Call my cell 403-4482 after 2:00 if I dont answer leave a message.

Travis you can give me crap when you got a wife a kid a house and a boat with 2 motors not one of them weed wacker power plays. Just razzin ya man!!!

wow you straight up called my motor a weed wacker :eek: :eek: right through the heart dude LOL! :p :D

weed wacker on roids!!I wish I had a couple of them every time I fill up!

if you had a couple of these running on 110 octane, you would have to sell your house :eek:

back to the topic. What heads are on your motors right now?

Merlin ovals...I'm building a spair mill right now so looking at the most cost effcient way to duplicate what I have. The edelbrock marine heads come with the inconel valves already in them....I'll probibly buy another set of merlins bare and assemble them the way I want them....unless I could make better power with the Edelbrocks..

ya, I like to buy the bare heads and assemble with the parts I prefer. I have never heard much about edelbrock heads and what people were getting with them. I beleive merc uses them on the 525, I read a article at one time that said that. The only advantage going to aluminum is weight savings and they are easier to modify cause of the aluminum. I would think the $$ you spend for edelbrocks you could get a set of brodix or something similier. There is also " pro topline" cylinder heads, you could look into them too if you get bored ;)

The edelbrocks are $1200 with the inconel valves in them. thats pretty cheap!

What brand inconel exhaust valves? I had an eaton come apart last september. I'm never going cheap on my valves again.
I think those Edlebrock heads come with steel guides. My local engine guy is a big fan of those Pro Toplines.......... for a budget head.

Here's an interesting comparison. My cousin has a pair of 454's (bored to 461 cubic inches). He had some stock GM cast iron oval port "junk" heads---these were NOTHING like the performance of the 049 or 781 castings! The chambers on these heads looked kind of like sort of a semi-open chambered head---not really known for a hi-performance head, however they DO have the larger intake runners than the current "peanut port" heads do. Anyway, we had larger valves installed (2.19" and 1.84" exhaust) and did some bowl porting by JimV. We ended up using the smaller 1.84" exhaust valves vs. the larger 1.88" exhaust valves because the smaller 1.84's flowed better than the 1.88's !!! It was because of the way the combustion chamber was designed that the larger 1.88" valves didn't flow as well as the smaller 1.84's. The 1.88's were too large for that particular combustion chamber design and thus hindered air flow.

The rest of these engines had dual plane intake manifolds, hydraulic FLAT TAPPET Comp Cams 218*/226* on 110* lobes, 830cfm Holley Carbs, 8.6 comp ratio. Cylinder blocks were bore notched.

On Tom Earhart's dyno they made 461hp @5100rpm and 510-lbs of torque @3600rpm and stayed within something like 15-lbs of torque from 3600rpm up to 5100rpm. Pretty impressive numbers for junk heads and a little work. This surely something worth considering.

Dyno Don, I would stick with the cast iron Merlin's you have now and have JimV do a little BASIC porting on them. You saw what numbers they made with Wade/Super V's engines which made 505hp @5400----unless of course you're bent on saving weight by going to aluminum heads. Then you have to ask yourself if it's worth the $$$ for what you're getting back out of going to aluminum. ??? I really think you'd be quite happy with what a little port work from JimV can do for you on those Merlins and the $$$ you'll save. Food for thought. ;)

I must admit Don, I do admire your tenacity in your search for more power. You remind me of myself about 15-20 years ago. :)