High flow doesn't always mean high power, it depends on the application. Do you mean as in highest flow out of the box? Emmisions legal street or race head?
High flow doesn't always mean high power, it depends on the application. Do you mean as in highest flow out of the box? Emmisions legal street or race head?
Very good advice. Its all in the combination and how well it is matched to the type of driving that the car is used for.
Put a high flowing, large port volume head on a 302-308 engine and drive it on the street and it will be a dog. The engine will have to wind up past 4000 RPM to have any power or torque. Most of the street driving works the 1500-3500 RPM range. Large flow number heads have to be matched to the manifold and cam. Put a big flow head with a stock or near stock intake manifold and you will run out of air flow just about the RPM's the heads start to become effective. Use a stock cam and you'll never develop the lift that the high flow numbers need to become real. Use a wild, lumpy cam in a street car and stop & go traffic gets to be a very trying experience. This is because the engine's torque range is way up beyond the RPM's that stop and go driving generate. Try to counter the low RPM torque loss with tall gears (4.10-4.30) and highway driving gets to be a buzzing, deafening, experience with poor gas mileage. Say you don't care about gas mileage? Wait and see what your wallet says when gas hits $3.25 a gallon next spring and summer.
Street cars need small port volumes that generate high flow velocity flow rates. They need a manifold that matches to flow rate of the heads and a cam that has a broad, flat torque curve. That kind of combination gives the most kick from a dead start or 20 MPH pedal to the metal rolling start. It has a lot of kick that you need in traffic to jump around the jammed up cars into the clearing in front of you. It eats imports for snacks and dines on BMWs for supper.
Pick a combination that matches how the car will be used. A car that is primarily a strip car with diving limited to trips to & from the track can get away with a high flow head, intake and cam combo. A car that is a daily driver and sees the track once a week will be a dog most of the time with the same combination.
If i was looking for a good street combo i would look at the trick flow kits or even the edelbrock kits. If you want to piece your own together then going with a set of afr 185's and a good flowing intake would be a good choice.
trick flow but go with the package! obviously just a head and no other mods doesn't do much. As it has been said the biggest head doesn't matter its the best match for your combo.
well.......i just want to see where the horsepower roof is on a 5.0 without spraying or pushing pounds. not really for application purposes but really for ball park figures. right now im still running E7's, E303, 1.7 roller rockers so im doing my window shopping way in advance
The horsepower roof on a 5.0 is through the roof You can run 9's with an all motor SBF, if you wanted to. But you would hate driving it on the street, if you even could. Just go with one of the TFS kits, you wont be disappointed. Or if youve got lots of time, piece one together, but you have to be extremely patient and dilligent to beat the TFS price.