AFD alum heads for cleveland

[AusFordParts]

Apparently LOL

[blykins]

Just curious, and I'm not trying to be difficult....but what's good reliable bolt-on horsepower? In my eyes, the AFD heads are cheaper, but you'd have to work on them to get them to the level of the CHI heads. Also, the numbers that you have quoted are probably with a Funnel Web intake, which are over $600. That's not inexpensive to me, and it's over $100 more than the CHI intake. How is that staying on a budget?

I'm actually playing devil's advocate here because I'm in the market or a set of heads for my 393C. I'm not CHI brand loyal, but from the media and dyno charts, they appear very nice for my application.

Fishing expedition? Maybe....but mostly just some friendly banter between engine guys.

[767Jockey]

I'm still confused how the Edelbrock heads got tossed into the mix. You can make an argument about the CHI's being better, and certainly if the AFD's are not as good (arguably) they are at the very least a very close second. It's well known in the Cleveland world, however, that the Cleveland Edelbrock heads are a joke, and both the CHI's and the AFD's make them look silly. They're just not in the same class. You will NEVER see Edelbrock heads on a serious Cleveland engine. The FE Edelbrocks are decent heads, I guess the guy who designed them was unavailable when the Cleveland heads were designed. The CHI's and the AFD's indisputably lead the pack in Cleveland heads. You want to start a real bonfire? Tell these Windsor guys how much better the Cleveland CHI's and AFD's are than their puny little Windsor heads - that usually gets their panties in a tight little wad.......

[cobrarkc]

[quote=767Jockey;905159] You will NEVER see Edelbrock heads on a serious Cleveland engine.
Not to add anymore fuel to this fire but someone had better tell Keith Craft that! I got a qoute for a set of CNC ported heads flowing 340 cfm for $2500. He didn't really know much about CHI heads. He said he builds alot of 393c engines with these heads with some real impressive results.
I think he builds a few serious engines. I wonder what he could do with CHI or AFD heads?

[767Jockey]

Rich, I am very surprised that Keith uses the Edelbrock heads, especially considering that they're 2V heads. Then again, guys like Keith, Barry R. Kasse and others are so talented they could drill a hole in a brick and make it flow crazy numbers!

As you know, Cleveland's are sort of like FE's, everyone can build them and make power, but the real deep specialists are where the cutting edge resides. Keith is certainly cutting edge in the FE world, but I think there are others who occupy that niche in the Cleveland world. Scotty Johnson out in Seattle and Mark McKeown (sp?) in Maryland are two that come to mind, of course there are many more. You will NEVER see a set of Edelbrock heads on an engine that these guys build. The key, I believe, is in your last sentence. Imagine, with all that time and money that Keith put into these Edelbrock heads, what incredible results he would have had if he had started with a set of 3V's that flowed almost that much out of the box? Keith is a genius with engines, he supplied the vast majority of the parts for my engine, and I certainly respect him and his talents.

I just think that in the Cleveland world, there are MUCH better choices than the Edelbrock's. All the Cleveland development, and the cutting edge for everything Cleveland, comes from the Aussies, both CHI and AFD. They never had much in the way of Windsors down there, the Cleveland was really the only small block widely available from Ford, just as the Windsor was up here. If you want state of the art Windsor heads (ZZZZzzzzzz), you buy American. If you want state of the art heads for the Cleveland, you buy Aussie. It's just the way it is.

Personally, I still think the Cleveland is the most awesome small block out there, I have no doubt that if Shelby had continued making Cobras into the late 60's and early 70's, they would have had Cleveland's in them. A awesome big block canted valve head on a small block - you just can't beat that combination.