Really Rick? I assume it was all for the better. I heard that the good Ford metal/rubber valve cover gaskets didn't work on the 165's? Is that true? I have used them on the 185's brfore and never had a problem.
Really Rick? I assume it was all for the better. I heard that the good Ford metal/rubber valve cover gaskets didn't work on the 165's? Is that true? I have used them on the 185's brfore and never had a problem.
Now that everyone else can get them, AFR has released their redesigned Ford "street" 165 series small block Ford cylinder head.
The intake port design has been improved and has picked up CFM across the board without increasing port volumes...
(eg. 8 cfm at .500" with a SF600).
The exhaust side was also improved and has gained everywhere too...
(eg. 10 CFM at .500" on a SF600 with 1-5/8" standard flow pipe)
All testing was done on a 4.030 bore fixture and the industry's benchmark testing unit, the SF600 flowbench, in order to avoid inflated and inaccurate flow numbers like other comparisons...
The combustion chamber has also been refined with a much finer finish and a few design modifications to aid in flame travel and combustion efficiency...
Hardened spring locators have been used for a while but now are black oxided to show the differences between the old inserts and the newest ones...
All in all, a very nice improvement to an extremely good cylinder head to start with...
The Ford 185 heads and the early small block Chevy heads are also due for the next series of revisions...
Ed"
As far as the valve cover gaskets, I have never had an issue on any of the AFR's but I tend to use a good cork gasket or cork/ruber composite aka ROL and silicone them to the valve cover. I find this hold up better and makes removal and installation very easy at the track, it will also make up for any imperfections in the aftermarket alum or stelel valve covers.