head and porting questions

[acaskie]

In looking at aluminum heads for a hot street 351w, there seem to be three principal choices, Edelbrock, Trick Flow Twisted Wedge or Motorsport GT-40x heads. I would be interested in any comments on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the three as well as any suggestions for a good shop in the Mid-Atlantic area to do the porting,polishing and general clean-up work. Thanks--- Allen

[Jack21]

I used the TFS street 2.02/1.60.

Normally, my die grinder starts warming up all by itself when I put a set of bare heads on the bench.

I took the TFS's out of the box, looked them over, and bolted them on to the motor. Didn't touch 'em. There's more you can do to the 351, but porting these new aluminum heads doesn't seem necessary. Spend xtra $$ on roller cam and rocker arms.

Spend your money on your sidepipes so the heads can breathe.

MHO

[CMansfield]

The Edelbrock Victors are being installed on my recently ordered 351W Stroker being prepared by Bob Olthoff, He is The Superformance dealer for the South East. They are located near Salisbury NC (down near all those Nascar guys). I am not familiar with all the differences, I aksed for strong performance (he said to expect about 30hp and 20ft/lbs over the GT-40X heads Which I think are stock on the 351W stroker (392) ford crate engine) and reliability, Bob Doesn't like to see his cars come back and I trust him. He or Dennis might be able to address your specific questions. You could also give the guys down at Southern Automotive a call, while they routinely build BBs, they seemed very knowledgable on the phone.
Good Luck,
Chas