I read what you guys are saying about the heads, true yeah... sucks.
For most making mid 500hp You only need 185-195 cc intake ports... but all the affordable heads come 171cc and flow as would an x head if it were enlarged 16 cc' s but with a better exhaust port.
And that’s about close to what an X head will flow if the casting is good. Some do better. Nether here or there at the moment. It’s a bit of a jump from the Edelbrock and the like castings to the Victor with nothing in between.
Edelbrock heads are not worth messing with unless you port them or have NO heads to start.
I think there ok & fine for mild street builds. Really putting the screws to a small block? Naaa, move up time!
W2 heads require specific intake, rockers, exhaust. It is a large initial investment but they do perform.
And that’s the W2 draw back. Oval ports and wider bolt spacing. I can live with the off set rocker deal.
For some time now the 4" bore 4" stroke has become the be all to end all?
On the street the light LA stroker seems well suited to a heavy sedan or truck
with it's higher torque, but not necessarily the best match for a 3200 lb A body.
A warm 340, 360 or 372 can be hard to improve on in a light A body as an all
around performer.
The problem with street bound rides is hook up. All that torque off the starting line becomes harder and harder to get to the pavement unless you really start to invest heavily there.
This is why I like the 360/372 set ups. A little less torque on street tires isn’t Necessarily a bad thing. Blowing your tires off the starting line isn’t helping anything. As the old saying goes, “Spinning ain’t winning!”
This post should be made a gold star stickie. And then, once a month it should be used as a thread starter.
This one post would save a bunch of bandwidth.
LMAO! How sweet and true it is....
Thanks for all the comments. Every time I get to thinking I am pretty knowledgeable, I hear from my FABO buddies, and I realize how little I really know. From what I am reading, it sounds like some Eddy heads with a little work on a 340 might be the way to go. I have J heads with 2.02 valves now. Are they worth spending 'porting' money on? I have read a lot about W2 heads, but that would mean new headers and intake, right?
Harrisonm, like everything else about cars, you do things a certain way for a certain reason because you want to do it that way.
If it were myself, on my only car build, I would not mess with the iron head. You could possible have them ported to a “Well preped “ Edelbrock head but be aware that the head has a ceiling limited and weight penalties that you may not want to stop at or be limited to.
You would do the OE head because you want to. And no other reason. It’s like doing a 6 pack. The cost vs performance doesn’t add up. But you buy and use one because you want to.
If I was starting fresh on a stroker build with big streetable power, I would be looking at the Trick Flows since they have a standard exhaust port for regular headers. The Victors immediate draw back is W5 styled exhaust. There is 1 and only 1 maker of this header for that head. And that is tti.
