New Canted Valve SB Heads

[cobrarkc]

Has anybody seen or heard about these heads? Flow #s look incredible.
Welcome to CFE Racing Products

[blykins]

Too large for a streetable engine.

Peak flow is awesome at 400+ cfm, but what about average and low lift flow?

The port volume is too large as well. Smallest one that I saw was 260cc.

It would make for an awesome race head, but keeping a street engine happy with that amount of volume and flow would be extremely difficult IMO. To get that much flow moving would require some high velocity, which would only occur at higher rpms. I'm thinking you'd see lots of reversion and poor throttle response down low.

[jmarsey]

A small displacement - large port combination can work nicely, in a light car, for “street use.” Yes, there are trade offs but not "extremely difficult" to keep a motor of this nature happy on the street. JMHO

John

[blykins]

It depends on what you call streetable, John. I'm talking about lugging an engine down at 1500-2000 rpm without bucking or loading up. A low duration cam would not be a good match with those heads. A high duration cam with low cubes and those heads = high hp/tq peak along with no grunt down low.

You can drive any engine on the street...it's just what you're willing to put up with.

[jmarsey]

Absolutely Brent and my point exactly. Also, there are degrees of “willing to put up with.” For some of us, “putting up with”, is the norm.

John

[blykins]

Yep I agree. And you're right....with a Cobra, you can usually put up with a little more....because of their weight and because they are usually weekend toys.

But for most of the Cobra owners represented here, I would think those heads would be overkill....talking about the average 302/351 that is used.

[jmarsey]

Yes Brent, most cobra owners, but not all. And, yes it would be stupid to run those heads on a street car for several reasons, but some of us do anyway.

John

[lovehamr]

After years of driving Boss 302s with their huge ports and people telling me that I had no low end torque in my 3200# car, I have to laugh every time I read something like this. If you romp on it in a Boss 302 at 1500 rpm is it going to bark and go? Of course it’s not. But if you hang a down shift and romp on it it's going to scream! I was going to make the point that there are allot of guys out there with those non-street-performing Yates heads as well………… That is, until I looked at John's set up. And they seem to be doing fine.

The point is (and this is JMHO) saying that the heads have too much flow or have ports that are way to large, is like saying you want a tractor motor in your Cobra. And after looking at Brent’s build up in another thread using twisted wedge heads I have to assume that this is not the case for him either! So we get right back to “willing to put up with.” as the defining case for what is acceptable and not acceptable in a street engine. I’m sure that with a set of FMS in-line valve heads on either John or Brent’s engine they would still perform fine on the road and have excellent street manners. But then that’s not what the majority of use are looking for with these cars is it?

I’m in somewhat of a quandary myself as I’ll be shoe-horning an FE 428 into my BDR; this after years of high winding small blocks. I’ve only ridden in one big block Cobra and that was a real 427 street car almost 15 years ago. I do remember the thrust and the odd sensation of having to shift at 6k though! This should be interesting.

Steve

[blykins]

Steve, a couple of points about my build.

That actually is the case with my build. The point that they're TW heads is kinda moot. They are only 225cc heads and they have excellent flow at low and mid-lift. I actually debated on using 205cc heads just so that I could get a little more torque. But I figured the 445ci would help out with cylinder fill and velocity. The cam is not wild either....just a lowly hydraulic roller...

Actually, I probably wouldn't consider using those heads even on my engine. I just don't think that they would give me the street manners that I would be after.

Is it a tow truck motor? No.

However, it doesn't require a 5.14 gear or a solid roller cam with a huge duration to spin it to 7500-8000 to make it work either.

My engine is going to be a happy medium I think. More torque at 2500 rpm than you can shake a stick at and a higher hp peak (around 6200-6300) to have a little revving fun.

To each their own....that's what makes this sport so much fun.

[Barry_R]

Those look like Blue Thunder 4.3 heads.

Brent is right - they are not really appropriate for any normal small block that will really see any street use. The port volumes are huge, and the amount of required custom fabrication would scare the vast majority of guys. They were designed for the professional "Pro-5.0" racing circuit. Big cubes, big RPM, and a lot of boost or spray.

The 4.3 designation refers to the dimension from the gasket surface to the port ceiling - really tall. Go out and measure a "normal" SB F head and the difference will become quite apparent - an engine with these will be nearly big block sized.

It would be a lot of fun to run an appropriate engine with these in a Cobra though.... in a holy $%#%^ sort of way

[jmarsey]

Right or wrong, appropriate, or whatever, there are many colors in a rainbow. A Yates headed 331 making 580hp on pump gas can be driven on the street without too much difficulty, just routine maintenance and checking, which some of us enjoy. 5k miles later, it still gets my goat every time I drive it. Agreed, not a wise street rod head, or combination for the average cobra enthusiast, but some of us are below average. We haven’t smartened up yet. Point is, I have 3 other friends running track motors with Yates heads on the street, all of which more radical than mine. For them and myself, this is not a bad thing, it was the intension from the start.

For some of us, driving your cobra in “a holy $%#%^ sort of way” is just right.

John

[Jac Mac]

In terms of port volume make sure your comparing apples to apples- an intake port in a head with a raised port and with a raised rocker cover rail will have more volume than a 'standard port' configuration. The 'real' factor to compare is the cross section area of the port as due to the effective increase in length of the port in these heads volume will naturally increase.

Jac Mac

[69boss429]

Anybody familar with these heads??
Ford Small Block 32Valve Cylinder Heads

4 valve,with conventional pushrod

[J Persons]

Originally Posted by 69boss429

Anybody familar with these heads??
Ford Small Block 32Valve Cylinder Heads

4 valve,with conventional pushrod

I don't think any of those heads have ever been delivered.

On a better note, Edelbrock has released a canted valve(Cleavor) head that will bolt directly to a small block, or a 351W. They have also cast up matching intake manifolds.

[lovehamr]

"Appropriate" What kind of word is that to use at an engine? That's the kind of word to use when your 4yo blurts out his first curse word! I want my engines to be inappropriate, definitely NOT "normal"! Even my Toyota truck has a supercharger with its resultant whine. In the picture below is 1 car with heads that have huge port volume, huge valves and a seriously inappropriate carb. On the other side of the garage is a car with more cubes and very sane inline valve heads.....you know, very sensible valve, port and carb sizes. It only took one run before my then room-mate would never do it again! Was it easy to crawl around the mall parking lot with that small cube Boss? NO! But then again, is that what most people driving Cobras looking for? I’m sure the waxxers want a nice smooth idle so that they can cruise around the parking lot on cruise night without having to fight the clutch and their bucking beast, because that’s what they are into. And for them the sedate heads may be the cat’s ass. But then that’s not my judgment to make. For me, and most likely quite a few others, I want no part of sedate, appropriate, normal or any of those other words. I want the rip snorting rampaging beast that the Cobra can be. John’s Yates headed screamer has to be a gas and I’m sure Brett’s big cube small block is cool as well. As for me, I’m hoping that my big block BDR will give me chill down my spine whenever I romp on it.


Steve

[John Owen]

As to Arao, please see this thread...........
Fraud - ARAO Engineering Inc - Buyer Beware! - GT40s.com

[WildBill3]

I told my wife if it bucks on ya just giver more gas sweetie oh ok she said wow whata ride.Letr buck give it all ya got, ooooo how sweeeet it is!!!More power more power.It's no parkin lot shownshine parade cruzer,she's a racer boys.strapin hold on and dont wet your pants please.yeha...WB3

[Keithc8]

We have done several set of these and have some nice CNC programs on them. These are over kill on a street engine unless it was real large like about 440C.I. We have used these on several blower and turbo engines with good success. They also have a head that is a 3.6 version that flows about 390 to 400 that is a little better for wild street applications. Thanks, Keith