The Most Preferred Aluminum heads

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Nice, I'm not exactly trying to set records or anything, but my motor in my car is an 86 5.0 with the crappy E6 heads with the lower tier comp cams, runs alright all things considered, but I feel anything would be a nice improvement over the E6s lol, just want to make it a nice stout 302 weekend toy.

From what I'm looking at it far as options/availability is.

AFR 165 - Available but low stock, seems to be the closest to restocking soon
Trickflow 170, - Not available, back order til April/May.
Promaxx 180 - build to order, should be sent out in a few weeks.
GT40 heads - definitely available, but not sure its worth the hassle/gain over the other options


I haven't really looked at the Blueprint heads, but something definitely to consider, what size are the intake valves? from my understanding once you get up to 2.02 valve size , that you tend to have issues with clearances, reason why I was leaning towards AFR or Trickflow.
I have an ‘86 with stock (original) bottom end. That includes the stock flat-top pistons. I added TF TW 170 heads, E303 cam, Edelbrock Performer (EFI) intake, headers, etc. Mine dyno’d at 314/349.

I used Comp Cams Magnum 1.6 roller rockers.
 
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I bought cheap ..flotek 185cc with 58cc chamber,....ported them and upgraded the Valve springs with a Set from Alex parts.... i run these heads on my 331 with F Cam,...and sometimes with a 75 shot of nitrous ..AOD trans and 373 gear... not the best for shure .. but they work pretty good .. with Stock GT 40 Intake the Ports on the lower Intake are too small and Engine starts to loose power about 5600 rpm ....my Mustang is a 100% street Car but runs 12flat at the Street with Nittos.. ** Dragy Time** at the Track with better traction, it will go for 11s for shure...
 

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With Summit's price matching, and using this link, you can save as much as I did on the AFR 165's and still have them in a few days. I saved several hundred compared to ANY other retailer by doing this. It ended up being over Summit's price match limit so they had to get manager approval.

 
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I bought cheap ..flotek 185cc with 58cc chamber,....ported them and upgraded the Valve springs with a Set from Alex parts.... i run these heads on my 331 with F Cam,...and sometimes with a 75 shot of nitrous ..AOD trans and 373 gear... not the best for shure .. but they work pretty good .. with Stock GT 40 Intake the Ports on the lower Intake are too small and Engine starts to loose power about 5600 rpm ....my Mustang is a 100% street Car but runs 12flat at the Street with Nittos.. ** Dragy Time** at the Track with better traction, it will go for 11s for shure...
Just be careful with those bobo Professional Products fuel rails and regulator. They are one of the worst quality parts I've ever owned.
 
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With Summit's price matching, and using this link, you can save as much as I did on the AFR 165's and still have them in a few days. I saved several hundred compared to ANY other retailer by doing this. It ended up being over Summit's price match limit so they had to get manager approval.

Is that AFR official online website or like a second version of theirs? would I just purchase straight from there or contact summit to price match their item, either way If I go this route or another I really appreciate all you guys help and input.
 
Summit would be your best bet at finding them at an earlier ship date. They are the biggest distributor so they get special treatment. Call them and get them to price match.
 
Is Brodix still competitive? Back in my drag racing days, a lot of the serious SBF racers used their heads. They had some of the best flow numbers at the time. I never saw many of them on street engines due to the issues that come with raised exhaust ports / custom headers required. They were also quite expensive, too. I remember seeing prices in the same range as what I was paying for BBF CJ heads at the time.
 
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Is Brodix still competitive? Back in my drag racing days, a lot of the serious SBF racers used their heads. They had some of the best flow numbers at the time. I never saw many of them on street engines due to the issues that come with raised exhaust ports / custom headers required. They were also quite expensive, too. I remember seeing prices in the same range as what I was paying for BBF CJ heads at the time.
I didn’t realize til much later but yeah, Ive seen the Broodix 5.0 for the sbf on FTI so I would have to think they still are going. (Production and selling I mean).

My dad runs the Brodix Track 1 heads on his 74 Nova, his is a 383 stroker motor, granted it was built back in 2005/2006, that thing is a torque monster though.
 

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Is that AFR official online website or like a second version of theirs? would I just purchase straight from there or contact summit to price match their item, either way If I go this route or another I really appreciate all you guys help and input.
BUYAFR is a completely separate business from AFR, but his prices are so low that you can use it to get a price match with Summit Racing, and Summit ships out heads super fast. It's also nearly impossible to get ahold of anyone at BUYAFR..
 
*Update*

Well guys, I finally bit the bullet and bought the AFR Renegade 165 #1402 from a AFR warehouse distributor that had a decent portion in stock instead of the 2-4 week delay and finally came in the mail this afternoon.

hopefully, this will give the stang a nice bump in power from its old E6 head/ cammed setup, I appreciate all the input and recommendations guys, really, thank you.

side note, would you think I should upgrade the 1807 springs and switch up to 7/16 studs as well or should I be okay with what it came with, I have the specs of it in the pic below.
 

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Let me know how the piston to valve clearance comes out with the 86 stock bottom end.

Back in the day, it was only the TFS Twisted Wedge heads that would fit over the 86 flat-top pistons without piston notching. I haven't bought a set of heads in years but maybe this has changed? :shrug:

They're not the same pistons as 87+ and it's [because] of the swirl port heads they were produced for.
 
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Oh no, the motor that is still in my car as of now is a 86 5.0 with the flat-top piston E6 heads, that bottom end is more or less on its way out. I have another engine block that was pulled from a 2001 Ford explorer 5.0 that's at the machine shop that's being hone / freshen up completely. That's going in the mustang and the 86 motor is coming out.

The new parts (AFR 165, Trick Stage 2 cam, headers, Elgin 2205 lifters, Explorer trays, ) that I've been piecing together is going into that block, and the rest of my accessories from my old motor, (carb, Intake, distributor, serpentine pulley/belts) and anything else that I can still effective use is being merely swap/ put on.

Sorry for the confusion, having another motor freshen up I figured it will alleviate the down time on the car between tearing it down and waiting versus just having another one build up and then drop it in and button it up once its ready. and plus I'll know everything that's done to it through and through.
 
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Oh no, the motor that is still in my car as of now is a 86 5.0 with the flat-top piston E6 heads, that bottom end is more or less on its way out. I have another engine block that was pulled from a 2001 Ford explorer 5.0 that's at the machine shop that's being hone / freshen up completely. That's going in the mustang and the 86 motor is coming out.

The new parts (AFR 165, Trick Stage 2 cam, headers, Elgin 2205 lifters, Explorer trays, ) that I've been piecing together is going into that block, and the rest of my accessories from my old motor, (carb, Intake, distributor, serpentine pulley/belts) and anything else that I can still effective use is being merely swap/ put on.

Sorry for the confusion, having another motor freshen up I figured it will alleviate the down time on the car between tearing it down and waiting versus just having another one build up and then drop it in and button it up once its ready. and plus I'll know everything that's done to it through and through.
:nice:
This is how I’m rolling with my first car’s resto-modification. it was supposed to save down time, and ended up being the quickest (and maybe most expensive) part of the plan. When my 5.0 gets it’s turn to become a 5.6863 L, building the new engine while the current one is still running is also the plan. Storing two crates with sealed, mothballed engines is going to take up a corner of the shed.
 
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:nice:
This is how I’m rolling with my first car’s resto-modification. it was supposed to save down time, and ended up being the quickest (and maybe most expensive) part of the plan. When my 5.0 gets it’s turn to become a 5.6863 L, building the new engine while the current one is still running is also the plan. Storing two crates with sealed, mothballed engines is going to take up a corner of the shed.
Haha Nice!, yeah exactly how I feel, I bought this block back in Jan and had it completely wrapped up in several plastic, traps, and blankets in the bed of my dad's F-150 on a crate, ( it was enclosed) but I didn't have enough space in the garage, plus it was way too heavy to pick up myself lol.

What made me finally do this was a clutch kit I got back in last September when my throwout bearing took a dump on me in traffic lol, so I bought a new clutch for it but had the wrong flywheel and my stupidity I didn't verify to make sure It was a 50.oz balance before Install *smh lol* so It has to come out again.

So at this point I'm like " If I have to tearing into this car again, I might as well get the motor redone and do it right this time and starting planning a semi budget build realistic goal I can reach and started looking for decent 302 block since then.
 
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Congrats on the heads man! In 7 days, it will be 4 months that I have been waiting on a set of Trickflow 11r 190 heads. The delays are no joke unless you are lucky like the OP and land a set quickly. So I would definitely factor this in to your build...
 
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*Update*

Well guys, I finally bit the bullet and bought the AFR Renegade 165 #1402 from a AFR warehouse distributor that had a decent portion in stock instead of the 2-4 week delay and finally came in the mail this afternoon.

hopefully, this will give the stang a nice bump in power from its old E6 head/ cammed setup, I appreciate all the input and recommendations guys, really, thank you.

side note, would you think I should upgrade the 1807 springs and switch up to 7/16 studs as well or should I be okay with what it came with, I have the specs of it in the pic below.
Who did you order from?