AFR heads still top of the heap if you want to make good power.

 

Richard Holdner has a ton of great videos and comparisons. He's guest starred on engine masters many times. He's a big Boost It guy. Loves turbos and power adders. His youtube channel is a fun watch. He helped me decide on my Brodix Racerite 270s over AFRs...it was the price and not losing too much over the AFRs

Buy the best head you can afford so you only buy them once...go cheap and you will be buying them twice

 

Those speedmaster heads are the very old crappy procomp castings that are about the poorest performing aftermarket aluminum head... I would love to see a comparison between the other chinese casting that everyone else is reselling including AFR themselves as the enforcer series.
comparing apple to oranges anyway as its like comparing a chevy cobalt to a corvette here. With the stock GM heads being a chevette...

 

unless your just looking for something better performing for that mild 350 than GM heads but not full on race..

 

AFR 185 would make a smogger a better motor with airflow alone. If someone is looking at heads then they arent sticking with a smogger any way, upgrading intakes, cams and exhaust is bound to be in the equation. If not now it will be...no one sticks with original parts if they are considering AFR heads

 

AFR is on the bandwagon now, they have put their name on some crappy Chinese heads, one is a big block head that's pretty much a ProComp.

Buy the best head you can afford so you only buy them once...go cheap and you will be buying them twice

Buy once, cry once pretty much sums it up.

Eric Weingartner has some videos that anyone looking to buy inexpensive AFR heads should watch before purchasing anything.

 

I seen those videos he has done MANY on the enforcer type castings... He ported a set of those chinese AFR heads for his sisters SBC car that flow over 300cfm. The "enforcer" SBC heads are a very good knock off clone of the Dart platnium heads which are a pretty good head. Theres even some videos out there showing the same cnc routering program can be used for both. there is another budget head he feels is better though for the money and I cant recall the name.

I have a set of these chinese enforcer type casting that I ported and assembled on my car now and they perform noticeably better than the old dart iron eagle heads they replaced. Are they going to perform as well as the eliminators? No. But theres a point of diminishing returns where bolting a pair of eliminators onto a mild 350 isnt going to get you as much gain as using that same amount of money towards a combination of parts and upgrades that may end up being a better value for all but those die hard builders out there at the drag strip. Afterall a person could say the same thing about building a 350 vs a sbc 427 or an LS or the like.. Theres always something out there that has the potential for better performance

This video just seems like an extreme comparison to me of 2 heads at opposite ends of the spectrum.

All the reading and research I have done on the procomp heads over the last 15 years or so though have told me they were a pretty mediocre performing head by comparision.

 

Pay attention to what hes saying right around the 7.40 mark... This is the point I was trying to make above.

 

I really don't have the extra time to view the video, especially after reading these comments.
a truly good comparison would include a number of different heads. From Elcheapo to mid range to high priced.
While it's easy to spend someone else's money. And easy enough to say pay once, cry once.
The bottom line is many enthusiasts may wish to replace there cracked or extremely poor performing heads with something a bit better.
And the top of the range heads may clearly be the top of the range. But when that price tag means we are not going anywhere. While a lower priced option could be a possibility and actually get the car on the road.
Then the hell with this idea of only the very best will do! How do the mid range heads perform? For a thousand dollars US less, how much power are you giving up? How about compared to the original stock heads?

 

You dont have to view the video only the 15 seconds or so but basically he touches on the fact that the engine has to be able to utilize the additional flow beyond what your average set of aftermarket heads can deliver to see much gains and in your typical street engine build those gains will typically be marginal vs something with a larger cam and single plane built for high rpm power vs the street. Its an interesting video as he takes the same shortblock from tame to mild to wild racing applications.. and he does show how the heads make more of a difference as the cam and intake become more race orientated.

Personally I dont buy the buy once cry once scenario. had I bought the best AFR heads I could for my 355 when I built it 12 years ago chances are Id be looking at buying another larger set for the 406 im swapping into the car now. plus , call me crazy I actually enjoy changing it up and upgrading things here and there so I can see what kind of difference they actually make. I like working on my car and oil changes alone just dont do it for me. If I had the garage space I'd own more than the 4 vehicles I have now.

 

It's been my observation that cheaper heads always come with smaller valves like 2.02 intakes. It's the valve that is the ultimate limiting factor no matter how well a head is ported. As a kid I installed 2.055 intake valves and seats in 200 cc iron sportsman heads on my .060 over 350 mains forged crank 1968 327. Iron head circle track motor rules. Manley race flow and proflow valves have swirl polished decreasing the exposed valve stem diameter from blocking air flow. So my older Dart and AFR heads came with 2.08 and equiped with the best Manley valves. AFR went to the next step with using small stemed valves for weight and increased air flow. Weight of the valves is a limiting factor especially for guys thinking about H-roller motors where the red line is reletively low because of valve control problems once you start exceeding 6000 rpm.

AFR 195 heads have 2.08 intakes and it helps them get the highest CFM ratings. They have online calculators that give you HP potential with your cubic inches and parameters with the head flow CFM of intake and exhaust. So when some guy at the car show says that he has 525 HP out of his mild 383 build with 180cc heads and a flat cam/dual plane intake you can just raise the BS flag!

 

If you plan to do some porting anyway...the cheap head can be a good option, but of course that depends on skills and available equipment. Today's fully CNC'd heads by the big companies are amazing for what you get.. They can be improved for sure....but they do very well. I have set of cheap "as-cast" Ford Cleveland heads I'm using on another project. The casting was really nice...and I spent a lot of time porting them the way I wanted as well as re-did the valvejob to a 5 angle vs the generic 3 angle they came with.

I have a 20+ year old set of Brodix 2Xtra's that were ported way back when by one of the best in the industry and make killer power. CNC stuff wasn't available then.

Brodix heard I was going to be doing some dyno testing and wanted in on the action to compare their CNC heads back to back along with their CNC intake. They had me send one of my heads to them so they could see what they wanted to use for comparison. Their comments were they were a great set of heads! Now understand these go as far as having two different valvejobs to work with the "good" and "bad" ports on a BBC. They flow within 5 CFM of each other between those ports which is much better than usual.

The 2Xtra heads are large for my 540/555 cubes....but I like the top end pull and it helps with low speed traction with the stick shift and smaller tires. After porting they are 377 cc.

The new "test" heads from Brodix were 3Xtra CNC ovals with a 365cc port.along with their CNC ported 2017 intake...which is arguably better than my home ported Edelbrock Super Victor.

Brodix milled the new heads to 112 cc to match my old ones. The new heads flowed roughly 20 CFM more than my old ones and have 2.350" intakes vs the 2.300" in the old heads.

On the dyno...the "new" heads made 3-4 more HP down low and after a lot of lash loops and tuning made about 2-3 more HP on the top end. BUT..after peak HP..the old heads "hung in" much better and were up 20+ HP after peak HP. I'm sure if I spent as much time tuning on the old heads it would have easily beat them a little at the other points too..

BUT..at the end of the day...not everyone has a killer head porter available much less the time to get it done. The ability to ck off a box on a Summit order and get a very comparable set of heads in the mail a few days later is amazing! THAT's the beauty of the world we live in these days.

As mentioned...always get the best head you can. If it's down to between heads or cam...I'll take heads any day.

JIM

 

i don’t remember what exactly what series AFR heads my son used on his 302 motor but back in 2019 they were 2k i know there cnc and 7angle valve. he did .030 over, stock forged crank,scat rods and a comp cam,rpm air gap and a demon 650 cfm. bottom end was done by larry’s in groton ct and engine dyno by them.



i know it’s a ford motor but when i do a motor i’ll definitely be looking into afr.