I think I might have a problem with the heads on my 327 or 350 SBC in my 50 F1 pickup. I don't want to go into what's wrong with them..complicated, and not sure of what I have...but I would like some advice on what's available out there to replace them. The engine has a pretty big hydraulic cam in it (it was built in the early 70's) not sure of compression, but runs without detonation on premium gas. It came in the truck and was rebuilt completely, but I'm not sure of it's specs....rough guess, about 325 to 375 HP. So, if the heads area problem, what's a good economical replacment? I've read up on Dart Iron Eagle's, RHS heads from Summit Racing, World Products S/R Torquers.....is there a real difference? What's the word on the street about these heads? Not sure I'd want to convert to Vortec style (it's got an Edelbrpck torquer intake on it), but is that worth the trouble? It's been awhile since I've gotten into building an engine for performance, and I'm not up on the current technology and offereings.
"Big Hyd Cam" ...how big? what are the problems your seeing? I just got done installing a .477 lift hyd cam in my 327, and new springs and such.. after ironing out some other issues with the engine it runs great.
All Heads you listed are great heads. I think the Iron Eagle heads would be more than you need by the sounds of your current set up. For your set up I would go for the S/R torquer heads, or change intakes and go for the vortec. I feel for the street the Vortec heads are hard to beat for a good all around head.
I can only speak from personal experience, but I did a good amount of research before I upgraded heads a few years ago. Got a lot of good advice from some of the gurus here on the board. I ended up with Dart Iron Eagles and am happy with the results. I did bring them to a machine shop before I put them on the car. He fould some valves leaking on one of the heads. Just an FYI. Here's a link to a thread that gave me some good direction. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120581&highlight=heads&showall=1
You would have to get a new intake with the Vortecs as well as be limited to center bolt valve covers unless you buy the pricey adapters to mount the old perimeter style. That being said, I put a new set of Vortecs on the last small block I built and they do make sweet power. . A friend of mine was running a set of old 305 heads on his 350 for a few years and it ran good. They have tiny chambers and will bump your compression up pretty good to work with bigger cams, his were pretty heavily ported by an experienced racer though too.
Depends what you're looking for I guess, and what size chambers you need. You're probably gonna need to find out what size chamber you have and/or need before you can do too much shopping. Depending on what kind of pistons they had put in there, you could run into issues in the future. I started out with S/R torquers and thought they were pretty decent. THey're not super strong, but got the job done. Depends how much power you're looking for, I guess. THey're basically "stock replacements" and from what I remember, flow about as well as the best stock heads. I used mine for a couple hundred miles, maybe, and now they're sitting in the garage waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. If you'd like them, they'd be pretty cheap. Let me know. I got a good deal on a set of Edelbrock Performer RPM's and they've been great. I would recommend them- they're pretty cheap, flow pretty good, and are aluminum. From what I've seen on flow numbers, they're not the greatest (obviously) but they were pretty much the best bang for the buck that I could find. They're USA made, too. Good luck!
Dart Iron Eagles are really nicely made castings. There's extra metal where it counts. The 190cc versions can be found used with a little digging. The vortecs are great in theory. After fighting with the intake seal design and paying the extra price for vortec gaskets a couple times, my love affair with em is over. The big question is what size combustion chambers do you have now? Good luck! PS, google car craft head flow comparison. They have a decent flow database.
I, too, have Iron Eagles and am real happy with them. They come in various intake cc sizes, of course the smaller, the better for street only use. Mine are 200cc and I think they're great!
Call Steve Brown at 870-656-5074. He cnc's a head similar to edelbrock alum head. He has built a number of 500+ horse street sbc using this head. He an interest guy with long time ties to pro stock drags, NASCAR, etc. His prices are very good. His mainstay is flowbench work, cam design, etc. I'll let him speek for himself. He's not a hamber so don't expect him to know about this site. Tell him Andy Goans referred you to him. Hope this helps you out.
I bought a set of ***embled Patriot aluminum heads ebay from White Performance in Kingsport, TN a couple years ago for $769 at the time. Been happy with them so far. Taller valve cover seat/rail to help prevent oil leaks made it kind of hard to stick with stock ram horn manifolds because the manifolds hit the top of the head where it sticks out so I switched to headers too. Maybe some alliance members sell these?? I also like how you can polish the ends of them too.
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