Edelbrock Heads Sound Like They're Terrible

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318willrun said:
Have a Weiand Action Plus and love it. Gobs of low end torque for a street engine. I have had great experiences with Weiand.
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From what I've seen Wiand and Offy have the better castings. Much less core shift than Edelbrock or the old Holley intakes.
 
While they may have some issues, I can't help but to think they're a far cry better than any heads that came out of the factory in the 60s-70s.
 
I have a 400 low deck, kb240 pistons and block was zero decked

performer RPM heads and intake. at first the guy at the machine shop was like "oh boy" they take some work.

Harland sharp roller rockers

the only thing they said they had to do was mill the heads slightly so the intake matched up just right. and I had to get a set of cut-to-fit pushrods.

otherwise it was nothing major
 
Leadfoot said:
While they may have some issues, I can't help but to think they're a far cry better than any heads that came out of the factory in the 60s-70s.
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All depends on what you're doing. For most serious performance builds - yes, they are. At least in my opinion.
 
I have had almost NO parts that didn't need some type of modification to work correctly. Almost none work flawlessly out of the box...its just the way it is. The guy in the video had a couple good ideas, but I'm just glad I don't have this guy working on my heads. The guy is whining about combustion chamber volume being SOO far off, yet he spills 2-3mL of water down the head......genius.

I guess I better pull my Edelbrocks off my motor and switch to J heads; after all, I don't like having a mid 10 second street car...I want to run 12's...:pukerigh:
 
I think for someone looking to run a mild to warm 340/360 on the street with a trip or two to the track a set of j heads with 2.02 and a little bowl and port work is more than enough to get you in the low 12's to mid 11's with maybe about $1,200 total in the heads. Now if you really want to go fast the eddies would not even be on my radar there are better heads.
 
I was running for points bracket racing, in the middle of the season a rocker stand on my 906 iron heads broke, I needed heads quickly and Eddy was just about to roll out the brand new RPMs for a 440, with a lot of whinning, begging and plain ole bribbery I got my hands on a set of one of the very first sets off the assembly line. I showed em to the best head porter around here and after about 5 seconds of looking at em he said.....bolt em on. I changed out the springs to handle my cam, bolted em on and after 3 or 4 years and hundreds of passes.........ZERO problems.
Well OK I lied just a little, the iron heads ran faster but that just tells me that the eddys would flow better than my cam for the iron heads would let em...they needed MORE CAM!!!!!!!!
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Mine work well, OMG...... OOTB! *gasp*
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No - they didn't. Because out of the box they were castings. Someone had to put valves in them and assemble, which is 1/2 of what you're fixing with with the other choices.
 
PoisonDart74 said:
Mine work well, OMG...... OOTB! *gasp*
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My Stealth heads had nothing done to them, slapped 'em on and drove the hell out of the car. The first engine grenaded and bent the valves on one cylinder. Gonna check them out in the next week or so, and after they are fixed, (valves, seats and guides) I'm slapping 'em back on and gonna run the piss outta the thing. Maybe I just got lucky, but I've had no issues with the heads themselves. Sucks you guys have had to redo a lot of what I feel should be done already.
 
The Stealths on my bench now had the full monty, porting, pro work, etc - and I still found production edges and things I didn't like and tweaked.
 
I have 2 sets, first pair needed nothing done and the second pair the valve guides were tight. Other than that I'll never go back to a factory head.
 
Some of you have already seen my thread of my first experience with Eddy RPM heads:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=272323

I bought bare castings because my engine builder and I agreed he would be putting some work into them, and we'd buy valvetrain parts that we knew the brand and where they came from. But here I've still got some work to do in getting a decent said of heads...
 
You can buy the eddie heads unfinished and that way your builder can make them work to your engine. Like they all say. It's a hot rod so nothing will work or fit right out of the box. Build to suit.
 
MRL Performance said:
I tell my customers this time and again. You will have $2000 into a set of plain old RPM heads to make them a GOOD usable part.

Some of the other things not mentioned are the bad valve job, horrible core shift, tight guides, cheap springs, cheap valve seals and I have seen my fair share of metal shavings in them.

They do perform well, but it takes some doing!
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It's hard to believe anyone would buy any set of heads, fully assembled & just bolt them on. I don't care what the box they come in says. I've never done that, never will. The RPM heads are just fine. Buy them bare, have everything checked. Get a good valve job done, size the guides, get good retainers & locks... And buy springs that best suit the camshaft you're going to run. Yep, you'll have some cash into them. And you'll have some cash into any other head you'd buy as well. Controlling the valve train is always important, don't be cheap with it.

I don't care what heads you buy, that's the way to do it imo.
 
swinger340 said:
IMO the RPM air gaps are over priced as well. Have had 2 of them with horrible core shift. One of them the divider on the duel plane was so far off center that a holley 650 butterflies hit it. Would only open 1/4 throttle. And the ports are so far off from a gasket that it is a joke. The Chinese versions are a lot closer OOTB and that is sad for an item that is almost 1/2 the $
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If it was not for E brock putting all the time and money into developing the air gap there would be no chinese version.
 
I run Edelbrock RPM heads. I can't complain. I've run them two full seasons with absolutely no issues. And I drive a lot. pushing 18K miles on them.
 
Richie said:
for people who know a little but aren't mechanics like myself
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Therein lies the problem right there. You know enough to know about something, but not enough to know all the facts. .....and I say this not trying to offend you, but to help you learn.

There are NO aftermarket heads made that you should expect to be a 100% plug and play bolt on. It just ain't happenin. And it's more like that with Mopar than any other brand engine.

Like another friend I have, you are looking in the wrong places for information. Look for people who have the heads you are looking at and ask them what it took to get them right. In general, it's not a lot of work. I do agree 100% with the theory that things that cost this much should require nothing at all to bolt on and run, but that's simply not the case in the real world.

No head manufacturer knows what combination of valve train you plan to run. There are many, many different brands and styles within those brands and no one can make something to 100% match up and work with every single one without mods. It is simply impossible.

Just because the Edelbrocks may require modifications does not mean they are not quality pieces. In fact, they are some of the highest quality heads available and generally require less mods to make them work as other brands.
 
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