Edelbrock or AFR Cylinder Heads on my 393 Stroker?

[65fastbackresto]

My machine guy

Had a set of twisted wedge heads in his shop and was trying to grind new vavle seats into them, he was not happy, said the metal kept flaking off when he tried to cut into it.

 

[67GTCOUPE]

I had Edelbrock vic jr heads on order..........BUT, at the suggestion of my custom cam guy (Jay Allen), I went with Canfield 195cc heads for my 393w build.

They have CNC chanbers and I used the 54cc chambers to get my CR where I wanted. They also have other chamber sizes.

They are very nice heads, and flow quite well.

I can say they keep up with my vic jr intake.

The best part is: when you get them from Jay Allen, or Canfield directly, they have FERREA RACE series valves.......much, much higher quality than what Edelbrock or AFR use.

 

[S-Car-Go]

Slightly OT, but I would use the springs recommended for your cam by the manufacturer, not a spring package from the head company.

Another vote for Canfields (and Jay Allen).

I believe the AFR's will make more power than the Eddy's but I like the helicoils on the edelbrock's.

 

[Rusty67]

Slightly OT, but I would use the springs recommended for your cam by the manufacturer, not a spring package from the head company.

Another vote for Canfields (and Jay Allen).

I believe the AFR's will make more power than the Eddy's but I like the helicoils on the edelbrock's.

Of course it is an added expense, but you can always add the helicoils yourself or have a machine shop do it.

 

[SoCalCruising]

Recently, I had my 185s off and gone through by the machine shop I use. They do a lot of race motors (drag boats and SCORE trucks) and seem to know their stuff. Their only complaint about the build-up of the heads were the shims used by AFR. They said that they were worn in a way that suggested that hey were not hardened, or not hardened sufficiently. These heads had already received 7/16" studs and better seals than base-level AFRs, BTW.

Separtately, I had three slightly tuliped intake valves that needed to be replaced. I am trying to figure out why they got hot enough to tulip. I suspect that I have a lean condition on some cylinders. This is probably not a criticism of AFRs valves, I just mention it to explain why I had the heads off.

 

[SadbutTrue]

The Trick Flow Twisted Wedge R-series (cnc ported as well) are another head you could consider. In general TW heads are right with the AFRs and generally a good bit cheaper, but most of what I've seen compares 165s and 185s to the standard Twisted Wedge (rather than 205s vs. TW R series).

AFRs are the best, but you'll pay a premium.

 

[ratio411]

Another AFR fan here.
I have compared flow numbers and sought out dyno comparisons and am dead set on 205s for my 393w.

They outflow any other 205 out of the box and AFR uses their 'improved' exhaust port on head 205 and larger. I might like 185s if they used the 205+ exhaust port, but they don't.

Canfields have a loyal following, and everyone that uses them likes them, but they don't flow anything like AFRs.
I figure if you are going to spend big bux with custom porting, you can use anything, but out of the box for the regular Joe, AFRs are king.
All that special porting will cost more than the price difference between AFRs and others.

Personally, I would get bare heads and then load them up with all the goodies I like myself.

 

[Travis77]

Does Brodix get no love .

A buddy of mine is getting a 496 chevy built by a fella who has been building and racing some very fast cars now for sometime. Anyway, my buddy was originally going to put some AFR's on because all the hype you hear about them. Well the engine builder told him that AFR pretty much goes out of there way to ensure that their flow numbers that get published are somewhere near the top, if not at the top. Not trying to knock AFR, beacause I doubt they are alone on this one.

I'm not calling Bull**** on this one, but I seriously wouldn't doubt that this goes on. Magazine HP sometimes varies tremendesly.

Am I the only one that thinks it's strange how one 408 motor puts out 600hp and another (more realistic) motor is putting out 425-500 hp with very similar combos. I am referring to hp at the rear wheels.

Just my two cents.

 

[ratio411]

Does Brodix get no love

For Chevys they do...
In all fairness I know nothing about Brodix SBF heads.
I have a Brodix catalog and they look nice enough. No tech info though.

Well the engine builder told him that AFR pretty much goes out of there way to ensure that their flow numbers that get published are somewhere near the top, if not at the top.

Isn't that the name of the game!?!
Make sure your part does what it does the best?
If you didn't, you don't deserve to sell your product.
The only way AFR can make sure they are at the top of the flow list is to flow the best!
Or are you slandering AFR by saying that the published flow numbers are not their head's flow numbers?

 

[Travis77]

You know as well as I do that a companies success is based heavily on advertisement(and testimonies). I am not in the know like the fella I mentioned. I am posting food for thought info. Although it is second hand info, I do believe it is correct. I am not bashing AFR at all. Just stating that some of the tests and magazine article you read could possibly be bias. They do make great heads. If I get around to building my roller 408 for my 69 sportsroof, I will most likely be using the AFR 205's. Go figure...

 

[67GTCOUPE]

Don't get caught up in thinking flow numbers are the only thing that is important.

look at this article:http://www.musclemustangfastfords.com/tech/0305_mmwicked



They use Canfield heads and do pretty damn good on a 392w!

Also, if you are looking at the flow numbers in the testing posted on AFR's site (head shootout) that featured the OLD 192cc Canfield heads, the new ones are 195cc and flow a lot better.....also can get them ported to 225cc......

One important fact to consider is the components the head has........I know Edelbrock uses PIONEER parts.

My Canfields came with FERREA valves, not the cheap ones either.