Edelbrock has released aluminum heads for the chamberless chevy 348/409 motors yet nothing for the more popular nailhead? Vic Edelbrock, is he still alive? An email a day keeps the nailhead in the way! Imagine having a set of heads built like Bulldog is doing for the 455 guys? Taking requests from the guys who will be using the heads themselves. Back in the day there was a dirt car racer who had made up a set of true HEMI heads with the nailhead head somehow. I spoke to him after tracking him down and I remember other guys asking me about them but it was so many years ago and he was a circle racer but still interesting. 4 valves have been ruled out but there could be a couple of fresh ideas presented that were not extreme nor exotic in the sense that Edelbrock would take any requests seriously. Perhaps guys like Greg Gesler could work with Edelbrock in developing an aluminum set of heads that would drop 50lbs. from the front of the car and also have more flow with the proper velocity to add a legitimate 50hp, even 50whp, to the nailhead but the name might have to be changed to something more fitting like "Edelbrock Wildcat Heads" for the venerable 401/425" buick motors of the 60's(yeah '59 but Imagine valves even the size of a small block chevy, 2.02/1.60 and ports to match! Correct the rockers, change the springs. Yeah a bit of dreaming but if they did it for those odd motors why not the Buick which is becoming more popular 40+ years after it was discontinued! How about it, got a contact anyone, closer to the top the better!
I E-mailed Edelbrock regarding the prospect of making the B262 again. I was very detailed in how much it would help the rodding community with nailheads, yada, yada, yada, I even linked the e-mail to this site to show them how many folks would be interested in the manifold. My e-mail was approximately 2/3s of a page long. I also kissed a little ass on how I use their products over other companies and the response I got. . . "No, we aren't making them. Thanks for your e-mail." Give it a shot but thats what I got for something they have already made. Imagine the response we would get for something they have yet to even develop.o No:
I say we get as many people together as we can and just e-mail them every day till we get them to make some intakes and after that we work on them for a set of heads who's with me
It could definitly be done(hemi head for a nail). After all, weren't they known as the "semi-hemi"? May need an intake w/pushrod holes in it, though, like the ford 360/390/428's cause you gott move the exhaust valves to the other side of the head. You may even be able to revers the exhaust rockers and use the same shaft setup, but I think the lifter bore angles may have to change??? Unless you want to run an angle on the pushrods? That could present a problem. The head and valve cover will definitely not look the same, and it may require block modifications if pushrod angles need changing. Also, with 2 valves, you are restricted in size.
I got the same response a couple years ago when I asked them to start making the '68-up 400-455 finned valve covers again.
the buick 350 guys (including me) have been trying that for a couple years now.. they won't budge... but they'll make aluminum heads for the 455 which already has a great aluminum head support system from TA Performanceou:
Bulldog makes the 455 aluminum also and even a block! What really irks me is an AMC has aluminum heads available for it's 401" motor but the late, great nailhead does not have the same support as the Rambler? Maybe we should switch to Marlins! There is an aluminum block for the Rambler also I think, not sure abut that but seem to have seen or heard about one. Must be that there are more rambler enthusiasts then nailhead guys, huh? Sad. Of course the rambler had a song with it in it and not the Buick so maybe that is the difference! LOL, actually COL, Crying out Loud!
Stop bugging Edelbrock, go for TA. Edelbrock won't get into a niche non-"big 3" market on thier own so you have to have someone for them to compete against like TA to get them made. TA has aluminum 350 heads cued up, maybe Nailhead will be next. I'm not sure how marketable a set of simply replacement aluminum nailheads would be. There are some serious engineering issues in the stock design for high performance and as such just making aluminum ones aren't likely to get much of a performance increase other than casting them close to a set of ported heads to start with and cutting weight. If you made the improvements.... would they still be Buick Nailhead heads then???
Well, you're the Physicist. Take a look at the heads and see if you can come up with anything that could be changed to them while having them bolt to the stock block as they do now. I am not sure what can be done but when I saw a 348 Chevy getting a set of aluminum heads cast for it I was a bit flustered to say it nicely! One of your cars has a 700R4, is it still what it was to begin with? You bet it is! That's called modding a car. With th physical constraints that any casting engineer had to work with I doubt the heads would be sporting 2.12's and 1.78's but small block chevy HP 2.02/1.60's would be nice, just a thought as I am not sure what could be done. The heads have a nice list of positives now so try to eliminate the negatives or accentuate the positives. Just a thought as it will never get done anyways unless an eccentric(we have a lot of those) nailhead owner(lots again) who is also a millionaire(oops, we fall short there!)willig to leave a legacy like Edelbrock was willing to have the heads done, well dream on. Even if some of the products made for the motor in it's day could be reproduced it would be very cool. Superchargers. Good headers. Probably the flathead ford is the only motor of the past that had more aftermarket parts made for it in it's day. Nailhead weighs but a little more than a SBC but the lack of light weight parts allows that comparison to become a wasted factor. Oh well.
I am a medical/space physicist, I am not a mechanical engineer or have extensive fluids experience. I polietly bow out of a redesign work. As for is it still a nailhead.... that I think is a sticky point of conversation, the TH700-R4 is both hidden and looks like a transmission. A nailhead has a rather signature set of valve covers, much like a hemi or a BBC. If you go with valves on the opposite sides of the chambers then you will need a much wider pair of valve covers to accomodate the rocker assemblies and this will make the engine look less nailheadish. I've not pulled heads off of mine to measure and stuff but on an engine with pushrods going through the deck it makes it hard to mess with the valve centerlines and keep them from rubbing.
Hey, CT , I did not realize that you were so close to me here is Lburg. A nail with a good set of alluminum heads would definitly be worth my money. A lot of things could be improved with the present design. i am like 66, I am torqued that a lot of other brands that I know arnt as many out there as nailheads are getting repop stuff. It is a phenominan that has been there for many years, ''Oh, a Buick wont run.'' How many times have we all heard it , just before we showd our tail lights to them.???? Eventually some bright guy will start making some small alluminum part for nails and say ''hey, what else can we make for them????? maby intakes????
Yea, I called Edelbrock 2 winters ago and asked on the possibilty of a 1x4 intake. The guy said Its not going to happen and before I could say OK THANKS I got a dial tone. He hung up on me. EELCO seems like he is busy makeing a lot of other things. Bulldog might be a company to aproach. If more poeple start looking into this mabey somthing will happen.
What Edelbrock publicly says they are/aren't working on could be different than what is going on behind their doors. I'd bet if they WERE working on Nailhead parts, they would still 'say' they weren't. We need to find someone that works there and find the real story. The response I got from TA was the Nailhead has a poor flow design to begin with, and a new head would not give a significant enough improvement to make the project worthwhile....
Nailheads are popular with street rodders mostly, very few people even on this site are big into Nailhead performance. For a company that has to make money on this stuff, 100 pairs of heads would likely be as low of a production run as they'd be willing to do and street rodders would just buy them to brag about them or polish them. I'd love a set but I can't see the market.
Why would anyone even suggest bulldog? Bulldog has delivered when it comes to taking people's "deposit" on projects, but not much when it comes to returning consideration with a usable product. There are lots of people not just of the Buick variety that have paid their hard-earned cash for a several-year old empty promise.
