340x vs. Edelbrock aluminum heads.

had a set of self ported j heads and air gap intake, then switched to a set of stage 1 eddys from hensley and a victor 340 intake nothing else changed. car slowed down .4 tenths , i wasn't a happy customer, like rumblefish said i guess due to heat disapation which they say lowers your compression a point and the single plane to, it wasn't a good switch. after i then ordered a custom grind cam, 4.10 to replace the 3.55, cal.trac setup, and a smaller 750 carb, i was back to where i started. not at all happy with the turn of events and all the money wasted, i couldn't afford to ditch the head and intake combo. after paying off all the modifications i called hughes engines and told dave what had happened. he said they were very careful who they sold there stage ones to because a good ported iron head wood out perform them. after a longer conversation he said he would make them work out for the going faster direction. then the heads and intake went to hughes for the stage 3 porting and matching the intake. got it back, they done a super job, after working the bugs out picked up 3 tenths. now were in the right direction. yea the stage 3's were a little much for my combo but i had bigger plans for the future and didn't want to spend any more getting anything else done to them. motor is 340 bored 30 9.7 comp before disapation 540-549 lift solid, eddy heads and intake, nothing radical but pure streetable and full wieght 74 duster, just run a new best at 7.27 and 94.27 on motor this weekend, the ported heads and intake love nitrious to, havent tried on the track yet this year just testing on the highway a little. i know alot of rambling but anyone looking at a dicision i already made i just like to tell them my story . its all in the combination the right combo will outrun money and a bad combo anyday, the x or j heads have alot of potential and work great, now that i have the bugs worked out of mine they work great to. it depends on what you want and the $ you want to spend, in my case alot of money costed a lot more to make the combo half way right, can't afford more compression yet just got the other paid off. anyhow i hope this may have helped some good luck :thumbup: