AFR Heads, Are they any good?

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wikd69
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#16 Post by wikd69 » Thu Feb 12, 2009 1:17 am

I hope I'm not hijacking your thread here, but this seemed to be a perfect spot to ask my question.

Please be kind to me, I'm handicapped with my puny little 427. :-P

If I were to venture out into the world looking for an aftermarket set of heads, something that would flow better than these 990's but not require me to sell my children into bondage, what would ya'll suggest ? Remember, this is a hamburger chasing / occasional track car and I don't need to run in the 9's. Easy low 10's would make me fat and happy, instead of just fat like I am now :mrgreen:

Aluminum would be good, for the weight savings, but if there's a big difference in cost I could live with another set of cast iron heads. I recently went through an exercise with Bill (sc68z28), looking at what should have been a better cam grind for my blower build and was surprised that the dyno sim stuff predicted only about 10 or 15 hp difference from my current setup. We pretty much tracked it back to my old 990 heads and their poor flow metrics. I'm probably not going to be doing anything soon in this regard, but it'd be interesting to look at aftermarket head options for this little blower motor.

Build

GM 427 BBC (MkIV), 8 to 1 static compression, street 671 @ 8 - 10 lbs of boost, symmetric hydr roller, 252 @ .050, .612 lift, 2 x 750 holley

Heads

GM Perf 454 Casting #6272990 1970-up, rectangular port, open chamber

2.19 Intake, 1.88 Exh, 188 cc chamber, 318 cc intake port

Lift - Int - Exh - Exh w/pipe
.050 - 32 - 24 - 24 -
.100 - 69 - 53 - 53 -
.200 - 125 - 101 - 103
.300 - 183 - 134 - 140 -
.400 - 233 - 163 - 176
.500 - 254 - 180 - 198
.600 - 292 - 185 - 204 -
.700 - - - 186 - 207 -
.800 - - - - - -
~E/I - 70% - 75%

For heads this old these numbers aren't bad, but they just don't have a lot more performance in them at this point.

Any suggestions ? :scratch:
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

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Bob West
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#17 Post by Bob West » Thu Feb 12, 2009 5:50 am

Maybe Brodix racerite rectangle ports or Edelbrock ??
72 Malibu-Nov. '08-1.329-3.995-6.280@106.94-9.988@131.62
best 60ft to date- 1.319
http://www.dragtimes.com/1972-Chevrolet ... -5251.html

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John_Heard
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#18 Post by John_Heard » Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:00 am

How "Serious" are you wanting to get? Do we get to change pistons and stuff? Are you willing to buy new valvetrain ie shaft rockers etc.?

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CoMax Racing
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#19 Post by CoMax Racing » Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:59 am

I actually have recieved my Dart heads from Race Flow Development and they look awesome.

I would give Curtis a call at RFD and ask him what he can do for you. He builds heads for all types of racing and I'm sure he will be able to build you a great head for a fair price.

Corey

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wikd69
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#20 Post by wikd69 » Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:18 am

John_Heard wrote:How "Serious" are you wanting to get? Do we get to change pistons and stuff? Are you willing to buy new valvetrain ie shaft rockers etc.?
Probably not that serious. I'd like to step up to something consistent with what I have today (build wise) and reuse my current bottom end, chromemoly rockers, limiting changes to pushrods, guide plates, etc. I'm thinking that my usage proably isn't even severe enough to need stud girdles, though it would be sweet to adopt shaft rockers somewhere down the road.

Mostly I want to get something that'll flow better and not compromise my ability to add power through cam, boost & jetting changes. I'm pretty much at the end of the line with these old 990's.

I know I'm being something of a 'tourist' here, but I'm constrained on budget and can't run with you big dogs on the track. My low-10's target is really defined by my current cage and a need for streetability - I won't pass tech for a 9 second pass, so 10's is fine for now. If I wanted to get more serious, I'd need to add a front hoop and push the cage forward through the firewall. I've been considering this anyway, but for the present, I'm stuck with a 10.0 limit.

Hopefully I have'nt constrained my options completely with this. Thanks for the help.
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

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wikd69
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#21 Post by wikd69 » Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:20 am

Bob West wrote:Maybe Brodix racerite rectangle ports or Edelbrock ??
I did browse through the Edelbrock site but I don't know enough yet to know what I'm looking at, same for Brodix.
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

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chpcamaro
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#22 Post by chpcamaro » Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:22 pm

opps wrong post
best to date N/A 8.91@153
psca westcoast heads up racing open comp
67 Camaro RS/SS
BBC Powerglide 4800 stall 4.11 29.5x10.5W
http://www.chpdragracing.com

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Hitchcock
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#23 Post by Hitchcock » Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:04 pm

If you are not wanting to change cam's I would look at heads with some real good exhaust ports. The only bad thing about that is a lot of those heads have a raised exhaust rail. That can cause header issues. The Brodix RR's are real nice for the money. The canfield is an overlooked piece that is supposed to be very competitive in the power dept. (but they have the raised exhaust, but awesome ex. numbers on the flow bewnch, better than advertised). AFR, and Dart are obvisouly awesome, and not cheap. Good, luck.
73 Vette, moly back half
Pump gas 496
Two Pro Systems 950's
Chance 6000 converter

555RAT
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#24 Post by 555RAT » Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:27 pm

A friend of just purchased a set of Jegs 310 heads which are Canfields and look like a great head for the price. I personally run AFR 345 heads and love 'em. The only thing I would change is make them easier to run a 7/16" pushrod. As is I'm going to try a 7/16-3/8 tapered .145" wall just to see if it'll work.
8.90@149 and 3,000lb, no Juice, no boost!

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Rick M
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#25 Post by Rick M » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:37 pm

We have a set of AFR 357's so far no troubles but we're not that fast either.
D/R 119 5.52@ 128.53

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wikd69
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#26 Post by wikd69 » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:04 am

555RAT wrote:A friend of just purchased a set of Jegs 310 heads which are Canfields and look like a great head for the price. I personally run AFR 345 heads and love 'em. The only thing I would change is make them easier to run a 7/16" pushrod. As is I'm going to try a 7/16-3/8 tapered .145" wall just to see if it'll work.
I checked out the specs on the Jegs heads (#555-51454) and they're running 11/32 valve stems in them - my old 990's use 3/8 valve stems. Any signifcance to that, other than the mass of the valves possibly being less ? I say possibly, cuz the valves are longer in the Jegs heads, so they may well be heavier than those in my 990 heads. The flow numbers on these look good, and the intake runners and chambers are comparable to my old 990's.

I did run a comparison of these heads against my 990's in the DynoSim program and came up with the HP & TQ yeilds below. Pretty interesting alternative.

Image
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

555RAT
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Re: AFR Heads, Are they any good?

#27 Post by 555RAT » Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:32 pm

Rick M wrote:We have a set of AFR 357's so far no troubles but we're not that fast either.
5.52@128! That's fast in my book. I'd love to see those #'s. 5.71@121 is my best.
8.90@149 and 3,000lb, no Juice, no boost!

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