[68 TT]

Originally Posted by CC69Rat

I'm probably going to stay with the iron heads. To be perfectly honest I'm not what I'd call familiar with the heads either. From the research I have done though, they didn't come on this motor, and were originally a decent head of some sort. From what I understand they are closed-chamber oval-port head known to have issues with the valves being a little small. I am looking to be sure but I hear 2.19/1.88 really help on the bottom end. While I have it apart I might just flow these a little and go with larger valves (unless they already have them, which is possible) ..

.. just my thoughts right now. Could change.

The early closed chamber oval ports shroud the valves really bad when you punch them out to 2.19/1.88's. They still fit & work but not as well as the later semi-open chamber and full open chamber versions do.

I would look for some different mid 70's vintage oval ports to rebuild and have punched out for the larger valves. It really makes a big difference on the oval port engines when they have a decent sized cam and good intake & exhaust system.

The 049 casting is popular but is the large 124cc chamber so you have to run a domed piston to get the compression even up to 9.5 to 1. This isn't a problem though as the 396 did come with domed pistons stock so there are several budget friendly forged piston options out there.