Hi, I've been reading various threads regarding all the head options we now have. But it's driving me nuts that no one has done a side by side comparison of the various heads. Can someone start a chart/thread, or do it here. Whatever, so that we can have a side by side comparison of all these heads. I would love to see numbers on a set of stock iron heads, T/A aluminum heads, Bulldog heads, Edelbrock's heads. All with stock and fully ported numbers. That would be a big help comparing flow, bang for the buck and cam selection a bunch. Thanks.
Head comparison You'd have to get somebody to buy heads from each vendor and test them on the same flow bench. Benches are notoriously varible, and each vendor would have some incentive to tweak if they knew that the parts would be used in a published comparison. Nobody wants to be in second place. Whether you want numbers for anything more than out of the box, cleaned up a little, street/strip work, or max effort porting, the head porter makes a huge difference. You can get good flow from lots of options if you are willing to pony up for the work. Maybe somebody will do this. It would make for interesting reading anyway. I do remember seeing a chart someplace of ported head flows and it had some Buick pieces on it. The problem was that the data is not always in a format that's easy to compare. What would it mean in the end anyway? We still don't race flowbenches. "EDIT - here's the list I mentioned" http://users.erols.com/srweiss/tablehdc.htm#Buick
I'd vote for Greg Gessler for doing this, he probably sees examples of just about all the heads out there for the Buick through his shop in just about every stage of porting.
We just finished flowing some heads. Also just recalibrated our flow bench, TA, Gessler & AMPs benches now all match. We all used the same flow calibration plates one after another. Gregs idea. TA converted iron heads to Stage 1, Edelbrock, TA Perf Stage1SE Iron Intake Edelbr TA SE .050 33.2 33.2 35.0 .100 66.2 68.3 69.9 .200 133.5 130.5 140.4 .300 188.2 194.2 194.2 .400 225.8 250.9 249.1 .450 233.6 269.9 273.1 .500 236.0 278.4 285.3 .550 236.0 280.8 291.9 .600 233.6 283.2 289.7 .650 233.0 282.0 278.6 .700 233.0 280.8 280.8 Iron Exhaust Edelbr TA SE .050 28.3 24.4 27.5 .100 56.6 55.0 58.9 .200 109.4 107.0 112.5 .300 132.8 143.7 160.6 .400 146.9 163.8 190.3 .450 156.0 170.0 199.6 .500 159.1 171.6 205.9 .550 159.1 174.7 209.0 .600 159.1 174.7 210.6 .650 162.2 174.7 210.6 .700 162.2 174.7 210.6 Note; Edelbrock heads are the only ones with some clean up work in the bowls. Thats how they came. TA heads respond very well to this type of clean up. Iron heads are a little touchier, but will respond if done right. Mike
:TU: Thank you on behalf of all of us who are happy to see this compiled together. Your SE heads really kick the Big E's a$$, especially on the exhaust. I take it the iron heads were completely untouched. Do you happen to have some street/strip level ported heads to compare?
