About 6 years ago I discovered this racing cylinder head shop in my backyard here in Northern Idaho. I walked in and at the time they had HAAS 5 axis CNC kicking out GM factory casting for Hendrick, Yates and Roush racing. The name was HRD RACING HEADS, www.hrdracingheads.com. Knowing something was definitely out of place I inquired a bit further and found out that they had recently moved here from North Carolina. The owner, Al Dicksen, was looking to get out of the rat race so he bought 5 acres and set-up his shop here. (It is a resort town and a lot of people do this - we call it Northern Northern California.) I never thought much more about it so I had HRD do my stocker heads - valves and seats only as I left the ports untouched per the rules. I am now working on a Superstock Set of heads for the 1970 combination. So I went to visit "Uncle Al" about the set-up. At the same time I ended up with a set of Jim Bell's 1970 factory replacement Buick stage three heads from 1975. A good friend - Stewart Rose - think Nitemare - green Buick - bought this set of heads, a set of 4.78 monster gears and Jim Bells Mark IV cam in 1975 and ran on my 1970 Stage1 in SS/GA at the 1975 winter nationals. These heads have been out of service and under his bench for 25+ years. These heads are not factory and were masterfully ported before Jim would ship them to his customers. (The stage threes ended up on superstock entries and likely some stock eliminator entries back in the day before runner volumes were measured.) These heads had the letters CHW stamped in the ends. I found out that this stood for Cylinder Heads West which was Al Dicksen's company name before he renamed it Horsepower Racing Development - HRD. When I showed up in his shop with these he laughed and set I have already seen these heads - I did them! The History: Jim Bell would buy the -149 heads over the Buick parts counter and would pay Al $200/set to port these heads. Jim would then sell these to his customers for around $450 - $500 a pair. So now that I am spending more time in Al's Shop I am finding that he had done work for Doug Jones back in the day as well as some other well known Buick racers who are still using his services today. Al just finished a new set of TA heads for Doug but I could not get my hands on the Flow sheets for these. I was able to get my hands on a flow sheet for some tall port TA heads Al recently worked on to improve the flow in the low lift ranges on the intake side and and across the board on the exhaust side. These heads ended up on one of the heads-up cars in either pro street or GSE last year at the nats. I have omitted the customers name for anonymity but wanted to share with you the before and after numbers. See Attached .pdf File There are many great shops out their doing Buick cylinder heads - add this one to your list as well and give Al a call with questions 208-762-9600 or go to www.hrdracingheads.com to check out their full range of capabilities. He is a straight shooter no BS guy with over 37 years in the business. Jody
Thanks for the info on the Kenne Bell Stage 3 Heads. I also bought a set of the "Stage 3's", a MK 4 cam, Howard aluminum rods, Ross pistons and other parts all brand new at the time from Jim back in 1975. I still have the heads and run them on my 71 GS. I still have all the letters that Jim Bell sent to the customers that ordered iron Stage 2 heads that he was attempting to cast. When the casting process failed repeatedly Jim offered all of us that had placed a deposit to get a full refund or to purchase the Stage 3 heads. I opted for the Stage 3's and they have the stamp on the end. They were shot blasted inside the ports to hide port work that had been done. They were S-1 service replacement castings sold over the counter. Jim was very good about keeping his customers up to date on how his Stage 2 iron head project was coming along. Too bad it did not work out back then. I still have all the letters and envelops they came in. Thanks again for the detailed info.
How do the stage 3's work on your 71 GS? Did you do any before and after testing to see how much they picked you up? It would be great to see some pictures of your car as well. Thanks
I know Stu a little-bit, I hope he's doing well! I almost bought that Austin-Healy replicar he had with the 455 in it from the guy he sold it to (Boy I shoulda....), and also visited with him in Anaconda.
The car I have the Stage 3's on is a street car. It weighs 3850 with my lighter wheels and is at 10:1 compression. It has an early Hemi-Killer cam and 3.73's. With open headers it went 11.39. It was not built for racing. It's just a good street/strip, pump gas friendly engine. I just took that engine out and it will go in another car I have. I just put in a new engine with TA SE aluminum heads and 10:5 compression in the same car. It went 11.21 1st pass and 11.18 on the 2nd pass through the tail pipes. You can't beat new technology.
