Best Aluminum Heads for Street Small Block Chevy?

[Nightmare388]

AFR heads are suppose to be the best flowing heads on the market. I have had Edelbrock RPM heads on my other 383 and they produce a lot of HP and they only cost me $900+. I have Dart Pro1 heads now and they only cost me $1100. They are one of the best flowing heads for the money.Victor JR heads are suppose to be great heads also but pricey and Brodix heads are good heads but pricey also. Almost all aluminum heads out flow the cast iron heads from the factory, plus you can run higher compression without detonation and u can save a lot of weight compared to cast iron. Lighter weight faster car and better fuel economy. Plus to get a set of cast iron heads to flow like aftermarket aluminum heads you would have to spend almost the same amount of money for porting and polishing and machine work. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Actually, thermal efficiency is the reason, but the opposite way around. The aluminum does not trap as much thermal energy as iron heads do, so you run higher compression to make up the power difference. All things being equal, iron heads make a little more power because of this trapped heat that aluminum takes out of the chamber instead of converting it to kinetic energy. Because aluminum cools faster, it is more resistant to pre-ignition, and won't detonate as easily. A way to have the best of both worlds would be a thermal barrier coating on the combustion chambers of the heads and the piston crown to maximize the amount of thermal energy that gets converted to kinetic energy. Swain Tech is one of the companies that does this, and while it is not cheap, it does work.

 

[behemoth1]

What is opposite? Aluminum conducts/transfers heat more efficiently.

 

[jerry455]

it depends what you want. i have a home built zz3 in my 86 gp. it uses 90 vette alum heads. they are excellent for a daily driver. my gp has a 3.73 monte ss axle ,a 700r4 , dynomax headers and 2 1/2 inch dual exhaust. when it was my everyday car i could get 20 mpg on the freeway and 16 around town. its best run to date at milan dragway is 13.502 @ 102.10 mph on street tires and through the exhaust. it is around a 180 mile round trip to milan. it is not super fast but while my kids were growing up it was a fun , very reliable daily driver.

 

[82355supreme]

The L-98 aluminum "Vette" heads suck!!!!!!!!! Back in their day their were good, today they are horrible!!!

Even Dart's cheapest S/S Iron Eagles ($585/pr. assembled) outflow them by leaps & bounds. Some will argue the weight savings will make up the difference. B.S.!!!!!!!!!!! check the numbers.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

What is opposite? Aluminum conducts/transfers heat more efficiently.

The extra heat transfer equates to less power, not more all things being equal. That was the point I wanted to clarify.

 

[v8power]

edelbrock makes a intake for vortecs with a egr valve. i just seen it im my new summit magazine.

 

[bigdan]

you can run higher cr with aluminum heads ....for same gasoline octane .
and with reverse flow cooling even more .....creating free hp .

on lt1 engines iron heads are said to flow more then equivalent alum heads .....but ported alum heads create the most efficient power ratio

and weigth saving isnt bad either ( for weight distribution more then total weight of car )
Dan

 

[v8power]

if you run lt1 heads then you need a intake to match the reverse cooling heads, i do not think they are worth the work and money.