Small block Ford guru's, please help with cylinder head selection

I've got a an 88 roller block, Eagle rods, 40 over hypereutectic flat top pistons, a Ford Motorsport E303 cam and a Barry Grant Demon Six Shooter 3 deuce set up.

I also have a set of freshened up E7TE heads but was thinking that a set of smaller chamber aluminum heads would help bump up the compression slightly and give me some nice power gains. With so many choices out there, what is my best bang for the buck for around the $1k mark or less? I've been considering the Edelbrock E-Street or Performer RPM heads. Any thoughts/first-hand experiences?

 

E Street's are hard to beat for only $929.95 a pair. I think you will get a little more power out of Ford Racing Aluminum GT-40's for $1059.00. Performers are another $100.00 and I have found they are no better than the GT 40. If you want to spend a little more, go with TFS Twisted Wedge 170 for $1199.95.
You could also run the cast Iron "P" head but i would go for the lighter weight and compression friendly aluminum myself.

 

I understand that the Edelbrocks are a pretty good head. I've never run em myself but what I have read looks good.

They are probably a little out of your price range but for the money I would look at trick flow heads. I have run trickflow twisted wedge heads for several years and they do make up for the added cash outlay.

 

I don't doubt that you can get some very advice on that subject here, but I think you might also want to ask on some of the Mustang performance web forums as well. This place seems to specialize more in helping people select from older, vintage, original, iron castings that would have been available from the factory on pre-'64 engines (or at least pre-'70s engines) and now are found at swap meets and on Craig's List or eBay rather than the newer, more advanced, aluminum ones that you can buy new-in-a-box out of a catalog today.

That said, I expect you'd get good results with the Edelbrock heads. To figure out which ones might be best for you I would think the guys on their tech line could steer you in the right direction.

 

Actually some of us are quite knowledgeable about late model parts and have even built a late model car or two. My small block is based on an Iroc Block (not out of a dealer camero). I even helped a young fella tweak the 10 cylinder mod motor that he put in his marquis a couple of years back.

I tend to believe that I am not alone and that there are one helluva lot of other fellas more knowledgeable than I on here.

Sure most of us act like the only good go fast parts were made prior to '64 but we still keep up with cutting edge just because someone might need a tuner in the pits at a Nat once in awhile. Its work but it gets us through the gates.

 

I have the 5.0L "pedestal mount" Trick-Flow TW heads that I modified to use on a 351W block.. Them are some kick ass heads... I bought mine when they were going for $895.00 a set.. That was back in the mid '90's... The only thing I did to those was drill out the head bolt holes with a .531" core drill on a Bridgeport.. The bigger Windsor uses 1/2" dia. head bolts... That mod can be done on any of the 302/5.0L cylinder heads..

 

We went 8.10--170 in the dragster with a 408 windsor with edelbrock victor jrs on it out of the box. Lippy

 

I have Edelbrocks on mine and they work well. I will buy AFR's for the next one.

 

out of his stated price range

 

Biggest bang for the buck is go find a 96 to 01 Explorer 5.0 and get the heads. 96 preferably. They are cast iron GT-40 and about a 40 horse bolt on stock. In 97-01 they are GT-40P heads and they changed the plug angle that makes it a bit more difficult to fit headers but the 96 have a regular SBF plug angle.

 

I remember a sbf buddy telling me that the Twisted Wedge heads would not work for my set-up. Perhaps the flat-tops would interfere? Not sure why. Any insight?

 

Pretty sure these Twisted Wedge will work fine http://www.summitracing.com/parts/TFS-51400002/

 

sbftech.com Good info.

they can point you in a good direction on the clearences for the trickflow stuff. Which I beleive will perform better than your choices. Just depends on what you want.

 

Actually your buddy has it backwards,The Trick Flows due to valve positioning will clear almost any OEM or aftermarket Ford piston, other heads will be OK with 1.90 valves if they have the 2.02" or 2.05" intake valves you will need to enlarge the eyebrows in the piston for clearance in some cases.I would get the Trick Flow 170's in your case with the aluminum GT-40 as a second choice.AFR makes some really good heads also but a little more expensive,there is some good info on the www.fordmuscle.com website also.

 

The twisted wedge heads have the valves not only relocated but also canted. Because they are canted they don't come as close to the piston as a standard valve I head configuration. They will clear your flatop pistons just fine.

Oh I'm sorry I'm on thw wrong site and don't know anything about late model parts. If you could direct me to the correct site I'll post this information again for you.

 

AFR or Trick Flow Heads

 

What kind of power can I expect with the set-up I outlined in the first post with a good set of aluminum heads?

 

You should have run forged pistons, you could have applied the giggle juice with them, now not so much. The trick flows are rumored to flow the best.

 

The Ford 306" crate with the GT-40 'X' heads and that cam makes 340 HP with a good manifold and headers

 

I've run both Edelbrock and TFS heads. Both are quality pieces that are worth the extra money you spend over stockers.

 

The intake ports are raised in those heads as well.

 

You sure about that????????

 

I have that motor, put a Edelbrock intake on it and performance was "lackluster". I did some research and found that the intake ports are different. Pulled the intake off and the runners were about 3/8" or more off. Bought a Weiand stealth for the raised ports and hauled ass.

 

I guess Ford musta made some changes to those heads from the last time I read the info on those... My bad!

 

You need to consider if you want pedestal rockers or you're ready for stud mount. I have run GT40x's before and while they are better than stock, I ended up doing minor work to GT40p's and I'm real happy now. I wanted as much low end as possible and that did it.

 

i have edelbrock performers on my 331 stroker using the ford racing z cam and i am very happy with them. i have run this little engine down the track many times and have a couple thousand street miles on them as well with no problems. i also had them on a 302 with a B cam and they worked well with that combo also. btw the estimated hp on the stroker is just over 400. my car runs 12.50 1/4 mile on tiny drag radials through full exhuast.

 

Thanks for the insight. So many choices!

 

I had Twisted Wedge heads on a Chevy,and they were terrible to wear out the valve guides. My builder told me the Fords were even worse. This was a while ago so they might have fixed the problem. Those heads made great power though!

 

This motor will be in an A Tudor street car on bias ply Firestones. The spray won't be necessary.

 

So any guestimates on how much more power I'd make with the Twisted Wedge heads VS the Ford Motorsport GT40X heads? Seems to be the most popular recommendations . . .