Which heads are best

hemichuck said
Going back to the beginning of this thread, someone asked why aftermarket? And the answer to that is because I don't really have any decent stock heads to build. Edelbrock makes an open chambered head for the small block but I had asked the guys at Hugh's engines about them and they said they don't recommend them because they don't work. Anybody have any experience with those heads?

Not to be a dick but Dave Hughes in NOT God. I can tell you for a fact that the open chamber, if correctly modified and you get the quench even half way close, will outflow the closed chamber and have better flow characteristics. I call BULLCRAP. They work. There are hundreds of thousands of open chamber heads out there making power. The W2 is open chamber. I spent more time screwing with the chamber on my W5's than I did correcting the intake port. I also spent a bunch of time dealing with top cuts on the W5 and never really was happy with the reverse flow as a percentage. That was almost 10 years ago, and I would certainly change the valve job that I used.

The point is, the open chamber takes a beating from guys who think that Chevrolet never had a bad idea, have no compunction to go back and see why with smaller intake ports, an exhaust port that ford would make ford blush have been constantly, across the board had the crap factored out of competition by NHRA. It is my contention that Chrysler was not retarded when it was developing its induction/port/valve style/valve angle/chamber. When you start reducing rod/stroke ratio you have to spend way more time fretting over quench.

Look in the for sale section of FABO, moparts, Craigslist and such and look for some used edelbrocks. If they are open chamber all the better. You can use it as a lever to beat down the price. You can also find good deals on cast iron heads. Just so you know, there is ZERO difference in small block castings. Don't matter if it's an x or an o or a j it makes ZERO difference. Use a 2.02 valve and they are all the same. Late model heads with the hole under the exhaust port are cheap and many and they make the same power as any other head.