H/c/i Help

You suck! How's that for an unnecessary comment? Haha. Juuuuust kiiiiiidding.

I'm a fan of the Twisted Wedge heads, mainly because the valve situation allows for a lot of airflow (through different levels of porting) and decent compression without a lot of problems with piston to valve clearance.

There are also a lot of other good head manufacturers out there, AFR obviously, RHS seems to have a good rep, Edelbrock, etc.

Nothing I've heard about Patriot makes me want to buy one of their products, but I have no direct experience, so I can't say.

I went with the Edelbrock E-street head. They're an entry level head (meaning there's better head choices) but they were complete for a grand, which I thought wasn't bad. I went with the 2.02 and 1.6 valve ones. The 1.9 and 1.6 heads can support more lift but the 2.02 heads can handle the B cam because I also went with the B cam. I won't even tell you about my intake choice because it sucked (but I got fuel regulator, injectors, fuel rails, throttle body, and intake for $400) but all in all the car actually pulls really strong. If you're not looking to throw out a LOT of cash for heads like I was (ask Nik how much he spent on his TW 205's), go Edelbrock.

Oh BTW, welcome to Stangnet!

Here's a bit of information not provided:

Dollar for dollar, Trick Flow heads flow better "as cast" than almost any other head. The only heads that flow better are the CNC machined AFR heads, which will carry a $200-$400 price premium above the Trick Flows and almost all the other heads.

The gotcha on the Trick Flow is that they require stud mount rocker arms, and require you to have a push rod gauge and special length push rods. Trick Flow or Summit can supply all these extra parts, but be aware of the extra costs involved. The extra labor and different valve adjustment procedure for Trick Flow heads must also be figured into the equation.

The Edelbrock E-STREET heads use a stud mounted rocker like the Trick Flow and may be subject to some of the same requirements for push rod setup and length. They probably won't flow as good as cast as the Trick Flow heads and the extra wrestling with the push rod and rocker arms is a minus. Check out the Edelbrock site: ( http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/cylheads/ford/sb_estreet.shtml ) the E street heads are not setup for any emissions provisions and will not work with hydraulic roller lifter cams used in 1986 and later 5.0 HO engines. For these reasons I would avoid using them in an 86 or later 5.0 Mustang.


AFR, and some Edelbrock and the other cylinder head manufacturers use pedestal mount rocker arms, and standard length push rods unless you have milled the block or heads. The installation is a little simpler but with the exception of AFR, the flow numbers are lower than Trick Flow.

If you buy used heads, plan on having them serviced at a reputable automotive machine shop. They will check the valves, guides and springs and do a valve job on the heads. You will also want to have the heads checked for cracks and stripped bolt holes. In many cases this brings the cost of having the heads serviced makes them equal in cost to a new, still in the factory box set of heads. If the seller tells you "all that stuff has been done" make him show you the receipt and then visit the machine shop where the work was done.


.Since you have a street driven car, keep the intake port volume low - 165-175 CC. This will give better around town low speed performance and faster acceleration in a stock bodied car. Avoid heads with big port volumes and cams with wild timing for a street driven car. The numbers may sound exciting, but you will have to rev the engine above the point you would normally do for day to day street driving. Bottom line: the car may have to be up past 4000 RPM before it starts to pull good. That translates into you will run into the car in front of you before you get into the power range of the engine. Hight number rear end gears are a necessity for cars that don't start to develop power until the engine revs past the 4000 RPM mark


All in all your best, least problematic approach is a kit with heads, intake manifold and cam. The manufacturer will have matched the components together to get the performance specs you are looking for.

Your information is wrong, JR.
The Edelbrock E-Street heads use a stud mount rocker arm.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-5025/

88LX5.Oh said:

Your information is wrong, JR.
The Edelbrock E-Street heads use a stud mount rocker arm.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-5025/

Click to expand...

Thank you for your input. I will revise my post to reflect the changes.