Just received a set of used AFR 190's that only had an hour of idle time. Got a great deal on Ebay. Looking for feedback from anyone who upgraded to AFR heads without making a lot of changes. See signature for combo, cam has .467 lift and 222 degrees of duration. Old heads are World SR torquers. Looking to increase hp from about 350 presently to 380-390 which should get me into the mid 12's.

 

I also got mine off ebay, just to nip any future gremlins in the butt...take them to a reputible shop in town and have them checked over. Supposedly mine were only bolted to the engine and then taken back off with no run time-which they looked brand new when I got them, I still spent the $30 to have them gone over. Lots easier now then to trouble shoot gremlins later.

Biggest thing is have the spring pressure checked to be sure they're compatible with your cam and are ready to be used as is, make sure the seats are in good shape and seal, no broken springs/retainers, cracks etc...

 

Yes, mine are also like new, but that does sound like a good idea. Maybe I will actually disassemble them myself over the winter since this is a next spring project. I also have to drill temp sensor
holes.
The thing I am surprised about is the roughness of the CNC machining. Looks like these heads are 100 % CNC'ed in both
intake and exhaust ports. I know that this is a desirable operation but I have seen cast ports that look better....?

 

It's a little rough on purpose in the intake ports to put any liquid fuel back into suspension. Intake ports are never made real smooth. Exhaust ports I don't know why they would be rough. Mine had very slight "ripples" to them where the tool head cut out the port layer by layer, but still better than any as-cast head that I would compare it to.

 

Yes, that is what they look like, lots of ripples from the cutting tool.
How about any comparisons, before and after performance. My
goal is to maintain conservative street car manners while maximizing drag strip performance. That is why the mild cam and
computer controlled Qjet.

 

When I switched from S/R Torquers to Dart Iron Eagles on my 400-powered 79 Malibu I went from running 13.3s @ 104 to 13.0000001 @ 108 with NO other changes.

And the AFRs are even better than the Iron Eagles, although I have not done anything that would be what I would call an apples-to-apples comparison. Just trust me- they're better.

Going to better heads can help you do 2 things, mainly, if you're looing to get better drivability AND more power, in my experience:

1. More top end power from the same cam, probably stretches the true usable RPM range by about 500-750 RPMs.
2. Same top end power as the old heads but with more midrange torque using a smaller cam.

I build almost nothing but street performance motors and most of my engines are similar to what you are building- totally daily drivable but much faster than stock when you lay through on them.