If you guys were buying cylinder heads on a $1500 budget and trying to use as many off the shelf (no shaft mount rockers) as possible, which cylinder heads would you purchase?

 

AFR's.

 

Ok I am looking to spend around $1500 on assembled heads. I am leaning towards AFR's, but I noticed on their website that the 220's and 227's both require offset rockers .

 

If your building a motor large enough to require that size of head, you'd better open up your budget quite a bit unless you can find a killer deal on a used set cuz $1500 is'nt gonna buy you much when your looking at full race heads.

 

Cast my vote for AFR 210s.

 

I've also chosen AFRs - if they're good enough for my car, they're good enough for anyone's!

 

hands down AFR is the only way to go, nobody else even comes close to touching them.

 

Save up a little more and get the Competition Port AFR's well worth it.

 

Jeg's has the 227's for $1479.99:
JEGS High Performance - AFR SB-Chevy Race Ready Aluminum Cylinder Heads

I just don't want to run wierd valvetrain.

 

That's just it cuz once you start pricing offset lifters and shaft rockers to work with these heads the price gets up there pretty quick.

 

Ok here is my setup right now:

377ci (4.00x3.75)
12:1 compression
Solid roller (262/266@.050, .665/.625 w 1.5's)
1050 Dominator, single plane intake
1 7/8" Hooker Super comp headers

IHI and others, you think 210's would be a good choice then? What kind of power would you like to see out of this setup?

 

In keeping on with the AFR theme that set-up is a top end breather so the more flow the better. The 210 would be a great street/strip set-up, but in all honesty the 220 would be my personal minimum choice in runner size and flow capability. Ideally your set-up could reap huge benefits by stepping into the 215 rasied runner heads that flow great numbers from a 23* design out of the box.

So seriously consider the 220's since they still allow use of standard valve train components, but if you can budget more for the top end look into the 227's or 215 raised runners, you will not be disappointed.

I would think given the 210-220 heads you should be knocking close to 550-575hp and possibly more with the correct tune.

 

i bought a set of Protopline 23* iron heads, 220cc for a 420" sbc, the heads worked better than we thought, the car is 3400lbs.420", flat tappet .600, 13.5 comp., 4.10 rear, went 10.83 at 126.7, out of the box with no work done to heads except valve job and bolted them on. ( Protopline's)(www.racingheadservice.com). good luck. JR1.

 

Jr is right on the money, I've also heard of others having good results with these Pro-Top Line heads. I've never seen actual flow sheets first hand for these things (not published BS that the manufacturer like to sell) but many racers have noted a pretty good amount of power coming from this affordable head.

 

I might stick with the AFR 210's. Just what I saw with Dart heads and how overrated their flow #'s are, Dart might as well say their flow #'s are after serious porting because my 220's, my friend's 230's and another friend's 230's were all down 20-30 cfm intake/exhaust from what they are listed as on their website. I was checking out Chevy Hi Performance's cylinder head comparison, the AFR 210's had 10-20 cfm on the Dart 215's and more than 40 cfm on the exhaust more than the Dart's did with a pipe!

Cylinder-Head Flow-Bench Database

 

unknown: that's why I have no respect or belief in any published numbers. I was the first in "our group" to try out the AFR's and I took them to the local shop that does alot of head work, spoke with the lead guy and mentioned what they were "supposed" to flow. He got a chuckle out of it running his fingers in the ports and said "we'll see since the flow bench never lies"

Upon picking these 210's up the flow numbers he recorded off his super flow 600 there was only 2-3cfm difference at most at only a few lift points, other than that the AFR catalog I took in with me looded as if my guy flowed the same set that the company did for advertising. I took about an hour to thumb through his 3 ring binder of every head they've ever flowed on the 600 bench since they got it and the Darts were all WAAAY under everything i've ever seen advertised. A good racing buddy had purchased a set of the pro 1 230's and had them checked out of box and peak flow @.28" on the intake was only 268cfm...a long ways from what they advertise. Seems the big marketing plow is to over rate and under deliver, no different than Holley carbs rating the HP series to flow X cfm when in reality they are much less, then the company stood up for themselves by saying they were protecting the buyers from "over carbing" their engines LOL!! I've never seen a race motor over carbed yet.

I've heard good things on Top Pro Liine, but like everything else I've ever done I'll wait to see it in black and whtie first hand vefore forming conclusions and making remarks...I just know after seeing the real data my choice in AFR over Dart and Brodix was a smart one and I got my money's worth. Sure the others might be cheaper but like anything else your going to pay one way or another. So inital head cost of a Dart might be lower, but paying a pro to go in and really open them up to what they're capable of you just double the inital purchase price, so why not just spend a little more initally and call it done??

 

I am sold on the AFR's . People talk about AFR's like they are expensive, I looked at cnc Dart 227's on summit and they were $1300. I thought to myself, that's not too bad. I look and quantity is per head lol, for the same thing AFR offers for $1400. Either way, thanks for the help IHI. I will keep you posted .