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Aluminum Heads

13K views 19 replies 12 participants last post by  Kevrox 
#1 ·
I have a 68 Fairlane my father and I built a few years ago on a tight budget to do a little bracket racing. We went with Holley carb, flat top pistons, d0ve heads (exh bump removed), Stealth intake, and super-comp headers. It ran OK for a full size... 7:20's @ 96mph in 1/8th. This winter, we are finally ready to start thinking about upgrading to some aluminum heads. We are hoping to maybe sneak up on the 6:90 index class. We already have so many parts geared toward the d0ve style ports, we don't really want to start over to go to Cobra-Jet style ports. The headers were a PITA around the steering box and we had them coated... NOT going through that again until I absolutely have to. The pistons are also already fly cut for stock location valves.

Pro-Comps are priced right, but all the ones I can find have 95cc chambers. I have read on here about TFS Street, but they are either out of production, or they are called something else on the TFS website. The Performer RPM's ranked pretty low on the "pecking order". Are they really that bad? Are there any other aluminum heads I am missing? Can Cobra-Jet style heads be used without having to replace headers/intake/pistons? I have a couple grand or so I can spend.
 
#2 ·
Maybe someone will chime in but I believe I was reading a thread on here a year or so ago where they ran SCI heads with stock layout pistons..If memory serves I think it was around .600 lift both sides and had just shy of .100 PTV clearance...you can always cut reliefs in the pistons you have now and run em
 
#5 ·
You could look for some first gen A-429 CJ heads.
 
#6 ·
No expert here but the small chamber Eddy heads are the only choice in aluminum that I am aware of that won't force you to change anything.

It would be interesting to see the change in e.t. by just bolting them on with no other changes.
 
#16 · (Edited)
My car was 3 tenths quicker going from DOVE heads with the exhaust port bump removed to Edelbrock heads from Scotty, definitely not out of the box. I was surprised with the small cam and pistons down in the hole, low compression, yada yada yada, that it picked up that much.
 
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#13 · (Edited)
Kevrox, I am a bracket racer/index racer and I built a .030 460 like a street/strip engine on the bottem, then I put a .720 lift soild roller and a set of out of the box Performer RPM's small chambers and a 1050 dominator and put it in a 1970 Cyclone 3700 LBS and its been 6.51 @ 105.50 in the 1/8th so the Edelbrock Heads are a good choice, hope this helps and good luck this winter
 
#14 ·
#15 · (Edited)
You have not stated how much power you would like to have come the start of next season. In fact, you have not stated very much about your engine.

What size is it?
Has the block been "0" decked?
What kind of camshaft?

With the constraints that you have stated, why not fine tune what you have? Do a search on this site and learn how much flow/horsepower your DOVE's are capable of. Over the winter, port your DOVE's as per "The Mad Porter's" web site or pay someone to port them.

To get your compression up, "0" deck your block, mill your heads.
Purchase a custom solid flat tappet camshaft from one of the vendors on this site.
Purchase a victor intake.
Tune this combination.

You may be suprised at what you end up with! As DJOHAGIN would say, an "Iron Fisted" engine.

By the way, I don't believe that the Pro Comps have a DOVE port oriented exhaust port to fit your headers. Reference Cars by Carl's post #8 in this thread.
 
#18 ·
A lot of good info here... thanks guys. That CAR CRAFT article also has some good stuff in it.

My D0ve's have been deck milled, I can't remember off hand exactly how much. Block is .030 over and has not been decked, stock stroke. I didn't mention much about HP because I am not sure exactly how much it makes now (never been dyno'd), or how much extra I would need to equal 4 tenths at the track. Our cam is a 292 series hydraulic. I don't remember the exact duration/lift specs off hand. All of this stuff was done/purchased about 10 years ago and back-burnered when things got slow. I am just now starting to get back in the flow of it. I will definitely dig all that stuff out before I order anything.

My car was 3 tenths quicker going from DOVE heads with the exhaust port bump removed to Edelbrock heads from Scotty, definitely not out of the box. I was surprised with the small cam and pistons down in the hole, low compression, yada yada yada, that it picked up that much.
It is sounding like the RPM's would be the ticket. I didn't know Scotty had Edelbrocks... I didn't see them on his site. I will shoot him a message.

I also have a 75 Lincoln Mark IV I picked up on the cheap. My original thought was to just have the Fairlane D0ve's ported, but then, why not upgrade to aluminum on the Fairlane and use the D0ve heads as-is on the old Mark.
 
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