Bang-for-the buck Performance SBC street heads?

[A HotRod]

Who makes the Jegs iron vortec heads? Is it supposed to be their version of the small port Bowtie vortec?

I dont' have your answer, .... but somewhere I was lead to believe they were getting some heads from Profiler.
Glenn

[A HotRod]

Are you willin-able to self port your heads.
(your biggest skill needed is patience/persistance
to see it thru. Porting cast heads is not a fast or clean process.
Or is there a capable willing local pro who can....?
They need a complete porting but huge metal removal is not
needed.. (Except those husky valve guide bosses)

You don't need the hugest flow numbers .

The job is straight forward but not fast.

Thank You Sir

[F-BIRD'88]

Another nice head worth mention is the Summit Racing
200cc port aluminum sbc heads. It is a Brodix IK200 with
a Summit name cast on it. Otherwise identical.
Brodix quality casting. You save $100.

Summit also has a Summit brand label 170cc port
Aluminum sbc head.. It appears to be Trick Flow super 23° head.
But with the 170cc intake port from their super 23 "305" head
but with 2.02's and a 64cc chamber.
(Summit owns TrickFlow)

[kimosabi]

Yeah it's not easy these days knowing who makes what. I bought a set of trickFlow beehives which turned out to be PAC.

[Keith Morganstein]

Of all the options posted on this thread, if not the AFR's, I'd be inclined to use the Jegs/profiler head. The Jegs//profiler is as cast. It still would be a quality casting, the question is how good are the parts, valve job quality, guide sizing etc...
Usually the AFR's are pretty good out of the box, cnc ports and chambers, have decent parts, but you pay for it.

[Keith Morganstein]

Big, aggressive cutters - cut down the guide bosses (thin them), blend in the bowls, tidy up the short turns, set the MCSA at the pinch & knock off the lumps, on the exhaust side thin the guide bosses, blend in the bowls & tidy the turns, in the chambers just blend in the valve job.
I could knock that over in 8 hrs or less on the grinder & see pretty significant gains, far more than required to make 450hp.

Porting iron doesn't take much longer than alloy if you have the right cutters - the extra grinding time is offset by not having to stop to lube alloy so the burrs don't load up, the end result is a pretty minimal difference in time taken for mild port work (if you have 'iron cut' burrs that'll rip it out fast & a grinder powerfull enough to run them).

I'm sure they would be great with your rework. How much per hour for that eight hours labor?
Then being used heads, they may need guide work, valves, the valve job, set up, assembly. None of it is free.

[mtrhead]

Of all the options posted on this thread, if not the AFR's, I'd be inclined to use the Jegs/profiler head. The Jegs//profiler is as cast. It still would be a quality casting, the question is how good are the parts, valve job quality, guide sizing etc...
Usually the AFR's are pretty good out of the box, cnc ports and chambers, have decent parts, but you pay for it.

My only caution with with profilers is the size of the exhaust port. It's raised over stock and the header bolt holes stayed in the stock location. Makes it hard for normal headers to fit. The exhaust ports are also very wide so you will also run into fitment problems on normal street headers. Some grind and slot to fit. I had to extensively mod my 1.75" headers and they still block a touch. My guess is 95% of everyone using these heads NEVER checks and just bolts on their headers. I'm not talking racers but average guy looking for hot street/strip setup. They are more extreme in both cases that the GM fast burn raised port heads. Those heads caused the same stir of confusion when they came out

Another option is the ATK (profiler with stock position exhaust ports). They are not raised and not as wide. Bolt holes and port are in standard position. ATK did this because of what I wrote above.

Don't know how much performance is lost with equal cc ATK

Look at each heads pictures on the website or google images and you can see clearly the port to bolt hole issue on the Profilers.

[randy331]

In your opinion, what Performance cylinder head for a SBC 355 engine that one would like to make 430 HP or more streetable power and torque from, that would be considered affordable?

Current heads on it are World Sportsman II - Stock

Glenn

Have you decided on heads yet ?

Randy

[Frankshaft]

In your opinion, what Performance cylinder head for a SBC 355 engine that one would like to make 430 HP or more streetable power and torque from, that would be considered affordable?

Current heads on it are World Sportsman II - Stock

Glenn

Have you decided on heads yet ?

Randy

Just full bowl port the sportsman 2's. Both intake and ex. Don't touch the opening on the intake, or the outlet on the ex. Just under the valves, and around the short turn. If you can't make 430hp with a 230 ish at .050 hyd. roller cam, something is seriously wrong.

[A HotRod]

In your opinion, what Performance cylinder head for a SBC 355 engine that one would like to make 430 HP or more streetable power and torque from, that would be considered affordable?

Current heads on it are World Sportsman II - Stock

Glenn

Have you decided on heads yet ?

No Sir, I have been reading everyones impute and comments as well as research.
It may be in my best interest to have my current heads ported, if they can reduced the chamber CC's to get my engine into the mid-to upper 9-to-1 compression area.
Glenn


Randy

[A HotRod]

In your opinion, what Performance cylinder head for a SBC 355 engine that one would like to make 430 HP or more streetable power and torque from, that would be considered affordable?

Current heads on it are World Sportsman II - Stock

Glenn

Have you decided on heads yet ?

Randy

Just full bowl port the sportsman 2's. Both intake and ex. Don't touch the opening on the intake, or the outlet on the ex. Just under the valves, and around the short turn. If you can't make 430hp with a 230 ish at .050 hyd. roller cam, something is seriously wrong.

Thank You Sir. Very informative.
Glenn