aluminum eddlebrock heads

[tim]

hello everyone, just looking into purchasing a set of aluminum heads for my 73 340 and wandering if any one has success stories or failures from hughes engines? Also are these heads better than mopar heads for street and strip. Thanks Tim

[Dart]

I have done some reading about the Edel heads and they look great. My only beef with Hughes is that they are in the business of porting/flowing heads so I am not sure about their claims on the Edel SB head. I have a very hard time believing that the heads won't flow consistent numbers out of the box from port to port. I also noticed that they don't say the same things about the B/RB heads. Who are you to believe? I have a hard time thinking that Edel quality control is so bad that they differ from SB to B/RB.

PRO has a set of the heads on his 360 and it screams. They are way worth the money. Nothing for the street even comes close. I am planning on a set of the B/RB heads for my 440.

[rumblefish360]

The Edelbrock heads I have (stock out of the box) run great! They were a little hard to mate the intake with at first. Don't use the recomended bolts from Edelbrock, they don't fit in length. ARP!

[DAVE JONES]

I heard the same thing from Hughes about the edlebrock heads having different flow from port to port on the SB. It does sound weird that there wouldn't be the same problem with the BB ones also. I know that they originally offered stage 1 and 2 porting but after they acutally flowed ones out of the box they say they found that they were different by as much as 20cfm. After they found this I think they then offered kinda like a prestage 1 port job so they were uniform but I 'm not sure.
Might want to call edlebrock them selves and see what they have to say or possibly Arrow/Indy to see if they think there is a problem. My guess is that even if there was some sort of difference, they would still flow excellent and maybe the difference wouldnt even be realized unless you had a serious strip car. Just a thought.

[tim]

Okay guys great info, sounds like I can,t go wrong with them. I,m currently using 71 340 j heads with 2.02 valves and $400.00 in cash (canadian) porting, with rpm 1500 to 6500 manifold. So with these heads they are a bolt on and thats it done?Also will push rods have to be changed or anything like that? Thanks Tim

[71 scamp]

Tim, your pushrods and everything will be fine, I run a set of 340 edelbrocks from Hensley on a 3100 lb. street driven car that ran 11.93 a few weeks ago with no tuning, it should be a little quicker this weekend with tuning. My blocks been cut on too much over the years so I had a hell of a time getting the intake to mate. The weight savings is awesome!

[PRO]

My intake sealed ok,just use the reccomended gasket(#1009 I think) I did use the end rail gaskets but had to remove the dowels(2 per end rail) as they hit the intake and wouldnt allow full installment,use "The right stuff" sealant and itll never leak again.These heads flow 251 cfm on the intake side so there a big improvement over stock iron heads about 60-70hp with the 1 point increase in compression,there great for street rides but for full boogie situations have them ported to somewhere around 300cfm............PRO........

[Maxwedge]

Speaking of aluminum heads, what are the differences between the Viper Head(a 360 head with 1 more chamber) and the productions head and or the difference in flow between the stock Viper head and a set of E-Brocks???anyone know?
MW

[Plum Crazy Chris]

Don't know nuthin about that Maxwedge.

I'd like to know if you guys are running the "high compression 340" Ebrock heads with recessed valves or the regular Ebrock aluminum heads??

I'm getting ready to put them on my 340, and don't know what ones to use. I guess it will have to wait til I get the pistons in and see what kind of clearance I have...... does that sound right, or does it even matter?

As always, thanks for any input.

[rumblefish360]

Its not that the valves are recessed, its that the head has clearance built into it. The chamber has a .060 relief for the early 340 engines with pistons that pop out of the block. This called positive deck height.
So long as your pistons don't pop out of the block, you can use the regular head. Theres a thicker Fel-Pro gasket to use if you have the regular heads and a positive deck height. It's .054 thick.
So, YES! It will matter. Clearance is the differance between go and rebuild.

[Plum Crazy Chris]

Thanks Rumblefish,

I have heard that you can run more compression with the aluminum heads, but how much more? I would run 9 or 9.5:1 with iron heads, what can I run with the alum heads and still use normal fuel without spark knock?

[mr_340]

Most of the stuff I've read on aluminum heads require about a 1 point compression ratio increase. I'd shoot for around 10:1 with aluminum heads. Several of the modern engines with aluminum heads run around 10:1.

[Maxwedge]

I agree with 340, the Z06 vett runs 10.5 but they also have knock sensors hooked up to the distributer...so unless you have knock sensors dont push it up to 10.5...ya know what I mean
MW

[rumblefish360]

Those fellas speak the truth. 10.5 is where I would stop in a street engine. Other wise it can get hard to fuel it.
The reason is heat escapes the chamber faster with Aluminum than with iron. Heat in the chamber is power.

[tim]

These are great replys guys, my compression according to the engine builder was 10.2 so I hope these heads will be all right. I think I will order right out of the box and if they need porting i will do them next winter, oh but of course we always wan,t more. I can see it know going to a 440 lol. Great replys guys thanks Tim

[rumblefish360]

Have fun there Tim. Your gonna have fun. Everything seems good. Just keep double checking everything to make sure and take your time.

[dtack64]

I know hughes also does a valve job on the stage 1 edelbrocks. they claim the valve seats can be off by quite a bitm, causing hard starting. but after lapping in the valves they seem to be just fine. Just a quick question. Is is acceptable to run a fel-pro "blue" gasket, or do you have to run copper. I'm hurting on compression and am having a hard time finding a thin copper gasket.

[71 scamp]

Dtack, I run the recommended felpro blue #1008 head gaskets with my edelbrocks.

[tim]

Okay guys, know that you,ve convinced me too purchase these heads,# 6077, what about a good cam to go with them. I figure I,m halfway into the engine allready so why not a good cam also. I,m looking for good performance and a fairly wild cam that is still good on the street.I beleive these heads are good for a 575 lift cam. Is that getting a bit much for the street? What cam are you running with these heads scamp? Thanks guys, I should be getting madder as the bill rises but I,m not , I,m getting EXCITED lol. Tim Walton

[71 scamp]

I run the 557 lift M.P. solid cam with 1.5 ductile iron adjustable rockers. I also run an 8 inch 5300 stall converter, 4.30 gears and rpm air gap intake which I haven't even port matched to the ported heads yet.

[tim]

Thanks scamp, I do beleive that cam is as high as you wan,t to go with these heads am i right? Also is the car still streetable as I,m using the 1500 to 6500 eddlebrock manifold and a stock converter but I am considering a 3000 stall to go with my 3.91,s that are currently in the car. Thanks tim

[rumblefish360]

Tim;

Your going to have to match the converter with the cam with the rear with the tire size with etc..
I 'm running a purple 292/.509 lift cam. Runs hard and fast.
The duration is going to tell you what RPM band you'll operate in. The lift will alow more air and fuel in. So long as the heads flow in the lift range of the cam. The more you get in, the more power you will make.
Edelbrok heads flow up to 251 cfm @ .600 lift, 249 cfm @ .500.
So there is a benifit , In keeping the valves open longer whether through duration or lift, small gain, but there.
Going to a higher lift than 71scamps can indeed show more power even though the heads aren't flowing more. Its because its open a bit longer.
This may not always hold true mind you.
It can get crazy. Lets keep it simple.
Get a cam based on the RPM driving range of for which your going to drive in or comfortable driving with. Try and grab as much lift as you can or add 1.6 rockers for more lift.

[rumblefish360]

Hey 71scamp;

Been to the track as of late? Looking for you to break into the 11:50 zone! Looking good dude.

[71 scamp]

Tim, I don't do any highway driving with the car but I drive it everywhere on the street on any nice day. It runs 170 degrees on a hot day, I run 93 octane on the street(mix some cam 2 with it at the track). The valve lash never loses adjustment.
Some 340 guys around here run the 509 cam, some run 600 lift cams, 340's and 360's seem to run good with different combinations.

Rumblefish, I went racin this past sunday with a previous best of 11.91 at 111 with 1.61 60 ft. and ran an 11.76 at 115.93 with a 1.58 60 ft! It ran almost those exact times 6 times in a row, consistantly fast! Ran right on my dial in first round of super pro. Its fun to run that class with a little 340 street car! I'm now very happy with these edelbrock heads!