Can you put AFR 185's on a Stock 302?

5o5speed

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Aug 9, 2004
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Doing H/C/I and want to do it right the first time. Will eventually run a supercharger so I want the Holley Sytemax Intake w/ custom cam and AFR Heads. Would 185's be over-kill on a stock 5.0 motor no matter what cam and intake? Would they work at all? Won't the Holley/Custom Cam/AFR Heads make more power than say a Trickflow H/C/I kit?
 
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those heads will absolutely kill your low end like none other. you lil 302 will never flow enough air to make use of those heads unless it has a big blower of some sort. 165's would be a better all around head for your combo.
 
1) the heads will NOT "kill your low end torque". I've seen quite a few graphs of afr 185's on 302/306 cars thats put the low end of smaller afr 165 heads to absolute shame. Its ALL in the combo

2) To get those inline valve 2.02 intake valve'd heads to fit on stock pistons is gonna require a well thought out cam.

3) Of course a afr 185/holley/custom cam combo will crush a the TFS combo.
 
with stock internals you do not need close to 250-300 CFM (can't remember the number exactly)on each head, it will never use that much. hell my 351 i'm building will be using either a 185 or 205. but your right, depends on the cam too.
 
I've got AFr185's on my 306. I don't feel in loss of low end torque. I say go with the 185's now since you plan on s/c later on down the road, it's better to spend the money now on something you really want. Thers a guy on Corral that puts out crazy numbers on a 306 and 185's all motor. Check out AFR's website they did an article and compared the 165's and 185's on a 306. guess who put out more power? 185's!
 
What kind of cam would work well for a combo like that with a small combustion chamber to keep the compression up and the holley systemax? I'm guessing longtubes would help out also.
 
Just an FYI, you may end up needing to notch your factory pistons even if you left the stock cam in...alot of people dispute this fact and there are people out there running just fine without notching, we hear about them occasionally....when they miss a shift!


On sizing, if you WILL have a blower, then I agree the 185's would be best bet, but that doesn't mean you will be dissapointed with a set of 165's. They both have the same killer exhaust ports which will show there face on the blower more then the intake runner difference...

Jason
 
Go with the 58cc, the design on the chamber is more EFFICENT.

You will need to notch atleast the outside edges of the eyebrows to gain proper clearance, even with a stock cam. Too many guys measure valve clearance at the deepest part of the notches, not the outside where it WILL HIT when floated.

Go with a custom cam to maintain great drivabilty but yeild more usable power across the entire RPM range.
 
Rick 91GT said:
Go with the 58cc, the design on the chamber is more EFFICENT.

You will need to notch atleast the outside edges of the eyebrows to gain proper clearance, even with a stock cam. Too many guys measure valve clearance at the deepest part of the notches, not the outside where it WILL HIT when floated.

Go with a custom cam to maintain great drivabilty but yeild more usable power across the entire RPM range.

100% agreed from start to finish :nice: