the great fe head comparo

[fryedaddy]

wonder if anyone will ever have the time and money to take a good 390-428 engine and try different heads on the same engine ,maybe with a good rpm intake. bbm,survival,trickflow, eldrebrock,cj,gt heads,etc.all out of the box and stock heads.i wonder if this will ever happen?

[Thumperbird]

I can't imagine anyone crazy enought to do that.  I mean, who has a dyno and that kind of time on their hands?   

[Stangman]

Jay was crazy enough to do a shit load of intakes. There aren’t nearly enough heads especially if you narrow them down a little. Really an extra 20 volts, reuse some 1020 headgaskets there pretty tough. Maybe a 352 head there best 390 head 2 each of low, medium, and high riser head, a tunnel port head, and then the new crop of heads. Maybe one day somebody will hit lotto and be bored.

[Rory428]

Not all FE heads will fit all FE engines, nor do all the various heads have comparable combustion chamber volumes. I doubt that anybody with a 352 would cough up the $$$$ for a set of medium, Hi Riser, Tunnel Port of SOHC 427 heads , which have much larger chambers and the valves would hit the cylinders anyhow. And I also doubt anybody with a 427 would be interested in trying a pair of small valve, low port truck heads. The intake test had much more validity, however, again I doubt anybody with a 500 + cube, high compression, solid roller engine would really want to try a SP2P, Offy Dual Port, or 3 or 6 Stromberg intake.

[Drew Pojedinec]

I can't imagine anyone crazy enought to do that.  I mean, who has a dyno and that kind of time on their hands?   

I highly doubt he has much free time with his current selection of products/castings that are coming out.

The intake comparo would have been easy compared to a cylinder head test.  Too many variables really, intake port style, porting, fitment issues, valve sizes, valve jobs etc etc.  Plus intakes are more likely to be swapped around by a home enthusiast.  It really wouldn't be much of a thing for a hobbiest to have 3-4 intakes laying around.  having 3-4 sets of fully machined heads is less likely.  I know as a home tinkerer, I'd happily swap a $200-$400 intake to gain 25hp.  I'm far less interested in swapping $1500-$2500 fully machined heads for the same hp gain.

[jayb]

I'd do a cam comparison long before I'd do a head comparison.  The costs involved to do the head comparison would be prohibitive.  The costs were bad enough for the intake comparison; I was buying intake gaskets 40 at a time for a while, to say nothing of the gallons and gallons of race gas...

[chris401]

wonder if anyone will ever have the time and money to take a good 390-428 engine and try different heads on the same engine ,maybe with a good rpm intake. bbm,survival,trickflow, eldrebrock,cj,gt heads,etc.all out of the box and stock heads.i wonder if this will ever happen?

Not a bad idea if a guy had two or three same stroke blocks set up with different popular piston designs. My own heads have ranged from 67 to 74.5 cc that I know of. The three piston design blocks would be there to keep compression in similar window for a closer comparison. Considering the swirl the test would be more about what head and piston combination got along better. Maybe cut the similar combustion chamber heads into groups of 57, 65 and 72 cc's.

If a group of seasoned FE builders compiled there dyno history together you could likely come up with such a book.

[fekbmax]

Blue thunder hi riser v pro port CNC v FE power.

[Barry_R]

Only a couple/few of us actually own our own operating dyno. 
Even for someone with a good relationship with an outside dyno operator would find this to be really, really expensive.
A couple grand for each set of heads will add up pretty quickly.
I have some data - but since I make a head anything I would do would be considered rather biased.
That pretty much leaves Jay - and he already answered.
Still could be a really informative project - - just need that lottery ticket to come in...

[fryedaddy]

thats why i worded it -do you think anyone would ever have the TIME and MONEY to do this.i really was wondering how the new trick flow compared to the other aftermarket heads in the same category.

[Joe-JDC]

The only way I see something like this working would be a shortblock with enough cubic inches to stress every head, and a piston that is dished to allow a nominal compression ratio of 11:1 with 72 cc heads, and use the same intake manifold on every head.  Optimize the intake, whether it is a Performer RPM, or Victor, or (----).  Same headers and same carburetor.  I have stock CJ heads, stock BBM, stock Edelbrock, stock Survival, and several ported versions of those, as well as BT MR.  I would be glad to supply the shortblock in either 468 CI, or 529 CI, and even several sets of ported heads, intakes, multiple carb intakes, etc. JBA headers, Hooker headers.  Just need a bit of dyno time and someone who would help and document everything. Another book, anyone?  Jay?  Good comparison for your new heads!   LOL    Joe-JDC

[Royce]

There,  Joe throws down a marker...He has the parts,  Who has the dyno time?  I am sure we could get volunteers to do the wrenching required.. And donations for fuel and gaskets. I am in...

Jay It would be a nice companion book to the intake comparo.. I can see a 3 volume boxed set with a cam comparo added.. 59.95 on Amazon

[fryedaddy]

if this ever happens i want to buy the first signed copy for getting this crazy idea started

[jayb]

There,  Joe throws down a marker...He has the parts,  Who has the dyno time?  I am sure we could get volunteers to do the wrenching required.. And donations for fuel and gaskets. I am in...

Jay It would be a nice companion book to the intake comparo.. I can see a 3 volume boxed set with a cam comparo added.. 59.95 on Amazon

LOL!  $99.95, Royce    Joe, thanks for offering up the parts, I'll give that some serious consideration - AFTER I'm in production with my cylinder head package.  Of course, then some people will accuse me of being biased 

[cjshaker]

That's another reason why this forum is so awesome. You can cruise through the Dyno section and see lots of different combos, and the results. There is a wealth of info in there for anyone willing to take the time and cruise through it. A person can look up 390, 428 and 427 builds from mild to wild. A great place to go to when considering your next build.