a-engine aluminium heads

[madmax2]

somebody has experience (or tell about) with A-engine aluminium Commando cylinder heads ?
which a-engine aluminium heads is better for street & strip: mopar, brodix, edelbrock or some other?

Kindly Hernan

[Fast One]

Just to confuse you I like the W2's myself but the W5's outflow them in the exhaust, not by much though.

Mopar have had quality control problems over the years, haven't heard anything lately hope it's improved a little ( ha, ha ).

Brodix nice heads, expensive & W series Mopar heads flow a touch more cfm from what I remember.

Aluminum Commando head shows good potential with porting but at the end of the day wasn't designed as a full on race head.

Edelbrocks are more reasonably priced & have fairly good cfm numbers with porting, designed for performance street not full race but make a strong show on the track unless you're after the latest style ones through Indy with the pushrod holes moved offset for more flow / porting, heard conflicting reports on quality, just take a chance buy a set & have a machine shop check out the specs before using them.

W5's flow about 315 cfm intake fully ported & 230 cfm exhaust fully ported.

W2's flow about 310 - 315 ish' cfm intake & 220 cfm exhaust or there abouts.

Have Brodix figures somewhere around here can't find em at the moment.

[DartGT66]

I believe the aluminum Commando heads are pretty expensive. You just can't say that one head is better than other; have to know the intended use(importance of performance over driveability/mileage), engine size and the other parts in the engine, drivetrain, gear ratio etc. a Pro Stock head is a good head, it flows a lot with a pretty small port area, but still it's not best suited for a grocery getter. I took a look at your site and if you are retaining the 318 and don't plan a lot of mods for it I would pick the Edelbrocks.

[Fast One]

Ah yes I just had a look at your site, nice car but I only can read english.

If you're planning on staying with the 318 & only doing a head swap with cam ??? May I suggest a few things, you could do with a bit more than 8.5.1 compression, a set of production 360 heads with machining to bring compression up will perform quite well on the 318.

But I'm only guessing, not really sure of what performance level you have intended or cam selection.

[sanborn]

I have experience with several Mopar heads, the W5,W7,W8 and W9. For a street/strip application, the W5 is the only way to go unless your budget is high. The W5s can be used "out of the box" and intake manifolds can be used "out of the box". The others (W7,W8 and W9) are race heads only, require porting and the intake manifolds require porting also.

I have some friends that have used the Edelbrock heads and are pleased with them. If you want a good 600HP engine I would go with the Edelbrock or Brodix heads. If you want a little more power(and spend a little more money), the W5s are good. If you want 700HP+ and your budget can stand it, the W7 or W8s are the way to go.

[Prochargedmopar]

Fast One,
How are your current heads coming along?

Any ideas on building a flow bench?

[Fast One]

Finished the next stage Pro, just waiting for the flow bench to be free, maybe with in the next 2 weeks, should be interesting results.

Have no idea on the flow bench, let me know what you find out.

[rumblefish360]

I think that for the price, the Edelbrock heads are it.
@ about $1249 a pair and just bolting them on, its a good deal. Porting them out yeilds good results as well.

Sanborn writes about the W-5 head. In the past, the intakes needed to modifide to fit. He said out of the box now. News to me.
Hey sanborn, care to tell use about the W-5 some more?
Out the door price for starters.
Also said 600 hp Edel's. How much porting was involved in this edel headed engine?

[DartGT66]

Did anyone of you check Hernans ride? I just can't see the point talking about W2's, W5's, W7's or W8's for a stock bodied pretty much unmodified 318 car.

[451Mopar]

With all this talk about cylinder heads, I'm supprised no one mentioned the port volumes of the heads.
The edelbrock heads Flow pretty good for a street head, 249 CFM @ 0.500" (flow good for about 500 HP), and the port volume is fairly small ay 174cc.

Most of the higher flowing heads have port volumes of 220cc and larger, making them more sutiable for racing or stroker engines.

[Tim_K]

I called Indy today, and they said the Edelbrock heads go for right around $2070 if they move the pushrod hole over. They gets the heads from Edelbrock partially machined and make the changes themselves.

Those new aluminum heads I saw in Mopar Action last month go for around $3300 for a complete set with an intake too tall to use on a street car (no hood scoop), and all the valvetrain stuff. It makes me mad that the magazine article told me everything EXCEPT the price.

The kid I talked to at Indy had a bit of an attitude. I'd have talked to the owner himself but the kid said he was in a meeting for a few hours today. He wouldn't even talk to me about the idea of grinding through the pushrod bulge wall and epoxying in a brass tube on stock iron heads.

[sanborn]

Rumblefish, I misspoke. I meant to say the W5 heads and intake can be used without going through all the porting work. I have never got heads and intake from anyone that didn't require machining heads/ intake to make them fit properly. Every intake I have ever gotten from Mopar or Holley required TIG welding to get the ports to match(for W2 heads). I have gotten to the point I think that's just like checking piston to valve clearance.