dusterglenn
Well-Known Member
The sad thing is, that I still haven't bought any heads. And, I now have two shortblocks that need heads...
Well, your car was smoking, had guide issues and wouldn't rev. I don't think that makes for a scientific comparison. I'm not saying your car isn't working better with the Edelbrocks, but I don't think the comparison is valid.
I also had valvetrain issues with the Iron Rams I got. Then I discovered the cam I used required longer pushrods, but I eventually got it sorted.
My Iron Ram heads measured between 58 and 59cc out of the box. I ran the skinny 318 style gaskets with these to try to overcome the stock Magnum pistons being .050 in the hole...
My cam was 224/230 and with the Iron Rams/Air Gap the best shift point was 6200 RPM.
I actually sent back a set of Edelbrocks to run the Iron Rams, based on the significantly higher flow numbers reported for the Iron Rams in the magazines and on Hughes' site. Personally, I'll take a higher flowing set of irons over aluminums any day.
Given the lower flow numbers of the Edelbrocks, I don't see my car having picked up ET based on the aluminumness of the heads. Especially .3-.4
I'm a user and fan of the AFR 165,185 and 205 heads on Ford 302/347 combos.
Unfortunately, Edelbrock isn't AFR. The Edelbrock Mopar (or Ford) heads aren't fit to carry the jock strap of the AFR Ford heads. Nobody fast runs Edelbrock heads on their Ford.
I sure wish you could get bolt-on heads that work like those for Small Block Mopar!
Ditto on the AFRs! I send them emails periodically hassling them to start making mopar heads. LOL
I don't think being "pro EQ" means being anti-Edelbrock.
I also think the RPM air gap is the best intake going for small block mopar, and as you can see from the performances listed above, the Edelbrock is a decent head.
I was just stoked that you can buy a set of Mopar heads for about $1K that are 11 second capable without getting out the carbide burrs.
I just bought a bare head from them ($$ is tight so 1 at a time) A&A Midwest in Las Vegas. I'll post a pic of it soon. Eric Haugland (sp) there is a good guy to deal with. RRYeah, I more than likely will be going eq instead because of that and being able to use an LA style intake. They are 700 bucks for them complete from Midwest. I think that's the name of it. There in las Vegas and are a distributer only. They don't do work on anything they tell me. Bare or complete from eq.
...maybe AFR got their **** together with the SBF stuff. This has been several years ago, but I bolted a set of AFR 185s down to a 331 stroker and with a mild Comp cam, it floated the valves anywhere north of about 5800. These heads were brand spanking new, OOTB, untouched. We had to pull the heads for an unrelated issue and the machine shop discovered they needed to be shaved .008" and the springs were too weak because AFR liked to use heavy valves. Both the shop owner and their head machinist said they'd seen at least 6 sets come in over that past year for the same thing. They both agreed the castings were great and the CNC program clearly worked, but when you put heavy valves with roller lifters over .500" lift, their springs fell woefully short of the requirements...and pretty much any decent SBF roller cam was over .500" lift and .230* @ 050"...the fact they needed to be shaved to clean up was just an isolated incident, but it only underscores the need to take even quality heads to a trusted machinist to verify everything.
just my .02...