I am curious to know whether or not AFR heads are worth the extra money. I have a small block 400 and i am looking for 500-600HP and 550-650 torque. Should i spend the money on afrs? THANKS.

 

YES!! They are great flowing heads. I've got a set and they work wonderfully. CHP has flow numbers I believe somwhere on their site. Check 'em out. AFR probably has the CHP numbers on their site too. Great heads!

Ben

 

They are not a second rate head thats for sure.. but they are not the ****z either. Find something that will flow in the 280-290 range and has the chamber volume you want to make the compression you need without anytype of milling.. you will come about fine regardless of who makes it. All heads of that type are good quality. Take some actual flow numbers for a single intake port (most places will do it for about 40bucks), to the cam grinder and tell him your combination.. .it will work much better.

Now, 550hp is not really too much of a problem with a standard 23degree head.., (all it takes is running 480ft/lbs of torque at about 6000).

But, your going to have some difficulty generating much more than 525ft/lbs of torque even at the peak without some type of artificial assist.

Engine analyzer says a 434 motor a friend of mine has is 569.. and my 400 is 534.. A dual plane intake might pump that up by 20ft/lbs,, but it will loose 15hp of that at the top.

PS
This is the link for the chevy high perf head test.. (they sent me e-mail on it today.. 2months after i told them about their web page error) http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...98/index6.html

 

To get 550+ hp on a 400SBC the first time look for a set of fully prepared AFR's or fully prepared Brodix track 1's.

you'll need 300+cfm.

HardCore HotRods

www.brodix.com

www.airflowresearch.com

 

Get a pair of Brodix Track 1's, IMHO much better than AFR... just my .02

 

you will have some trouble fitting them on a third gen (I assume thats what we're talkin here) with full length hookers. They touch on the front crossmember and the lower control arm mount on the right side. Get your diegrinder ready.

Also,, the rule of thumb says 1cfm of intake flow is sufficent to make 2hp. So, a properly designed and optimized cam should make 550hp with 280cfm intake flow. And still retain some type of streetability.