[jim_howard_pdx]

If you take the time to read my posts on speed secrets 1-5 you will see that in order to make big power, you only need to build a balanced engine.

For a street rod, I prefer the Trick Flow Twisted Wedge Head. Port match this to the intake and exhaust of your choice. With a cam of at least 486 lift and 215 duration at .050 lift, you can expect one horsepower per cubic inch. Go with an E or X cam, and you can be solidly in the 370 hp range.

I like trick flow for three reasons. Number one, they have the best water jackets for any Ford engine I have ever seen. This means adequate cooling that will prevent head warp. This is critical on aluminum heads.

Second, they will easily make 1.2 to 1.5 horsepower per cubic inch with minor mods.

Third, the intake valve is rotated, so it produces unbeatable swirl as the valve decends right down the middle of the cylinder. This gives the engine more opportunity to fill the cylinder up with fuel and air before the mixture collides with the cylinder wall and gets disrupted.

The most important reason, is that they are so close to the YEATs Nascar heads in compression chamber technology that it defies description. The compressed fuel and air are squished to a 61 CC combustion chamber that puts the spark plug right in the dead center of the cylinder. Burn is EXCELLENT.

So avoid the straight line heads like the plague. There is a reason the Cleveland heads and the Big Block Chevy and Ford heads flow so damn well. They use cantalever valves that get the fuel dumping down the center of the cylinder.

Hope this helps. My slightly ported Trick Flows Flow 249 CFM on the intake and 198 CFM on the wet flow bench. This kind of flow is simply outstanding on a .496 lift intake and a .520 lift exhaust. No need to flycut the pistons either.... Going to a .560 lift cam puts me at 290 CFM. This is awesome.

So buy a head you can grow with, and one that I have run now for six years. I have cleaned up on many a Z28 and Corvette that said, oh an early mustang, and when I wholloped them, they really looked MAD.



Simply unbeatable.