Does anyone make an aluminum head for a 390 with 58-64 cc combustion chambers? I am considering a move to aluminum but am afraid if I went with an Edelbrock or Felony head with 72-76 chambers the drop in my compression would almost negate any performance gains. My current heads are C8AE-H heads with CJ valves, milled to 58cc chambers and showed to flow 230 intake and 180 exhaust on the flowbench. I would like a head where I could use my Comp rockers and Harland Sharp stock style shafts. The closer to $2000.00 I could stay the better. I am running an Erson solid cam with .595 lift and 242-246 duration at .050. MY intake is a port matched RPM with an 850 dbl pumper. This is a mild bracket car with a 3400 stall and 4.30 rear gears. It runs low 12's but I am hoping to get into the high 11's. Can a set of pro ports be done for 2500.00? Do the Blue Thunder medium risers with the quench chambers use stock type rockers? Can the Felony's be milled closer to 64cc? Can I trust a set of Doves Canadian CJ heads to not need work to function properly? I know for the same money I could almost build a stroker but for now I would like the heads and possibly upgrade the short block sometime down the road. Thanks for your opinions. Jim
According to my buret, it takes about .0058 of an inch per 1 cc on an Edelbrock 6005 or any chamber with similar deck area. The MR/HR/TP chamber and the 6008 Edelbrock have a larger surface area and are .0053 per cc. I have to do careful cc work on heads with class rules and those numbers are exact. Milling most FE heads .060 will change the volume by about 10 cc's.
You can't quite do the Pro Ports for $2500. I'm not sure, but I think Barry's heads are in that range. It costs some more to go Pro Ports, so a guy would have to weigh his options. The Street Pro Ports that I do would be at least 90 cfm better on the intake, and at least 50 cfm better exhaust than what you posted. That would be worth huge gains. There is a post below where Barry listed some of the numbers on his as cast heads also. The Survival head "as cast" would appear to be a significant improvement with no porting, over what you have. A person does not want to go too big on port volume at the 400 cube mark, so you should consider the cost, flow, and port volume in your weighing of the options. It seems to me that a four tier system has been forming as far as aftermarket aluminium heads are concerned. First there are the "out of the box Eds, then Barry's "out of the box" heads, then some CNC options like Craft and Barry sell, as well as my Street/Strip Pro Port, and then the high end stuff that requires big bores, manifold mods, and offset rockers. There are variations within those four categories, and different ways to prep them all for the task, but basically there are four food groups of ways to go about it......a very general and basic guide, and the costs will go up as you work through the range...........the Ed being the least expensive, and the "high end" all-out stuff being the most expensive. It is also important to do something that is a "fit" for your combo and your intended purpose. A person wouldn't want to drag race with a sway bar, or road race without one.........kinda the same with engine parts, but harder to explain quickly.
