Best aluminum heads out there??
#114
We swapped my Ski white 989 aluminum heads off my 540s this year to Big Brodix expecting to see some improvement up top and the only difference was the way the engines sounded. Top speed was within 1MPH but at the same time I did the head swap we did the water pump deletes so I think that's more likely the almost 1mph gain.... I had to buy heads for some 454s and decided this was a good time to "upgrade": Well now I can see how much value these "cheaper" heads really are.
#115
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Extremely good heads are overrated unless you're looking to make huge horsepower. You can make pretty good power on simple parts. Cam shaft is way more important.
my 572s made 765 hp natural with Merlin 345 heads, barely flow anything, and your better off with iron overall
my 572s made 765 hp natural with Merlin 345 heads, barely flow anything, and your better off with iron overall
#116
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We swapped my Ski white 989 aluminum heads off my 540s this year to Big Brodix expecting to see some improvement up top and the only difference was the way the engines sounded. Top speed was within 1MPH but at the same time I did the head swap we did the water pump deletes so I think that's more likely the almost 1mph gain.... I had to buy heads for some 454s and decided this was a good time to "upgrade": Well now I can see how much value these "cheaper" heads really are.
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#120
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Have you personally ran any of the cheap chinese aluminum heads on a marine endurance engine, if so which castings? Ive successfully used the Chinese cast promaxes on several builds and customers have brought engines they bought them for and put on that I dynoed that are still out there and running, with good valves, springs, retainers. I also had a customer bring me a 496 mud truck engine (I did NOT build, only dynoed) with cam about the size of what youd see in a typical marine 540 with procomp chinese heads, made about 650 on my dyno and ran fine. Within a few hrs of run time a valve seat fell out, broke a valve head off, destroyed a cylinder, head, piston, etc Thats the most recent destruction story using them that I had first hand knowledge of but not the only one. There was alot of rave about the EQ cast iron heads being "pretty good" a few years ago, irrelevant now since they havent been available in quite a while BUT panther/geronimo was just in a pair of engines with them that had around a 100 hours and the guides were wasted, seats were beat out of them fwiw. Another customer bought the Chinese versions of AFRS called 'enforcers", sent them to Eric Weingerten who pretty much condemned them and said buy something different if you dont want issues. There are some decent ones out there but a expensive lesson and a season lost when they fall apart!