I am getting ready to buy heads and a cam for my 406. I have a 400 block with splayed eagle main caps, eagle 4340 crank, eagle 6in H beam rods, SRP pistons and JE rings(10.3 compression with 64cc). I am going to be using a mini ram intake and spraying a 200 shot. I have thought about AFR 195 or 210 heads and a TPiS solid roller cam but I dont know. The car is not going to be my daily drive but I want to be able to drive it on the street alot, I am going to drag race it to. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

 

For the rpm range your short block is built for, and using nitrous, I would get the AFR 210 heads. I'd call TPiS and let Myron himself spec the cam.

 

Thanks! I will give Myron a call. I was looking at the AFR 210 heads and they have 65cc what would that change my compression ration to? Also I was looking at TPiS website and they have too different mini ram intakes a 1204 and 1205 what is the difference?

 

It would be about 10.2:1, but since the heads are machined as soon as they come out of the molds, while they're still too hot for bare hands, they cool after machining, which means that when you take them out of the box, they may need to be resurfaced, even though they are new. Resurfacing them 0.006" gives you 64cc. But it might be wise to get Myron's take on the heads issue before ordering either a cam or the heads.

 

Canfield heads are great for the price... I paid like $1050 shipped to my door from competitionproducts.com (not sure if they're still that cheap though...) and for a cam, as always, I strongly recommend giving Cam Motion a call - by far the best cam I've ever had.

 

The 1204 and 1205 are different sized openings, you'll need to pick whichever one is just slightly smaller than your heads. As for the Canfields, yes, they have good flow numbers, and they are cheaper. However, the AFR has thicker decks, better exhaust port flow (great for nitrous) and a more recent re-design.

 

Not disagreeing or being smart but do you own or have you ever owned those heads? I ask because it seems everyone speaks so highly of them but it seems most are just reciting what they've read in a magazine and have never used them... I'm recommending Canfields because they are over $500 cheaper and have put my junky heavy street car into the low 11's with no effort. I also see a lot of guys running AFR's and they dont seem to be too impressive in the real world.

 

Your setup is just doing crazy things with those heads. But how big is your cam again? I remember reading it once and i dont think it was too big but refresh my memory.

My 383 with AFR's and a hydr. roller was doing mid lower 11's at 119 ish in the summer heat. More in it for sure in cooler air and properly setup. Wasnt quite launching as hard as it could/should have. Old tires didnt hook. Never ran it all motor again since i bought the new tires and nitrous kit... just too much fun going 10's instead of 11's, why waste a run? haha

Price difference tho i'm not sure. Canfields i thought were easily 1300-1400 bucks and AFR's I got for 1454 shipped i think it was.

Not a bad price difference. The main thing i like about AFR's is the 8mm valve stems and small diameter springs. Makes for a light valvetrain which is easier to control at high rpms. I dont think Canfields are using ls1 type valve stem sizes like AFR

 

AFR 227....DUH!...or wait for the new 235cc....and a 25x/26x .6xx/.6xx solid roller.....still streetable and will FLAT FLY!...ANd with the 200 shot of dope, say hello to LOW 9's....Also shoot for around 10.8:1 or so...

 

I would love to get my car to run low 9's and be able to drive it on the street. I would like to drive it to the track and the nearest 1/4 mile track is a little over 2 hours for me do you think I could drive it for 2 hours nonstop with those heads? It should run on 93 octane with 10.8:1?

 

Canfield 215's with pretty much any spring you want can be had for under $1200 from that website I got them off of. I'm by no means knocking AFR but it just seems that everyone raves about how great they are yet most people have never even held a pair in their hands.

My cam is huge on paper but is completely streetable and even gets decent gas mileage. It's in the 260's @ 050, .560 lift and on a 110LSA. I took my 750 speed demon and upped the factory jetting 3 sizes, locked out my distributor to 35*, and have been running this "baseline" tune for a year now untouched. I haven't even checked the valve lash in the past 10 months I really don't think there is any craziness in my car at all... I've said this many times and it is the honest truth: my car and motor were put together in my side yard while drinking beer and using just the small toolbox that I keep in the hatch. I'm no master at tuning or driving, I just carefully picked my parts because I'm not the richest of people and need to spend my money wisely.

There is no doubt in my mind that my car will go 10's on motor and 9's on spray with a little more effort so if I can get these results anyone can using nothing more than common knowledge... if I were 1fastiroc-z, I'd be buying up a set of Canfield 215's and calling Cam Motion for a solid roller. There is no doubt in my mind that simple combination of parts would put him into the 10's on motor and well into the 9's on spray while still being a street car.

 

The 1204/1205 is the size of the intake port on the head. The AFR 195 have a 1205 intake port, the AFR 210 have a 1206 intake port. If you buy the mini ram you may be able to get a 1206 port size to match the AFR 210 heads. If TPIS only sells a 1205 intake port then you may have to port the 1205 intake to match with the 1206 port.

Your combination will work well with the AFR 195 heads or the AFR 210 heads but I belive it will work slightly better with the 210 heads.

 

Another name for custom cam would be Jay over at Camshaft Innovations. I've got one of theirs in my 406.

 

I've driven a 350 with the Canfield 197cc heads, and while I can't fairly say anything bad about them, They're not outstanding, either. It's not just marketing that has AFR and Dart far outselling Canfield. Canfields are what you'd call "also-ran" or "me too" heads, same as the new Patriots, but at least the Patriots are cheap and sized for a street 350 at 185cc. I would like to drive the 197s on a 383, just for the knowing, but for less money I could run Brodix IK200s. I got where I am by spending all my disposable income trying as many different combinations as possible, and I do admit to what I don't know.

 

Oh, as to 10.8:1 on pump gas, I get away with it just fine, but I'm at 4500 feet of elevation. The LSx crowd routinely goes over 11.25:1 with milled AFR heads, with cams as small as 224/228 at 0.050".

 

Well, his results are right there...running low 11s using "also-ran" heads with a fairly streetable 350 seems like results to me, regardless of what peoples' opinions are on the heads. Anyway, they arent "also-ran" or "me too", they just "arent AFR"...which obviously isnt too big of a deal in this case.

 

Everyone has a different idea of what's street-tolerable. Vortecs are outstanding for street driveability on a 350 with about any emissions-legal cam. And few would argue that, though some will think the Vortecs and emissions-legal cams are nowhere near the upper limits of street use. 195cc heads are large for daily driven 350s, and do need converters loose than stock, but the Canfields are not street heads. Obviously, one guy made them work well at the track, and he probably isn't the only one. But you're trying to convince us that they're as good as the AFRs, and you offer no back-to-back test results. Okay, I offer none to the contrary. Because I can feel with my own backside that they aren't even close.

 

AFRs on paper are clearly superior to Canfields but I'm just stating from real world experience. My car is 110% a street car, I put over 7,000 miles on it in the past year just driving around town and going to the track. It has a 3500 stall with 3.92 gears and I only shift the motor at 6000RPM. Drives pretty much like a stock IROC (except for when the slicks/skinnies are on, of course) and gets 14mpg on average...

If AFR or any other cylinder head company wants to prove they can out perform my cheap Canfields, I'll gladly take a set for free and do some testing

Once again, I can't stress how much I'm not trying to start some flame war but where are the guys with similar combos to mine at with AFR heads running the same or better? I don't see them anywhere.

 

Is your car TPI?

 

Carbed. Has a Professional Products Hurricane intake and a 750 Speed Demon carb.

 

I was looking at this car it runs 9.90's and has Canfield heads on it.
http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eve...oc_camaro.html

I am trying to decide now if i want AFR or canfield heads. lol

 

I've never seen that car before... It says it has a dual stage of nitrous on it but I'm hoping those numbers are on motor? With a killer combo like that, they should be.

Back to your goals... How is the rest of your car setup? What transmission, rear gear, and tire size? Have you bought a converter yet? Any idea of how much your car weighs?

 

I dont know if those time are with nitrous or not.

I am going to replace everything in my car when I put the 406 in. I will probably go with a pro-built automatic 700R4 or 4L60E I am think about buying the LS1 coil pack conversion so I can use a 4L60E. I have not bought a converter yet. I am think about a 3600 stall. I am going to buy a 12 bolt or 9inch with 3.73 gears. I don't know how much my car weights but its is a 88 iroc-z t-top, all power options. It has SFC'S and a 8 point roll bar but I will probably take the roll bar out. But if I am going to run 9's I might leave it in the car.

 

i can give some examples of big inch AFR headed cars with mild hydraulic rollers running very fast times. C4 vette guys do it all the time. 400+ inches, cams in the 230-236 range and make well over 400whp and run low 11's at over 124-125mph. If it hooked like a camaro it be in the high 10's for sure.

87 TA on these boards has a minirammed 406 with old style non eliminator series 195 heads and a mild 242/242 solid roller i believe and it went 10.8's at 126. Goes 127 traps with the 6 speed and low 10's at over 136mph on a 125 ish shot. Thats a stout combination. New AFR 210's with ported miniram would wake that motor up for sure. He drives his to the track about an hour away. Its a pretty streetable setup. Almost sounds tamer than my old 383 which was streetable but ran no where near as fast as he did.

If you can indeed get Canfields for 1200 bucks then by all means go for it. AFR 210's will out flow them but cost 300 more. Thats most of a camshaft right there.

In a sense, that is crazy for it to be running that fast, be that streetable, and just be a nice easy home build like that. Nice combination of parts and you cant go wrong. A 260 cam would seem to me to not be streetable in a 350 but it depends on your definition of streetable. You have a great running car.

 

Any more suggestions?

 

Wonder what it would run with a 406 a nice set of heads/cam and a dual stage 300 shot?

 

depends on your build but it will go low 9's if done right. AFR 210's or similar with a higher compression 406 with solid roller will do mid 10's n/a easily. 300 shot will deliver low 9's.

Local guy here with a 408 doing 10's at 130mph n/a and i believe he's running a 300-350 shot and has gone 9.17 at 148 mph