Opinions on Canfield Heads

I have heard of them having cracking problems. Haven't ran into it with mine. 4 years and still fine. I do know of some CNC porting shops who won't cut them anymore because of the inconsistant water jackets around the exhaust ports. Kept blowing through the ports into the water jackets. I had this happen with the first set I had ported. Got lucky on the 2nd set I guess.

For ideas on flow, mine are 308/264. I find the exhaust a bit unbelievable. I'm not exactly sure how Brian Tooley tests them on the exhaust side to pull those kind of numbers, but that's what's on my flow sheet. They do work well.

Well the cracking from what I've heard is on the exhaust side of the head but I don't think it is limited to just ported heads. Personally I haven't seen evidence of it, just going off what a reputable CNC operator told me. If I was starting over with a new combo I'd probably go Trick Flow High Ports but if you don't have the piston relief configuration of the Trick Flows I wouldn't change out good pistons just to switch to them. Just to clarify I wasn't bashing Canfield in the above posts, I'm really happy with mine, just wanted to alert you to some problems that some are encountering with them. I haven't had any problems in the 4 years I've run them.

Personally, I'd like to try a set of ported Trick Flow high ports. You'll get good results from both you mentioned.

FiveLtrRiceEatr said:

I've heard alot about the the Trick Flow High Ports, I'll have to do some more research. They would be fine on a street driven daily driver with not a too radical cam right?

Click to expand...

Yeah, especially on a supercharged application. You can run a real streetable cam and still put up good numbers.

canfields are great heads I just sold my set when i built my stroker 351 beacause no one would port them to the flow i needed. thiey had alot of problems cracking in the old castings (this was without portwork) they changed them a bit and made them thicker. wich solved the cracking problem to an extent. the problem is with heavy port work they have a tendance to crack. lots of head porters will not touch them.Fox lake use to port them all the time,till acouple of years ago Ron had four set crack on him in a row and he said no more.I talked to tea, bennitt, and a few others and they have the same policy they dont mess with them. they also have problems cracking when used on a 351 do to the larger bolts and the extra clamping force. They are an exelent head but with all the new heads out thier are so many better choices. rummer has it canfield has a new head to be released that will be the cats meow.

IMO i dont like afr heads. thats all i am going to say on that. to many people get up set and flame people when you talk about thier beloved heads. they make a good head. one thing i can defently say you get alot for your money.

I love trick flow they make a great product. I just dont like the fact that summit owns them. I love my high ports a canfield head is based off that head. the two heads use the same rocker girdles and the girdle only fits them two heads. other heads use diferent girdles. the high port was one of the first aftermarket ford heads made. both heads use a "raised port" design.

But to say the high port or the canfield is right for you i cant say without knowing your combo. we live in a great age now that thier is more than two heads to chose from. i have seen super impressive things with edelbrock vic jr heads. i have seen amazing things out of tfs twisted wedge heads. I love the tfs tw r head it has tons of potential. the main thing is not to get cought up in well certaine racer uses x head so it got to be good for me.
what do you want the engine to do? what are your long term plans? do you think that some day you will build something bigger, a stroker or what have you? do you planes on any super chargers,turbos, n2o?