Is there any reason youre partial to the AFR heads? What about brodix, dart, Trick Flow , Engine Quest, Promaxx, profiler, RHS , etc ?

Im not 100% on them afr they just normally apples to apples outflow the others but brodix has a newer rr bb xtra 3 Oval but i need to call them monday to get more info

Check out the EQ heads. Flow really well out of the box. They aren't very expensive either. I have the 320s. Still assembling and haven't dynoed. Joe also has them on his motors.

Ive seen them they are supposed to be dam good i want to stick aluminum and preferably around 290-310 cc runner its only spinning 5600ish

If you go with them assembled, I might suggest taking them apart, having the valve guides checked, and replacing the cheap entry level valve springs they come with. If you wanna go a little further, a sintered powder metal exhaust valve seat to replace the ductile iron seats they come with. The sintered powder metal seat is what GM used in the stock merc heads, and engine quest uses as well. If in fact, you are looking for durability, and going the distance.

No matter what head, buy bare and have them built to needs I will never buy assembled heads again... ever.

X2. I would never trust what components are actually assembled with let alone some of the shotty valve job work. I'm sure you've seen the ol man on YouTube covering all the different heads that get purchased assembled. Regardless what brand. It's to bad really. I hope you let AFR have a piece of your mind with your ordeal. I've had my problems with dart castings also but they quickly resolved with replacements. It's not just performance it's everything nowadays.

I got a recommendtion from jones cam designs a 242/245 @50 with 640ish lift on a 114lsa with afr 290 how do you guys feel about that

a guy near me is trying to sell a 496 he had built. pro comp head dropped a valve at idle. only killed 1 sleeve, I head, and 1 piston. so he only wants 3k. this is a current day example of Chinese valves.

Yes i could see that i have not heard alot of good about procomp heads castings or parts