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Best aluminum heads out there??

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Old 01-01-2015 | 09:13 PM
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nice reliable power,gotta love it!
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Old 01-02-2015 | 04:41 AM
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From: bel air, md
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Originally Posted by SB
Kind of. You must measure the intake length of the heads and intake.

You ever try to do it ? Not easy. Much easier if you take molds.

Pipemax has some intake lengths of heads.

Edit in: I have Pipemax and love it.
You don't have to go through all that. Why not call AFR? Then call the intake manufacturers.
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Old 01-02-2015 | 09:51 AM
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Originally Posted by the deep
Very nice . I believe those are the ones Bob and I talked about .
Made by Bill Webster I think. Have them on my motors, excellent fit.
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Old 09-22-2023 | 02:32 PM
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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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Old 09-22-2023 | 03:02 PM
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From: Olmsted Falls,Ohio Marblehead,Oh
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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
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Old 09-25-2023 | 12:52 PM
  #116  
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Originally Posted by im MartinB
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.
Except when a valve seat falls out of the 900$ chinese skip white heads and completely destroys a cylinder and ends your season. I seen where they were selling those for 900$ a pair turn key a few years ago, assuming 30% profit margin at retail that means their paying 700$ including springs, valves, machine work, castings, retainers, locks. To be able to do THAT they would have to have the absolutely cheapest parts know to man. How long did you run them? as far as flow, real possible they flowed almost as much as your motor required hence no hp gain.
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Old 09-25-2023 | 01:06 PM
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Heads make all the difference.
you can have all the cam you want if the heads don`t flow well you`re wasting time.
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Old 09-26-2023 | 07:03 PM
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Going to get a lot of hate, but there are some decent EBAY knock off heads available. Some of the namebrand stuff is cast overseas anyway.
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Old 09-26-2023 | 08:19 PM
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Originally Posted by ICDEDPPL
Heads make all the difference.
you can have all the cam you want if the heads don`t flow well you`re wasting time.
Not much beats good head.
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Old 09-27-2023 | 12:41 PM
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Originally Posted by 1976Regatta
Going to get a lot of hate, but there are some decent EBAY knock off heads available. Some of the namebrand stuff is cast overseas anyway.
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!
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