and then there was heads

hey fellas, lookin at heads, more specifically the afr's. can u guys school me on the pros and cons of the diff sizes {165cc, 185cc, etc} and what will be best bet for supercharged setup.

lots of people use trick flow twisted wedge heads, they have good flow numbers and tend to make nice power right out of the box, and cost half of what afrs will cost you. summit racing has a package that includes those heads, the street intake, a timing chain, and a cam tailored to all of it. also has pushrods and double-roller rockers. costs about 2 grand, which is what AFRs will cost. it made almost 400 horse on a 306 with a TB, MAF sensor, and underdrives. not sure how it is with a supercharger, but i'm sure it makes crazy power.

thanks abunch ill look into it

AFR 165 and 185's do not cost $2000 hell the AFR 225's I used don't even cost $2,000. So now way twisted wedge's at $1,100-1,200 cost half!

AFR's heads win in every class when compared to something in the same class. I think 165's,185's average $100-200 more than twisted wedge heads.

Not like TFS are a bad choice but let's get out facts striaght guys.

on afrs web page it says u need dished pistons to make room for the valves is that true in every case? cuz i want to keep my stock ones in there for now.

i believe you can use stock pistons with the tfs heads.

gtstang: sorry about the mixup, i thought that was what i saw when i was pricing heads a good whie back.

AFR 165s are the best for a mostly stock car. 185s for a stroker (331, 347 etc.). 205s probably for a stroker that sees mostly high RPM. 225s, well, I wouldn't even think about using 225s on the street. Twisted Wedge heads have larger runners than the AFR heads (165 vs 170) and larger valves (1.90 vs 2.02), so the AFR heads are going to give you better low end torque. They also flow a little bit better than Twisted Wedge heads so you're going to have a better top end.Twisted Wedge heads also have larger combustion chambers than the AFR heads, so they will not generate as much compression. With the Twisted Wedge heads your compression should go down to about 8.88, with AFR heads, your compression should get up to about 9.35:1. I actually want to get 165s for my Cobra.

By the way, you CAN use Twisted Wedge heads with stock pistons with up to .540 valve lift, but only on 1986 and newer models. Don't quote me on it, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. You might want to look at the Trick Flow website to get more details.

185's are good for stroker 302's and stroker 302's with a lil psi action.

205's are good for very high psi 302 block set-ups, very high rpm stroker 302's and a mild stroker 351W

225's are good for 351W strokers if yo want it to breathe at all in the upper RPM range, and some small stroke 351W strokers with some psi.

i believe you can use stock pistons with the tfs heads.

gtstang: sorry about the mixup, i thought that was what i saw when i was pricing heads a good whie back.


i just this past week purchased a pair of TFS heads that have been milled to 58cc's and had a valve job 100 miles ago for $850... gotta steal!! hte milling and porting alone were $750
The rule of thumb is you can go up to .540" lift so long as you do not go
any narrower than 112* LSA & no more than 224* @ .050" duration.
This is just a generality, you must verify the piston to valve clearance to
know for sure...

actually the trickflows flow better on the intake side and the 165's beat TFS slightly on the ex. side....to me the heads are almost equal, only afr's are a little better quality.
hear are some flow numbers from ford muscle for ya... look under "Choosing a New Head" to see what the "green machine" did w/ a stock cam... http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2003/02/afr/index2.shtml

AFR's all the way in all the comps they make the most power.

Yes AFR heads are definaely the best head, course your gonna pay for the best. about $1,250 to 1,300. AFR actually has a newer verion of the AFR165 available that flows even more, runs about $1,600 bucks.

Don't forget about the other heads available you don't have to have AFR's to make good hp. Check out this flow chart

http://home.isoa.net/~mharrisj/fordhead.html