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If that's the casein happy, I was thinking it was a 72 with 175 horsepower. It is currently attached to a 350 turbo hydro tranny. Is there any way I can identify the heads to see if they are better than the 72's?

Originally Posted by States

If that's the casein happy, I was thinking it was a 72 with 175 horsepower. It is currently attached to a 350 turbo hydro tranny. Is there any way I can identify the heads to see if they are better than the 72's?

I don't assume anything so I'd pull both valve covers and write down the casting numbers and post them here. They're located pretty much in the center of the head and hopefully they are a matched pair.

I'll do that as soon as I can pick up new gaskets. If it is a 69 rather than a 72 the compression goes up to 9:1. Does this help the performance of my cam?

Originally Posted by States

I'll do that as soon as I can pick up new gaskets. If it is a 69 rather than a 72 the compression goes up to 9:1. Does this help the performance of my cam?

1972 was 44 years ago. This motor could have had parts mixed and matched and could have been worked over by dozens of different owners in that time, so any stamped numbers will probably be worthless by now. You can tell if the cam is coordinated with the static compression ratio by performing a cylinder pressure test. The test will also tell you if you have bad rings or bad valve seal, but at any rate, you need to know if the cylinders will make and hold pressure or not.
1. Run the motor until it gets to operating temperature.
2. Remove the air cleaner assembly.
3. Wire the primary throttle blades wide open so the motor can breathe.
4. Remove the coil hot wire from the coil to prevent a fire and remove the spark plugs to make the motor easier to turn over with the starter.
5. Use a screw-in compression gauge tester.
6. Have your buddy to operate the starter from inside the truck, while you change the tester hose from cylinder to cylinder and write down the compression results on paper, along with the cylinder number.
7. Let the motor go through at least 5 compression cycles on each cylinder to max the position of the needle on the test gauge.

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I've done what you said and came up with readings of 4@135, 2@138 and 2@140. Is this all you need to determine cam coordination?