Edelbrock heads for the street. Worth it?

[MilesnMiles]

Thanks Jon, I've been poring over articles on quench all night and how to achieve it.
Couple of things.
Engine runs great now and I have no intention of changing pistons or decking the block.
A thinner gasket may (may) allow me to achieve suitable quench with the Ali closed chamber heads, but that will depend on how far the pistons are down the hole.
Mick the cam is quite modest
224/230@50, lift .47 and .48, lobe separation 110.
If I go ahead these heads need to be 'bolt on' and as Jon suggests I could have the heads milled to achieve desired clearance.
The new heads will up the compression especially if I use a thiner gasket, but being Ali the benefit of upping the static comp may be lost to the effective cooling of the heads. I don't want to loose performance here.

[Les Szabo]

Miles once you have established that your heads are "good", seats/guides/flow etc..... are what they are supposed to be, I would suggest you would be better off performance wise re the limited increase in CR and the ally material as you would with these iron heads.

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/prod ... rtid=25746

And you know these will be "right".?..these flpw around 268cfm at .500
Your J's are around 195cfm at .500
Stock Eddys are around .249 at .500 and thats if they are not crap with bad core shift reducing them even more.

Some more stuff to do your head in!!!

Les

[MilesnMiles]

Hi Les, yes I agree! I didn't post on it but my debate with myself did indeed start with those very heads! As you note, compression shouldn't be an issue and those heads do represent god value especially given that I have only modest lift on my cam. I understand that without extra work those LA X heads are restricted regarding valve lift.

[Les Szabo]

http://www.hughesengines.com/TechArticl ... kheads.php

Just need to cut the boss and job done if you want more lift than .500, that can be done here or when ordered and they are a closed chamber 62cc design....for around 10.5:1 for you I would imagine......sounds good to me?.

Les

[Adrian Worman]

Les has made a good point there Miles, are 12-1300quid heads really goin to make that much of an improvement to justify the price? I don't think so.
If you got a cam that needs a great port flow number and will work the heads then great, if not then you won't really gain much, some, but not much.
Better maybe to put your hard earned into the car to improve it as a whole, say a newish electronic o/d box and better rear gears etc, etc........... probably gain better acceleration than the head swap and make cruising more enjoyable with lower RPM's at the same time

Aluminium heads are good and will make big power but so will iron castings, Les did it with a small block when ally heads were truly exotic rarities back in the day

[Mick]

Even ported, those old steel heads, very seldom would get near the modern alloy heads out of the box. I changed from ported 346 heads with big valves and a torker man, to ported edelbrocks and a victor intake and picked up .7 and 6 mph. The edelbrock springs are supposed to be good to nearly .600 lift.
Mick

[MilesnMiles]

Sure Ade, my original post was going to be something like..
'best bang for the buck?'
Rear gear change
Different cam
Heads

Don't really want to change out a good cam, not least because more gears would bring it alive.
In truth, LA X heads and gears and job's a good un I would think.
Just the hassle of getting heavy iron parts over here. Even using Ron Fentons good services still adds up due to the weight.
I did pm Dave Bilydoo in case he had anything interesting on the shelf but haven't heard back yet.

[Les Szabo]

Dare I say it...................................?


N20

It always comes down to what more you really want from the car Miles...perhaps those iron heads, a 750>800DP??, some lower gears/taller rear tyres will be enough to liven it up for you?...but then the motor will be a good candidate for more cam.

I had stock unported 2.02 X heads, around 10.2:1, the old DC .590 cam which by the way ran nice on the street, Holley Strip Dominator intake, 850DP with 2/12" of spacers under the carb, and that package only made around 390hp according to the weight and mph it ran...just for some reference.

Les

[MilesnMiles]

Steady Les, I'm still 250 miles from the drag strip , the idea is just a combo to further wake the car up. It's not slouchy now and if I had a spare diff I'd change it to see how she feels with deeper gears, but there's not many of knocking around those side of the pond

[MilesnMiles]

Currently chatting to some Germans about a pair of LA X heads with 2.02 valves set up.

[mad machs]

That's really why I stuck with a better stock iron head, less hassle & know every will fit ok, plus of course even the smallest Cleveland has 2.04 in valve as stock.
Interesting to note that the 4V with it's rather generous 2.08 valve & massive port size isn't always considered a better engine, due to the loss of gas velocity at lower rpm.

Sometimes bigger isn't always better.

[MilesnMiles]

Hi Mike! must confess that I feel 'safer' staying with iron heads. I Hera what you say about loss of velocity which the heads I'm looking at seem to avoid.
The exhaust port is said to be the best on any Mopar small block. The price looks good so far, so it may well happen. Impressive flow numbers but under the curve, not just high rpm.

[Les Szabo]

Yes I'm holding myself back here... ....must remember this is a street car. I reckon a good pair of X heads, cleaned up, some bowl work which will make a big difference, properly cut seats, remove the hump in the exhaust roof etc. etc., cc and a skim perhaps to 65cc to raise the CR a bit, cut for teflon seals, bigger cam next?.....make a real nice pair of heads and your up some 30>40hp+ depending on how far you go with the heads, you could space that carb up some if you have room and that should help some with the torque...and all this with no stress or an empty pocket!!


Les

[MilesnMiles]

That's pretty much the plan, Les. Made for hooning around Cornish country roads and very occasional jaunts down the strip

[Mossy68]

That's pretty much the plan, Les. Made for hooning around Cornish country roads and very occasional jaunts down the strip

Gas off for the road. On for the 1/4. Sorted !!!
Give it a sniff Miles. You know you want to.