Best set of aftermarket street heads for a 94?

[DrScientist]

Back when I was big into these cars, the heads you wanted were the trick flow twisted wedge heads. These days it seems to have switched to a brand I haven't heard of until recently: AFR. Are the AFR street heads the ones I want to get? If so, is there any particular reason why? I assume they just flow better than the trick flows. Trick flow used to claim 73 more HP than stock, if you added an appropriate intake, cam, and throttle body. They were saying that an exta 73 HP to that setup was JUST from their twisted wedge street heads. That was supposed to be minus all the power that the other stuff was going to give you.

So, can AFR make the same claim? Are they really better than the trick flow twiested wedge street heads?

 

[revhead347]

Trick Flow 170s are what you want for a stock bottom end. They allow for a more aggressive cam and a larger intake valve without notching the pistons. AFR has great customer service, and are packaged with hardware comparable quality to the Trick Flow heads. Edelbrock packages their heads with garbage hardware. So even though the castings aren't bad, you are going to end up dropping a lot of money on hardware right off the bat. Other than the Trick Flow heads, all the other entry level heads are essentially the same. In most cases the castings are all made by the same company, and brand name is just a matter of packaging.

Kurt

 

[final5-0]

I've been quite happy with my AFR's

I've collected data from many dyno pulls

Honestly ... I've seen good results from all of the big three of Edel,
TFS, and AFR

Those results are not all that far apart

What really makes the difference is not so much the choice of just one
main combo part such as head or cam or intake

When you can get all the main parts working well together you stand a
chance of putting together a combo that ranks toward the top

Another thing is supporting parts like meter, headers and the like

Of course ... The tune is very important for sure

The thing I seem to have seen lately is peeps are talking about the newer
Edel heads

Grady

 

[ratio411]

AFRs are supposed to flow the best nowadays, however, being the "Caddilac" head, they have a "Caddilac" price. Very expensive.

I like the idea of the TFS being compatible with the stock pistons...

 

[revhead347]

AFRs are supposed to flow the best nowadays, however, being the "Caddilac" head, they have a "Caddilac" price. Very expensive.

I like the idea of the TFS being compatible with the stock pistons...

I wouldn't say they are the Cadillac of heads. They are packaged better than the competition which is why the price is high. Good valvetrain costs good money. Aside from that, it's the same head. A 20 degree AFR head is going to make exactly the same power as a 20 degree Edelbrock head if you set it up the same, because it's the same head. The TFS is the only one that is distinctly different by patent.

Kurt

 

[DrScientist]

Guess I'm going trick flow then heh. I certainly don't want to do any bottom end work until I have to. But what kind of packaging do the TF street heads come with? All this talk about lousy parts has me a little concerned. Are the valve springs and rockers etc. of sufficient quality?

 

[cobra259]

AFRs are supposed to flow the best nowadays, however, being the "Caddilac" head, they have a "Caddilac" price. Very expensive.

I like the idea of the TFS being compatible with the stock pistons...

The AFR 165's are good to go as well, with stock pistons.

 

[revhead347]

Woody at Ford strokers is convinced that the Trick Flow has the best hardware out of the box.

Kurt

 

[DrScientist]

Well if you get better hardware for your heads, aren't you actually decreasing the "streetability"? I mean if you're gonna do more valve lift, and more spring rate, and on and on, don't you need a bigger cam that is going to decrease ride quality?

 

[Zero Signal]

Better doesn't mean 'more aggressive'. It means higher quality.

 

[DrScientist]

Ah. I was just assuming that $1k of heads was going to be pretty high quality out of the box. I'm a bit of an aftermarket cylinderhead noob, I'm afraid.

So when you say "higher quality" does that mean you can make more power with stuff that is higher quality, but isn't any more aggressive? If so, which parts would you be referring to on the typical Trickflow/Street, AFR street heads?

 

[hollywoodstang]

DrScientist you gonna get so many different answer here at stangnet that it will make your head spin, and you will not get anything done. you just gonna keep second guessing yourself.

Here is the deal:

You got more then 2K, Get Brodix ST5.0R CNC ported heads
You got 1500, Get Trick flow 190 and install it right out of the box
You got 1000, then get edelbrock e-street heads or GT40 aluminum heads and install it right out of the box
You got less then 1000, then get GT40 Iron heads and port em' send to thumper.

There are so many aluminum heads out there and price is just about the same with all of em' they all work good, just pick a set and go with it.

 

[revhead347]

Avoid the E-street heads. They are designed to work with a roller cam.

Kurt

 

[BlackVert]

as grady says, it is not just the heads, it is the total package. you can make great power with all of them. how much money do you have to spend towards the whole package? we'll be happy to tell you how to spend it!

don't forget that there are other costs like gaskets and bolts and lifters and such, so you might want to lower your number for the big parts by a few hundred to cover that stuff

 

[ratio411]

I wouldn't say they are the Cadillac of heads. They are packaged better than the competition which is why the price is high. Good valvetrain costs good money. Aside from that, it's the same head. A 20 degree AFR head is going to make exactly the same power as a 20 degree Edelbrock head if you set it up the same, because it's the same head. The TFS is the only one that is distinctly different by patent.

Kurt

Well certainly quality is one measure, which AFR gets high praise for, but I have seen flow charts that show AFR port contours superior to the port runners of several other 20* heads. With flow efficiency in the 70% range, compared to 40% for stock heads and 50-60% for most, if not all other aftermarket heads, they are clearly well thought out. Flow efficiency does not take into account port volume, but just how well the port does it's job, so you can compare apples to apples when you compare a 170ish head to another of the same approx size. A 165 head that flows 70% efficient will be a much better choice than a 170 that flows 60% efficient.

I could be wrong, but I disagree that a 20* head is the same as any other where efficency is concerned.

 

[98blackstallion]

what about patriot heads?

 

[BlackVert]

they have a reputation for not flowing very well, living up to the "you get what you pay for" syndrome

 

[DrScientist]

Will all those heads still work pretty well with a fairly mild cam? I want to have a cam that is just barely under what you will notice inside the car. I'm not really into having a car that feels like its jumping all around. I'm all about the smoothness lol

 

[revhead347]

Well certainly quality is one measure, which AFR gets high praise for, but I have seen flow charts that show AFR port contours superior to the port runners of several other 20* heads. With flow efficiency in the 70% range, compared to 40% for stock heads and 50-60% for most, if not all other aftermarket heads, they are clearly well thought out. Flow efficiency does not take into account port volume, but just how well the port does it's job, so you can compare apples to apples when you compare a 170ish head to another of the same approx size. A 165 head that flows 70% efficient will be a much better choice than a 170 that flows 60% efficient.

I could be wrong, but I disagree that a 20* head is the same as any other where efficency is concerned.

The high efficiency has to do with the finishing work on the heads, which is part of the packaging. If you give a set of Edelbrock heads the same finishing work, they are going to flow the same. AFR spends more money on finishing work and hardware which makes them worth the money.

Kurt

 

[DrScientist]

Learn something new every day! I always just thought it was:

The more aggressive the head, the higher the cost.