Better Head Choice for my 406?

[RD_Racing]

Im building a new SBC 406 and have the short block complete. Below are the specs.. With that said, i have a brand new pair of old/new stock Pro Topline "iron" 220cc heads and wondering if i should keep them, have them sent out to be ported, try doing some mild porting myself or selling them and getting something better without breaking the bank.. The flow specs show these heads lack some on the exhaust side with only 190 at .600 lift.. My goal is to try and squeeze 600+ hp out of this combo and hopefully get my #2600 Vega in the single digits, even if its a 9.99

406 fully studded block (511 block)
Scat Forged 3.75 Crank
Carrillo 6" H-beam forged rods
Wiseco Forged pistons +8cc done (calculated comp 11.7:1)
Comp cam "solid roller" dur 265/270 @ 050, .630 lift. 106 LSA
Modified tunnel ram that is port matched to a #1206
Pair of Quickfuel SL600 carbs

Rest of the drivetrain
TCI th350 trans rated for 770hp (footbrake)
4500 stall
4.56 gear and 31" tall tires

Any thoughts?

[T-flow]

I think the heads are fine. total induction needs to be addressed with the proper pieces to reach your goal.
We have ran those heads in aluminum for years with great success. 600hp should no be an issue.

[statsystems]

Im building a new SBC 406 and have the short block complete. Below are the specs.. With that said, i have a brand new pair of old/new stock Pro Topline "iron" 220cc heads and wondering if i should keep them, have them sent out to be ported, try doing some mild porting myself or selling them and getting something better without breaking the bank.. The flow specs show these heads lack some on the exhaust side with only 190 at .600 lift.. My goal is to try and squeeze 600+ hp out of this combo and hopefully get my #2600 Vega in the single digits, even if its a 9.99

406 fully studded block (511 block)
Scat Forged 3.75 Crank
Carrillo 6" H-beam forged rods
Wiseco Forged pistons +8cc done (calculated comp 11.7:1)
Comp cam "solid roller" dur 265/270 @ 050, .630 lift. 106 LSA
Modified tunnel ram that is port matched to a #1206
Pair of Quickfuel SL600 carbs

Rest of the drivetrain
TCI th350 trans rated for 770hp (footbrake)
4500 stall
4.56 gear and 31" tall tires

Any thoughts?

What is the SL carb...vacuum secondary? Way too small for what you are doing.

A quality valve job and some porting and there is nothing wrong with that head.

[RD_Racing]

Im building a new SBC 406 and have the short block complete. Below are the specs.. With that said, i have a brand new pair of old/new stock Pro Topline "iron" 220cc heads and wondering if i should keep them, have them sent out to be ported, try doing some mild porting myself or selling them and getting something better without breaking the bank.. The flow specs show these heads lack some on the exhaust side with only 190 at .600 lift.. My goal is to try and squeeze 600+ hp out of this combo and hopefully get my #2600 Vega in the single digits, even if its a 9.99

406 fully studded block (511 block)
Scat Forged 3.75 Crank
Carrillo 6" H-beam forged rods
Wiseco Forged pistons +8cc done (calculated comp 11.7:1)
Comp cam "solid roller" dur 265/270 @ 050, .630 lift. 106 LSA
Modified tunnel ram that is port matched to a #1206
Pair of Quickfuel SL600 carbs

Rest of the drivetrain
TCI th350 trans rated for 770hp (footbrake)
4500 stall
4.56 gear and 31" tall tires

Any thoughts?

What is the SL carb...vacuum secondary? Way too small for what you are doing.

A quality valve job and some porting and there is nothing wrong with that head.

The SL is the Quickfuel Slayer series and yes they are a VS.. The carbs are the only thing I havent bought yet.. I was hoping to keep the carbs inline but im starting to think thats not going to happen with this setup... With the price of a quality port job these days, i might end up with more into them than a new set of AFR's, thats kinda my delema..

[af2]

I think you missed on the compression by 2 points.

At #200 lbs lighter and 30 CI smaller with 235 RHS untouched. We are running 9.50's with a 1.3 60'. You should be right there with 2000 more converter!

[RD_Racing]

I think you missed on the compression by 2 points.

At #200 lbs lighter and 30 CI smaller with 235 RHS untouched. We are running 9.50's with a 1.3 60'. You should be right there with 2000 more converter!

With 64cc chambers I would be at about 13.3:1 but I have 72cc and a thicker head gasket which puts me at about 11.7:1

[steve cowan]

RD RACING,
my last car was a 32 ford roadster @ 3100 car only,PG 5000rpm converter,9 inch 4.1:1 28 x 11 MT slick ,460 bbc 10 .5:1 comp
unmodifield 320 cc oval port heads tunnel ram with 2 x 750 old school double pumpers
9.98 @ 134 mph motor dyno at 605 @ 6600 rpm
i thought with the ram it would be a pig but it drove good it was street registered for a couple of years until i decided to put the bottle on, oh and a 254 mild comp roller as well
those protopline heads are old hat now but they kick butt
i jumped on ERICs (weingartner) WEB SITE AND HE GETS rhs 220CC HEADS FROM 289/196 STOCK PEAK FLOW TO A PORTED 318/238 Peak cfm
plenty of guys here make 600hp with a head that flows around 300 cfm
i wonder by the time you sell your heads and bye another set of aluminium heads that will not be optimized from the factory,you still need to get a valve job as a minimum and a lot of heads go turbulent above 600 lift and it dont matter what decal is on them
a couple of items i would consider
11.7:1 comp is fine but you need piston to head (quench) around 0.040 thou
i would consider race fuel VP ms101 or sunoco 260 gt as a minimum
i ran my BBC with 11.1:1 comp with a 280 shot of gas withVP ms 103 fuel to a 8.90 @ 150 mph @ 3320 pounds with me
tunnel ram manifold is ok but maybe a single plane manifold might be a better option
you only need one carb and forget about the vac secondry rubbish for a drag race application
converter might be a bit small,i run a 8 inch 5600 rpm converter on my 11.0 sec 3500pound streeter with no problems
THINGS TO CONSIDER
what rpm do you want to turn through the lights ????
if you consider your cylinder heads will have a MCSA of 2.30'' approx
406 ci @ 7000 rpm will be a MCSA of 2.56''
406 ci @ 8000 rpm will be a MCSA of 2.93''
if you want to turn 8000rpm your cam is to small (call mike jones )
you will need bigger converter
as previously stated 600hp is achievable but there is more to it than bolting parts ON
this is all my opinion and there is alot to consider
best of luck and keep us up to date on your progress

steve c

[Newold1]

I think you should sell those iron heads and use a good set of aluminum heads with that compression ratio unless you will be using race fuel.

[F-BIRD'88]

The carb choice really blows a hole in the potential of this car.

Put 2 750 double pumpers on it.. If you want the carbs mounted in line for simplicity
put 2 650 or 2 750cfm Edelbrocks on it, OR use correct 660cfm center squirter Holley tunnel ram carbs, (apparently you can't give 'em away) otherwise use 750 DP holleys.
(Chokeless HP style carb bodies prefered)

Get the carbs wrong and the heads won't matter much.
What is the local market sale potential value of your heads, there.

Pro porting iron heads tends to be labour cost intensive.
So it all depends on the real cost of someone within your reach,
on that.
Aluminum heads are lighter weight.

[RD_Racing]

RD RACING,
my last car was a 32 ford roadster @ 3100 car only,PG 5000rpm converter,9 inch 4.1:1 28 x 11 MT slick ,460 bbc 10 .5:1 comp
unmodifield 320 cc oval port heads tunnel ram with 2 x 750 old school double pumpers
9.98 @ 134 mph motor dyno at 605 @ 6600 rpm
i thought with the ram it would be a pig but it drove good it was street registered for a couple of years until i decided to put the bottle on, oh and a 254 mild comp roller as well
those protopline heads are old hat now but they kick butt
i jumped on ERICs (weingartner) WEB SITE AND HE GETS rhs 220CC HEADS FROM 289/196 STOCK PEAK FLOW TO A PORTED 318/238 Peak cfm
plenty of guys here make 600hp with a head that flows around 300 cfm
i wonder by the time you sell your heads and bye another set of aluminium heads that will not be optimized from the factory,you still need to get a valve job as a minimum and a lot of heads go turbulent above 600 lift and it dont matter what decal is on them
a couple of items i would consider
11.7:1 comp is fine but you need piston to head (quench) around 0.040 thou
i would consider race fuel VP ms101 or sunoco 260 gt as a minimum
i ran my BBC with 11.1:1 comp with a 280 shot of gas withVP ms 103 fuel to a 8.90 @ 150 mph @ 3320 pounds with me
tunnel ram manifold is ok but maybe a single plane manifold might be a better option
you only need one carb and forget about the vac secondry rubbish for a drag race application
converter might be a bit small,i run a 8 inch 5600 rpm converter on my 11.0 sec 3500pound streeter with no problems
THINGS TO CONSIDER
what rpm do you want to turn through the lights ????
if you consider your cylinder heads will have a MCSA of 2.30'' approx
406 ci @ 7000 rpm will be a MCSA of 2.56''
406 ci @ 8000 rpm will be a MCSA of 2.93''
if you want to turn 8000rpm your cam is to small (call mike jones )
you will need bigger converter
as previously stated 600hp is achievable but there is more to it than bolting parts ON
this is all my opinion and there is alot to consider
best of luck and keep us up to date on your progress

steve c

Thanks for the info Steve!
I was thinking it would turn 7200-7500 through the traps. I see Weingartner Racing also sells and ports the china castings like the Profiler heads.. With that said, Promaxx has a new 225cc "aluminum" head out that they claim is CNC ported in the USA and also claim will flow 316/225 out of the box and the price is just under $1500 assembled with the larger 1.55 solid roller springs that is good for .700 lift.. If I installed 1.6 rockers it puts me at .672 lift.. I'm just trying to weigh out the differences, if I add a full port job to my current iron heads, I will have a little more than $1500 into them.

I'm going to put my current heads back later this week and clay it just to see what my quench and piston to valve clearance is since I just installed and degreed the new cam..

[RD_Racing]

The carb choice really blows a hole in the potential of this car.

Put 2 750 double pumpers on it.. If you want the carbs mounted in line for simplicity
put 2 650 or 2 750cfm Edelbrocks on it, OR use correct 660cfm center squirter Holley tunnel ram carbs, (apparently you can't give 'em away) otherwise use 750 DP holleys.
(Chokeless HP style carb bodies prefered)

Get the carbs wrong and the heads won't matter much.
What is the local market sale potential value of your heads, there.

Pro porting iron heads tends to be labour cost intensive.
So it all depends on the real cost of someone within your reach,
on that.
Aluminum heads are lighter weight.

I agree and will start looking into some different carbs, luckily I havent purchased any yet.. I also have a pair of Holley 450's mechanical carbs and a pair of Holley 600vs carbs I can sell to put towards better carbs for this application.. I would think my iron heads are probably worth 700-800 with the cut spring pockets and upgraded 1.55 springs. I seen the same heads on ebay with the smaller springs selling for $1000...

[F-BIRD'88]

Ya all those small cfm carbs are really going to hold you back on this.
You can build your own very good tunnel ram carbs by starting with used 650 to 800cfm holley DP carbs 4777-thru 4780 as donors, upgrading them with the Holley or Proform 750HP carb body kits. Now you are ready to dial them in specifically for the tunnel ram. (you'd need to dial in any new carb anyway...)
Other than a pair of the 660 holleys (which will be very near TR ready and a great choice), this is what you'd want for that car.

The little holley carbs really restrict the power of a tunnel ram. It has to breath deep
and like plenty of carb cfm. ( ANY all) Holley VS carbs are not going to cut it.

My friend here (on my advice (re: budget and street simplicity) got very very good results with 2 simple 750 Edelbrock carbs on a TR similar car. Dialed in tried and true Holley race tunnel ram carbs did make more dyno tested power but the Eddys carbs were not that far off and A lot cheaper. More than reached his car performance goals on that car. It is a bit lighter weight, a bit faster, than yours.
Mostly street driven but gets it done great at the track with just these.
If you are hell bent on dummying it down, these are my recommendations as they Work. The New "650 AVS2" annular booster carbs might be interesting on that car, if you wanted to go down that road on the tunnel ram.

On the heads, unless you want to do you own port work ( I cannot see them really needing that much rework to require a pro), as they are new I would advertise them for $1000. If a buyer bites sell them. A high perf marine engine builder may be interested. New is new.

[Orr89rocz]

Speier i believe has a program for the iron heads

[bruce69camaro]

Thanks for the info Steve!
I was thinking it would turn 7200-7500 through the traps. I see Weingartner Racing also sells and ports the china castings like the Profiler heads.. With that said, Promaxx has a new 225cc "aluminum" head out that they claim is CNC ported in the USA and also claim will flow 316/225 out of the box and the price is just under $1500 assembled with the larger 1.55 solid roller springs that is good for .700 lift.. If I installed 1.6 rockers it puts me at .672 lift.. I'm just trying to weigh out the differences, if I add a full port job to my current iron heads, I will have a little more than $1500 into them.

I'm going to put my current heads back later this week and clay it just to see what my quench and piston to valve clearance is since I just installed and degreed the new cam..

If you don't mind me saying, I just recently purchased a pair of Promaxx heads for my 496 build through Chris Straub Technologies and Scott Fox hand assembled them.
Very nice heads.

[Orr89rocz]

Thanks for the info Steve!
I was thinking it would turn 7200-7500 through the traps. I see Weingartner Racing also sells and ports the china castings like the Profiler heads.. With that said, Promaxx has a new 225cc "aluminum" head out that they claim is CNC ported in the USA and also claim will flow 316/225 out of the box and the price is just under $1500 assembled with the larger 1.55 solid roller springs that is good for .700 lift.. If I installed 1.6 rockers it puts me at .672 lift.. I'm just trying to weigh out the differences, if I add a full port job to my current iron heads, I will have a little more than $1500 into them.

I'm going to put my current heads back later this week and clay it just to see what my quench and piston to valve clearance is since I just installed and degreed the new cam..

Profiler i believe is USA made as well. ProHeader is a commonly used import casting i think is cast in China and sold out of Australia