After much deliberation I have decided to sell my D-port heads and go aftermarket (although looking at a set of worked over d-ports as well).

I am looking at the Dart pro's as they seem to be the best bang for the buck. Question is do I go with the Irons or spend the extra $300 and go with the aluminum ($300 that could be spent elsewhere)?

Setup: 3.75 cast crank with 30 over KB pistons and forged I beam rods (basic off the shelf 383 kit) with super ram intake. Not sure on the cam but more than likely the trusty 219/219 or something there abouts.

I know the irons weigh more to the tune of about 50 lbs, I know thats not to good to begin with.
What other drawbacks are there? I'm looking at the 64 cc chambers with 200 cc runners with 1.6 roller rockers. With the pistons I am looking at it will give roughly 11.1 compression. Am I correct in thinking that would work best or does someone have a better combo?

Sorry for all the head Q's lately just wanting to make sure I get it right the first time.

 

After much deliberation I decided to go with the 200cc 64cc Dart Pros. I will also be using a 219 cam and superram on top a zz4 shortblock. I'm positive you can't go wrong with these heads. They are quality pieces!

 

I had a set of Pro-1 215's,,, very nice heads, I had a header clearance issue with the straight plugs, you do not want straight plugs, if you buy headers, make sure they will work with the Darts.

 

Use the Pro 1 215s 64cc Au heads, angle plugs. They are well worth it. I used the 2151 Hookers without any problems. Out of the box they have good flow.

Next engine I've got a set of Victor Jr 215s 64cc, they should make even more power.

 

I use pro1's w/ straight plugs... aluminum. no problem w/ header clearance.. maybe I got lucky. I can't imagine getting cast heads if you are going to upgrade at all but that's just me. Sounds like a fun motor you are putting together

 

11:1 compression will demand aluminum heads

 

Thats what I was thinking, just looking for other opinions.

So whats the major difference between the 200cc and 215cc or other sizes (other than the obvious that they are bigger). What size is too big, or to small?

 

For a 350 you'll get a million opinions. Being as you are running a superram a 195 would seem ideal. No smaller than 180, though. JMO

 

This past weekend I stuck a set of 62cc trickflows on my car with a 219 and a bigmouth intake with large tubes. This is going to be my setup for the next week or 2 until I get my LT1 intake put on. So far and I stress so far, as it has been only 2 days, I am pretty happy with my choice of parts.
These Aluminium trickflows are very reasonable priced at $1230 bux and delivery is 2 days from them. I wouldn't go backwards and get an iron set of heads when good aluminum heads are out there.

 

Dart pro 200cc with 64cc chamber is a good choice if u go
with 383 stroker and 10.5 to 11 compression and cam intake
duration less than 220,
If anything missing above u will loose lot of low end torque
i experinced this why ? look at my mod's in signature,
my motor is making less torque loosing low grunt untill 2500 rpm
but after 2500 rpm man its a blast.

bottom line: dart pro 200cc r pretty big size heads unless
u stroke the motor, period.

sami.

 

Ahh a very familiar situation for me. I was going to go with Dart IE Platiunms (basically the Pro 1 in Iron) for a long time. But then started playing around with a few things and this is what swayed me:
1) Aluminum is repairable
2) Higher compression
3) Less Weight/Better handling?

That and you can get some good deals out there if you watch. Also on Ebay you can pick up a set for like 979$ or something like that, now it isn't all name brand stuff, but I geuss it depends on your application whether that is warranted or not.

For you I would say a 200cc. Though its not really the intake size that matters as much as the flow, but if you go too big, you can bog things down, too small you won't have enough. I know 215s would probably do great on 406 but they might be a bit large for a 383 with the 219 cam in there. Also, a big point for me was that the 215cc are a 1206 intake and the 200cc are a 1205. The LPE SR is a 1204 about and to get it to a 1206 takes a good deal of porting and some welding. So I stuck with the 1205s. Also remember alot of 383s with the 219 are running AFR 195s so just do some research and you will find some more information, but I would say go 200ccs.

<Breathe>


EDIT: Please note, the LPE SR base is apparantly closer to a 1204 not a 1205 as I had stated, I bought mine port matched to 1205 and I didn't realize how much porting they had done!!! My apologies!!

 

For ur 383 with SR and Lpe 219 oh boy ur choice would
be best dart pro 200cc perfect match no doubt i mean u got both world
low end and upper end power so with this setup ur car will be a
street and track terror and still be emmission legal wow.

 

It's only $300.

 

Iron vs. aluminum heads is a weight and detonation issue. I believe iron heads can actually make a bit more power (when both compressions are the same), but it comes with a price of weight and much less compression if you are running pump gas.

 

If you are considering Aluminum or Iron there are a few things to consider. If you are looking strictly at the money then Iron is the way to go. I would look at the World and Dart heads in Iron. If you are willing to spend a little extra the aluminum heads are impossible to beat because they offer so much more long term benefits. Something that hasn't been mentioned is that aluminum heads are much easier to port than iron and if you are going to tweak the engine in years to come this added benefit alone may warrant going directly to aluminum heads. The weight benefit is obviously positive, the resale of aluminum heads tends to generate more interest than iron so if you want to resell the heads down the road there will typically be more buyers for a quality aluminum heads. Also, many of the better aluminum heads come with an upgraded valve spring which is also a consideration. If you are only talking a difference of $300 the answer is very clear...go Aluminum.