what are the best all motor heads?
 

I have a 306 with flat top pistons and a holley intake. I want to know the heads that will give me the most power.

man that topic has no REAL answer its all up to what you want to do with your car and everything else and what mods you have but, anyways.... I hear AFR's are really good I have edelbroks alot of people run Trickflows.. and some run the windsor CAST IRON's depends on budget and ultimate goal with the car! most power like what TOP NUMBER or broadest powerband? see what I mean TFS will make most power i think but broadest powerband will be AFR's I think!!

TFS can't be beat for powerband. They flow a tick more than the 165's from the flowbench numbers I've seen as well. The 185's are a different story.

Lot's of people like AFR, and lots like the TFS TW heads. I would say they are the class leaders.

Most of the aftermarket heads out there are all good. But they are exactly right.


Skyler

Yup, all of the aftermarket heads are great. Just below them are the gt-40 variety.

Yeah, my vote is in for the TFS TW which are doing quiet well for me, but will be soon upgrading to the AFR 205 for a little taste of the 10's hopefully, it really does depend on what your goals are which was mentioned before. Good Luck!

Canfields are good also but may be a little big for a 302 unless you are going to run a solid roller cam and really spin it high or if you are going to go with more cubic inches. Otherwise I would stay with the tfs or afr165.

Yea canfields, irons are good for n/a setups from what i seen, but tf's are awesome too.

I talked to a guy that has used both the Trick Flow's and the AFR's. He said the AFR's looked like they were a lot better quality.

AFR's are of a lot better quality, and also a lot more money.

Rember you get what you pay for.

Yes, you do get what you paid for.

You can get a Mustang GT that will perform like a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4.

For the extra money you get AWD, 4 wheel steering, an extra 1000lbs, etc, etc. Lot's of people are putting good mileage on the TFS TW heads with no problems. Why spend the extra money if you don't need to?

I've seen sets of the TFS TW aluminum heads complete for as little as $900/pair. That's hella cheap for aluminum heads.

Regardless, as it's been pointed out, the best heads overall, and the best bang for the buck will be determined by the rest of the combo.

A guy at the track the other day with his just rebuilt 306 with trickflow heads and a vic jr intake and a 750 dp carb ran an untuned 12.33 @ 111.?? mph and he did not even launch hard on that run. The second run he managed to pull the front wheels about a foot and a half of the ground on launch but missed 3rd gear. He did not get anymore good runs. My point is that with tfs heads on a 306 and a little tuning he should be able to run high 11's all motor. Not too bad!
Kind of makes me sick, I have spent a lot more money to go slower and I should be much faster than him.

I think I want to sell my car and start all over.:(

Do a search between the AFR's and the trick flows. The prices are very close when everything is assembled.

Robert

What's your best bang for your buck? The Trick Flows & AFR are good heads. I'm looking @ trick flows because I can get them for around $985 o-ring about $100 less than Summit. The trick flows are 2.02 1.60 don’t know the flow # but I bet its close to the ARF. If I had the money I wouldn’t buy either I would go with Canfields heads

DARRYL

MM&FF did some flow bench testing that had the AFR's outflowing TFS's pretty good.

The flowbench numbers that I have show the TFS's outflowing the AFR's easily on intake, and just a little on the exhuast side.

I'm talking AFR 165's.

TFS vs. others
 

One reason TFS heads are cheaper than AFR or Canfield is that the bolt holes on the TFS heads are not helicoiled.

Adding 16 helicoils to a set of heads isn't going to account for $300 worth of material and labor. The only real cost that would add is the cost of the heli-coils and the time to screw them in since the holes are tapped either way you go. That's maybe $50 at most?

I've heard the reason is because the people selling TFS heads buy them bare and stick cheap @ss valves in them. If I were planning on buying TFS heads I'd buy them bare and have a local machine shop install some good valves in them along with a 3 angle valve job and correct springs for my setup.

I'd go with Canfields or AFR's if you're planning on buying them assembled.

Trick Flows, I bought from Saleen $995 assembled and O-Ringed. I have no idea where you get your numbers.....AFR's are about that bare.

Yes, yes, everybody has heard the TFS heads are junk. This is sooo fricken old.

Rumors fly around all the time about them. Cheap components, not helicoiled, valve guide wear.

The truth, from everything that has been posted on here by the people that actually run the heads is they are a solid quality head, that perform awesome at a killer price. It may be true about the AFR's being higher quality, but there is a point when quality becomes an overkill.

For what it's worth, I work in a machine shop making jet engine parts day in and day out. We work with aluminum a lot. The only reason aluminum is heli-coiled (we use key-serts which are better) is for repetitive bolting and unbolting of parts together. The aluminum threads will hold up just fine as long as you don't get crazy with over torquing and strip them out. I think the TFS quality issues have all been resolved long ago, but I still have heard people who have used both swear by AFR.

And the reason people have had problems with heli-coils pulling out of the AFR heads is probably because they had bolts that were too long and were bottoming out in the holes which would easily pull the heli-coil out. Just a guess.

Thanks for the info. I'm not a machinist, so I wasn't aware of that.

As for TFS problems, I have 3 customers who purchased the TW heads when they were new a few years ago. One guy had wear problems because the heads had been assembled with steel valve guides instead of bronze. TFS replaced the parts under warranty. My other 2 customers sent their heads back for the same reason, and TFS took care of them as well. Since then, the TFS heads haven't caused any problems. TFS now installs bronze valve guides in their heads.

I understand some other people have had issues with the TFS heads, however in my indirect experience, the guys here haven't had any serious problems with them.