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Billet heads

16K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  JBR-3 
#1 ·
Other than Indy Cylinder heads does anyone make a billet head?
 
#7 · (Edited)
not per se' Charlie, there's been some mention of concern that at higher boost levels the valve seats would get beat up pretty bad.



Paul, these are solid cast heads.

We wouldnt change the set up at all. Nothing at all wrong with the way these heads should perform. EVEN if a set was readily avaialble, we'd run these to see where we were at.

Big Picture: the goal here might not be realistic, but we'd like to put a few of the Mopar/ BAE/ contingent on the trailer. With Pro Mod qualifying in the high 5's We need every advantage we can get.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I'm pretty sure C & C Motosports offers a solid-cast cylinder head. Unless you are shooting for several thousand hp, the heads need not be billet and solid-cast can do just fine.

The late Chet Herbert made some Ford billet hemi heads. I've checked them out a couple of times and had the opportunity to really scour over them. They are based on the original Boss Hemi heads but have some changes, most particularly a significantly raised intake port. I know a team that ran them for a few years here in California (Pro Mod) and we have a customer in Australia that is running them on a rear engine dragster. I pointed out a small concern about the heads and sure enough that area of the head ended up needing some attention but it was a simple fix. (<---In defense of the cylinder head design, the heads were being run hard on a 10,000 rpm racing engine.) The heads had some other, more typical bugs to be worked out in the early stages and the team I know here that was running them provided a great deal of feedback to Herbert and the issues were addressed. Note: This is not an uncommon part of cylinder head development; real-world can be very different from what may otherwise be expected.

I know Indy offers a billet head but I haven't seen it.

The billet head design offered by HFD is more of a Top Fuel style head which is kind of a different application than what most people might run in a blown alcohol class. (Heads designed exclusively for the two classes mentioned will have differences in their design.) But recently we've decided to take the head pattern for casting the heads and convert it to a sort of a "street head" application head with water jackets, smaller intake runner, just one spark plug per cylinder, etc. This is because we get a fair percentage of people that inquire about our heads for show cars, etc, and it could increase the popularity of the head if it were "streetable." That is to say, as a billet Top Fuel head that is illegal in NHRA Top Fuel we just won't sell many of the solid billet heads at all. Incidentally, I am personally working on trying to get our price down by way of bulk materials purchasing and a volume run of the heads...but the materials collection is proving to be a patient process while waiting for the right deals to come aong.

I feel like I am missing another billet head manufacturer but I can't put my finger on it...

Jerry, I understand Charlie's question in that if you have a pair of nice heads, keep in mind that changing your program to something entirely new and different can have a lot more expenses than just purchasing the parts. Be sure to take that into consideration.

Paul

p.s.: Please don't call them "Paul Kane heads" (or "Paul Kane oil pump" or "Paul Kane oiling mods" or "Paul Kane timing cover"). I did not invent these parts; they are offered through High Flow Dynamics.
 
#12 · (Edited)
billet cylinder heads

I can only comment on the pair of herbert cylinder heads I bought from chet prior to his passing.
I had the chambers changed to a brad 6 design by noonans in australia as i wasnt convinced the fig 8 design was correct for my blown application. ( carrol carter was influentual here also )

Thanks for the indy piks, interesting the rocker pedistal is retained with the single bolt, easier to fix the head if bolt pull-out occurs, where as the herbet heads have the 2 outers directly bolted to the cnc pedistal which is part of the cyl head, hope I dont ever require this to be repaired.
 
#14 ·
I can only comment on the pair of herbert cylinder heads I bought from chet prior to his passing.

...interesting the rocker pedistal ... the herbet heads have the 2 outers directly bolted to the cnc pedistal which is part of the cyl head, hope I dont ever require this to be repaired.
In regards to the rocker pedestals on the Herbert heads: The valve train is essentially the same as the Ford and A/R Boss heads, dimensionally speaking. You ought not have a problem with the bolts pulling out but if you do you can likely increase the thread from the original 5/16" to 3/8"....or install a Time-Sert to repair back down to 5/16". The pedestals on those heads also may "lean over" over time under extreme spring pressures (since they hang halfway over the edge of the intake ports) but they can be "bridged" with a piece of aluminum welded to the adjacent port/pedestal, a perfectly legit and simple fix. But I see no reason to do any such mods unless you first observe any issues. Also, the first Gen rocker arms needed some addressing as well due to the original design being a little light in material around the adjusters (at the very end of the rocker arm body). This issue, I'd suggest correcting. Shoot me a pic and I can tell you which rocker arms you have.

Paul

ps.: Is that you, Grant?
 
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