 he never bothered to respond back with a counter offer or a response at all. I mean, if these things are so abundant for cheap, a set of core heads shouldnt bring more than $25 or so. I have given away LS1 heads in the past because of a burnt valves.

So please show me these cheap AMC engines. I will buy a complete one if I have to. I just dont want to spend a ton of money.

 

I just bought a good running 75 j truck with a 360, t-18, 44 front, and 60 rear for $300. At that point I would say the motor is pretty cheap. A quick CL search found two more for less the $800. Maybe it's a regional thing, but these motors with scrap prices bringing at 10cents a pound are worth more in scrap right now then they are for parts.

 

I have found a couple here and there, but nothing that cheap, and nobody will answer the phone, or return my call or emails when I send them. But like I said, nothing cheap enough to make it work my time anyway.

 

OK started pulling the heads today. I decided to check one last thing before I continued. I pulled off the rockers and found a nice surprise. They are brand new, and it has brand new sealed power pushrods. The other thing that threw me in the beginning is how clean this thing is inside. The PO had no idea what was done to the engine but claimed the guy that he bought it from had it worked over, and it had barely 10k on it.

Well OK. As I said, I pulled the rockers. Pulled the headers, then Filled the rear port up with gas and it is not leaking down. So I went and got a compression tester. All the cylinders on that side are within like 3psi. It does not have a burnt or bent valve. That rear port had a burnt gasket though. This is the strangest thing I have ever seen. You couldnt feel any leaks around the ports at all, but now I think it must just be an exhaust leak.

That is great news for me. Now I need to get this exhaust issue sorted out. Any good quality headers out there? I wanna do an inside the frame style with an exhaust out the back. I think these headers are the cheapos from like Jegs or Summit. Maybe Hedmans? They look like junk though, and do not fit very well at all.