Doctor J. Airwolf head tests

[pittsburghracer]

Well my buddy and I finally got around to test a set of Airwolf small block Mopar heads yesterday. We bs’d and flowed two heads from 9am till after 1 testing a few things and airspeed tests. He is building this engine for a customer. The heads are new and he had a valve job done by a local shop. Personally I don’t like the head and I will explain later. Here are the flow numbers.

 

[rumblefish360]

Please explain “Jumpy”, thanks.

 

[pittsburghracer]

Please explain “Jumpy”, thanks.

One of the reasons I built this flowbench is I improved what I didn’t like on my first two flowbench’s. On this bench it’s all digital and very touchy to what is going on in the port. I couldn’t pick this up on a liquid manometer because it couldn’t react that fast. Jumpy is when a port isn’t happy and the numbers will become unstable jumping 5-15cfm at times. Not good, not good at all.

 

['68cuda416]

Well my buddy and I finally got around to test a set of Airwolf small block Mopar heads yesterday. We bs’d and flowed two heads from 9am till after 1 testing a few things and airspeed tests. He is building this engine for a customer. The heads are new and he had a valve job done by a local shop. Personally I don’t like the head and I will explain later. Here are the flow numbers. View attachment 1715825069

Don't see what everyone was getting so excited about years ago and I also don't believe some of the numbers from other members of things they have found either.

 

[B3422w5]

Have a local friend , longtime racer swap from trick flow heads on his typical bracket stroker motor(12 + compression, race headers, single place, yada, yada) to Air wolfs just this past summer( zero other changes, just head swap) and he picked up right at 3 MPH in the 1/4 with the air wolfs.
He was curious what doing a direct swap would have regards results.
So i don't know how good/bad the airwolfs are, but they made substantially better power than the trick flow heads did on the same motor.
In fact, back to back outings, should add..620 ish lift 264-268 Hughes flat tappet cam

 

['68cuda416]

Have a local friend , longtime racer swap from trick flow heads on his typical bracket stroker motor(12 + compression, race headers, single place, yada, yada) to Air wolfs just this past summer( zero other changes, just head swap) and he picked up right at 3 MPH in the 1/4 with the air wolfs.
He was curious what doing a direct swap would have regards results.
So i don't know how good/bad the airwolfs are, but they made substantially better power than the trick flow heads did on the same motor.
In fact, back to back outings, should add..620 ish lift 264-268 Hughes flat tappet cam

I have never seen the Air wolfs in person but although the Trick Flow castings and port work are very nice I would not put them at an equal to the Air wolfs so the results you posted I would have expected.

 

[pittsburghracer]

I didn’t like the thinking behind this head when I heard them first mentioned them many years ago. Back then he approached Edelbrock and asked them to remove the water passages on the floor of the intake ports. Edelbrock wouldn’t do it but at the time Proform (now Speedmaster) did. Well without moving the pushrod it is damn near impossible to turn a 170cc runner into a 220cc runner without hogging out the floor on a head that already has a piss poor shortside. These heads aren’t even tubed like I do mine and he’s 25cc’s bigger than my best head flowing this type of numbers. When I heard and saw the numbers getting jumpy I grabbed my pedo tube thinking the airspeed was high. Wrong it wasn’t. The airspeed was nicely in the 330-350fps area but I’m thinking it was skipping over that short azz turn. If I had this head available for 24 hours I could have dug deeper. He had a very nice homemade head fixture (4.080 bore size) that he wanted to use but it was HUGE and I couldn’t see me laptop like I can when using mine. Here are a few pictures. Again these heads were not mine so I couldn’t position them for pictures like I can my heads.

 

[pittsburghracer]

Have a local friend , longtime racer swap from trick flow heads on his typical bracket stroker motor(12 + compression, race headers, single place, yada, yada) to Air wolfs just this past summer( zero other changes, just head swap) and he picked up right at 3 MPH in the 1/4 with the air wolfs.
He was curious what doing a direct swap would have regards results.
So i don't know how good/bad the airwolfs are, but they made substantially better power than the trick flow heads did on the same motor.
In fact, back to back outings, should add..620 ish lift 264-268 Hughes flat tappet cam

I would love to see both timeslips and weather conditions on a change like this. For sure with a .620 lift cam (probably true .595 lift) he wasn’t in the turbulent area of this head.

 

[pittsburghracer]

Ok the second head we test the same exact port but on he touched up slightly and tubed the head bolt hole. There was a pretty nasty hump on the untouched head around the head bolt so he tubed it and removed that hump. The flow numbers didn’t really climb because the airspeed was already slow enough but on the first head the numbers rolled (jumpy) at .200 lift more than I have ever seen. I thought something was wrong with my flowbench because I couldn’t manually keep the depression set at 28 inches. Removing that hump fixed that.

 

[B3422w5]

I would love to see both timeslips and weather conditions on a change like this. For sure with a .620 lift cam (probably true .595 lift) he wasn’t in the turbulent area of this head.

guy who tested is longtime racer. W8 stuff, Indy headed stuff, etc, etc.
Both days were very similar DA. Around 3500 foot at US131.
3 mph is quite a bit. Hot early summer, hot late summer days. There wasnt much difference in DA those two outings at all.
He went to great pains to make sure it was an honest test and just the heads were the difference. Went from 125 and change to 128 and change.
That said, the convertor in the car isn't right. It was behind his W8 deal at one time. Both outings resulted in less than stellar 60 foot times

 

[67autocross]

Thanks for posting! I have always kept an eye out for a set of air wolf heads… now that I see some independent flow numbers I won’t go out of my way to get a set…

 

[B3422w5]

Thanks for posting! I have always kept an eye out for a set of air wolf heads… now that I see some independent flow numbers I won’t go out of my way to get a set…

its still a very good non offset head for anything 650 lift and below, maybe better than anything, except perhaps the new Bloomer head

 

[pittsburghracer]

its still a very good non offset head for anything 650 lift and below, maybe better than anything, except perhaps the new Bloomer head

after doing these tests the thought entered my mind I wonder if part of what I saw was possibly the same issues in the first Bloomer released head. If I remember right I think the invoice for the Airwolf head was 2400.00. That’s a lot of money for an offshore head with the pushrod in the stock location.

 

[pittsburghracer]

Ohhh and for that cost they didn’t contain premium parts like titanium retainers and such.

 

[pittsburghracer]

I just noticed the other pictures didn’t post. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the pathetic short turn but you should get the idea

 

[B3422w5]

after doing these tests the thought entered my mind I wonder if part of what I saw was possibly the same issues in the first Bloomer released head. If I remember right I think the invoice for the Airwolf head was 2400.00. That’s a lot of money for an offshore head with the pushrod in the stock location.

issues might be the same. But completely different folks involved in the two projects.
That said, the “ new” Bloomer head has a new guy involved( by himself) regards the clean slate redo of the head.
If you know Vic Bloomer and his history regards small block heads, nothing else needs said.
Cost wise…your right, my comments were how they performed. Nothing else.

back to back tests on the same car/ engine those airwolfs made quite a bit more power at the track over trick flows. I doubt anybody else in the country owns and has ran both heads on the same car at the track to test the differences

 

[67autocross]

its still a very good non offset head for anything 650 lift and below, maybe better than anything, except perhaps the new Bloomer head

I agree that they flow very well...but after looking at the numbers posted they have lost a little of the mystique I had for them...I just personal won't be shaking the bushes for a set when you can get the numbers out of Trick Flows or other perhaps other heads...

 

[B3422w5]

I agree that they flow very well...but after looking at the numbers posted they have lost a little of the mystique I had for them...I just personal won't be shaking the bushes for a set when you can get the numbers out of Trick Flows or other perhaps other heads...

yea, wont be looking for any myself.
If i buy anything, it would be the heads Vic Bloomer just did, impressed by the power they make

 

[67autocross]

yea, wont be looking for any myself.
If i buy anything, it would be the heads Vic Bloomer just did, impressed by the power they make

I got some 59 degree W9 heads that I'm currently working on...going to see how far I can take them with the stock push rod location...as soon as I'm done goofing around with my Promaxx shockers I post up some numbers...

 

[rumblefish360]

Can those W9’s still be purchased?

 

[67autocross]

Can those W9’s still be purchased?

I see them for sale all the time

 

[rumblefish360]

I see them for sale all the time

New? From MoPar?

 

[NCmtnDWELLER]

its still a very good non offset head for anything 650 lift and below, maybe better than anything, except perhaps the new Bloomer head

I will have some good photos soon of the Bloomer set-ups
going to run them on my next LA endeavor.

 

[NCmtnDWELLER]

Thanks for the info

 

[B3422w5]

I will have some good photos soon of the Bloomer set-ups
going to run them on my next LA endeavor.

i know a guy who ran them on a pump gas stroker for drag week this year.
Mighty impressive