what makes a good head?
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 56
Likes: 0
From: middleburg fl
what makes a good head?
i really have no idea and i figure some one here can put it into terms i could understand. What is the diffrence between the diffrent cc ratings? why do some heads have studs others bolt holes? i thought i wnated to build my whole car myself until i started to look at the motor. you guys may think in dumb but ive never bult a whole car from the ground up and im going to need a lot of help. i have built bikes but always subbed out the motor work any thought would be appriceated :nonod:
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 3,365
Likes: 5
From: Lake Villa IL
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Cruise-In V Veteran
St. Jude Contributor
Re: what makes a good head? (Slownlow)
There's no perfect answer to this question.
First off, I admire your desire to dive in, head first, and take on your car. It's the same thing I did, after I bought mine, and the education I received is invaluable.
To answer the head question, you have to first decide your goals and your budget. Your head will be determined by where you want to make the power. If you're looking for nice, driveable torque, you can get a lot of bang for the buck from a set of Iron GMPP Vortecs. A set of them, assembled, is like $799, with the manifold and fasteners!
If you're looking for a lot of top end, you might want to go with a nice set of high flowing aluminum heads. If you go to my website, you'll see a link to a ton of engine combos. They'll show you what each combo makes, and the parts that were used. I think it's a good place to start.
As far as cc's, you have two specs. The cc's of the combustion chamber will typically be 64 or 76. The smaller the number, the higher you can expect your compression to be, with a given configuration. The smaller number equates to a smaller compression chamber. Therefore, you have less area to squeeze the fuel and air mixture.
The second spec, is the amount of air the cylinder head can flow. The higher the number, the more air it will flow. If you're looking for top end power, you'll need to flow more air. Therefore, you're typically going to be looking at a higher dollar head, designed for racing. But you do so at the expense of streetable torque. You see, our cars pre-date variable valve timing. So we can choose one, the other, or something in between. For most driving, a lower flowing head, with a milder cam, providing streetable torque, makes more sense. But for some, this is not good enough...:reddevil
Good luck with it.
And remember, like anything else, it's the sum of the parts that makes the power. Great heads alone will do very little for you. You need a good cam to complement it, plus the right drivetrain to exploit it.
As far as studs and fasteners go, you're good with normal fasteners so long as you're staying with a normally aspirated, pump gas engine. Studs are great for nitrous applications, superchargers, turbos, and normally aspirated, high compression engines.
:cheers:
[Modified by joeveto, 7:39 PM 3/16/2004]
First off, I admire your desire to dive in, head first, and take on your car. It's the same thing I did, after I bought mine, and the education I received is invaluable.
To answer the head question, you have to first decide your goals and your budget. Your head will be determined by where you want to make the power. If you're looking for nice, driveable torque, you can get a lot of bang for the buck from a set of Iron GMPP Vortecs. A set of them, assembled, is like $799, with the manifold and fasteners!
If you're looking for a lot of top end, you might want to go with a nice set of high flowing aluminum heads. If you go to my website, you'll see a link to a ton of engine combos. They'll show you what each combo makes, and the parts that were used. I think it's a good place to start.
As far as cc's, you have two specs. The cc's of the combustion chamber will typically be 64 or 76. The smaller the number, the higher you can expect your compression to be, with a given configuration. The smaller number equates to a smaller compression chamber. Therefore, you have less area to squeeze the fuel and air mixture.
The second spec, is the amount of air the cylinder head can flow. The higher the number, the more air it will flow. If you're looking for top end power, you'll need to flow more air. Therefore, you're typically going to be looking at a higher dollar head, designed for racing. But you do so at the expense of streetable torque. You see, our cars pre-date variable valve timing. So we can choose one, the other, or something in between. For most driving, a lower flowing head, with a milder cam, providing streetable torque, makes more sense. But for some, this is not good enough...:reddevil
Good luck with it.
And remember, like anything else, it's the sum of the parts that makes the power. Great heads alone will do very little for you. You need a good cam to complement it, plus the right drivetrain to exploit it.
As far as studs and fasteners go, you're good with normal fasteners so long as you're staying with a normally aspirated, pump gas engine. Studs are great for nitrous applications, superchargers, turbos, and normally aspirated, high compression engines.
:cheers:
[Modified by joeveto, 7:39 PM 3/16/2004]
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 11,322
Likes: 1
From: Living in the Hartland
Re: what makes a good head? (Slownlow)
The best advice I can give is to buy a few books on how to rebuild an eng and how to modify an eng for hi performance. There will prolly be a lot of stuff you do not understand but there will much more you will catch onto. From there you can ask questions on what you need more info on. The eng is a system from air cleaner to tail pipe and you should understand it all before you start. Remember any sysem is only has strong as its weakest link and if you upgrade the wrong link you are just spinning your wheels, or in most cases not spinning your wheels, pun intended. :)
