Im considering buying some new heads and i want to know if i should trust aftermarket heads out of the box.

Edelbrock makes the cheapest marine grade heads (that ive seen) and i have seen some dynos with good power with them, but ive read that they must be checked before bolting on. Now my first choice is dart iron eagle 308's but they are not cheap, but im wondering if the price will sort of even out if i go with dart over the edelbrock heads because of the machine work the edelbrocks 'will' need.

Im assuming that the dart heads can be trusted out of the box.. but maybe that is a bad idea too, i would love to get my short block back from the shop and have some heads waiting to bolt on brand new... is that wishful thinking?

I used hears from RHS with zero issues.

If I were doing it I'd go with Dart, RHS or AFR. I used Dart on a recent project and they work great.

I have used edelbrocks and they are nice. The one good thing is the 110cc bumps the compression. I have also used Dart and AFR. Depends on how deep your pockets are. AFR has some sweet OVALS heads. Get ahold of RMBUILDER you will give you a good deal.

I would never think of running a set of heads out fo the box.
You need to check the valve guides clearance. You also need to setup the springs for the cam you are running.

So general consensus is that i need to get them checked regardless of manufacturer... In that case it is probably better for me to just go with the edelbrock aluminum marine heads and a matched cam spring kit, the edelbrocks come with no springs.

that's the way i went,,just make sure you dont use cheap springs..isky tool room springs are the ticket..

They all make a decent product , but I would not use any of them right out of the box . This is not a place to cheap out you can make some real HP gains with the proper head's . Take the time to do your home work it will pay off in the end for you . I would also look at brodix . PS If you don't like the price of the iron eagle's you REALLY won't like the price of the rest of them ! just saying

Yea from what ive heard the edelbrocks really dont flow all that much better than gm rect ports, but they are brand new come with stainless and inconel valves and can be ported for more gains... i dunno. Right now its between the edelbrocks and the darts. Probably going to come down to what pistons are in my shortblock waiting to hear back from the machine shop, because the edelbrocks come with 110cc chambers which will bump compression

If i end up having to bore and get new pistons i will go all out and get the darts

FYI The Edelbrocks do need some port work out of the box. That is why they are less than the darts. Also make note of the fact that these are identical to the heads on a 525 Merc motor. That means evrything will bolt right up in the right places. I bought the Edelbrocks becasue I did not like the fact gthat on the Darts, the exhaust side of the head is angled differently and since I have twins I did not want to deal with my exhaust not lining up.

Smitty

The Edelbrocks are a decent head but the guides are usually too tight and by the time you set them up with springs, locks, retainers, etc. They're not a great deal. Get a hold of RMbuilder on here, Marine Kinetics. He can set you up with a pair of AFR's with the right springs and valves that you can absolutely bolt on right out of the box. They will make more power then the Eddy's too.