Best Bang for the Buck Head???
. At only 340 inches, would good heads even do anything for me since it's not a race car, just a fun weekend cruiser? The X heads are fresh, so I'm reluctant to put money into them if the gain would be minimal.
Yes, any extra airflow within your camshaft's lift range should make for a more powerful engine, especially at high RPM.
Camshafts and cylinder heads need to work together. a fancy set of aftermarket heads that flow huge numbers at .550" valve lift aren't going to perform to their full potential if your camshaft only has .465" lift at the valve.
typically a rocker ratio of 1.45:1 is closer to reality for calculating lift at the valve. So for example a cam with .330" lobe lift will make about .478" at the valve.
Aftermarket cylinder heads tend to really shine with high lift camshafts.
High lift camshafts tend to also be long duration camshafts.
long duration camshafts tend to be made for high RPM.
there's a lot to take into consideration when trying to find the best "bang for your buck"
In some cases, a person will shell out big $$ for a set of brand new heads that are just overkill for his engine's combination, and very little horsepower is gained.
In other cases, aftermarket cylinder heads can yield fantastic horsepower gains and add 1000RPM to the engine's top end!
It all depends on factors such as intake, exhaust, compression ratio and most importantly the camshaft! :blob:
