Cylinder head e.t. gains seen

Hi guys, So I was curious about how much e.t. each cylinder head picks up when upgrading and thought it may be fun to get a list going.

When switching from one head to another please list what head you had, what head you went to (if you made any other changes please note it, do not have to get into details if you do not want to) and what you picked up in the 1/8 and/or 1/4 mile.

For example on the same motor you went from a BAE 5 head to a BAE 6 head and changed nothing else, how much e.t. if any did you pick up and was it in the 1/8 or 1/4 mile.

Thanks guys,
Trev

 

In 2004 Marc White ran a bunch of 5.50's in my TA/FC. It had the old BAE "5" 16 spark plug heads with pushrod tubes in the intake ports. We had metal screw in plugs in every other spark plug hole and ran 8 spark plugs. That was the third year at 92% overdrive on the PSI and no one was coating them. Best ET was a 5.55 first round at the 2004 Winternationals. The second round against Ed Marx it was 2 hundreths quicker to 1,000 feet and it broke the cast fitting off the top of the pump and went boom. Simple math said it was on a 5.53, which was the national record at the time set in 2,000 feet better air with better heads by a guy from New Jersey.

Switching to 6's we saw no difference. The best we ran with the 6's was a 5.52 at Pomona in 2,000 ft. I never ran the 8's or any other newer heads on my car.

 

Hi Robert,

Just kind of trying to get some ideas on if it would be worth upgrading on my old motor before we get to the new one that has new heads.

Thanks Randy.

I also spoke w/ Marty Thacker who went 5.26 w/ my old Total Flow heads, considering demke I think is the quickest now w/ a 5.20 using BAE 8x heads I believe. So I am guessing there is maybe 8 hundredths difference between the 5's and the latest and greatest stuff.

Thanks,
Trev

 

I wouldn't say that at all. Cam shaft everything. Everything!! And if you do t have the money to buy 10 and do rnd work , the best heads mean nothing. Most cam manufactures are selling same grind from 5 years ago. Why?? Because not everyone can afford to spend the kind of money it takes to develope a cam. I'd spend money there before I'd buy 12,000 set of heads. I did what your asking from brad 6 to nre. Didn't pick anything up. Actually had to run engine harder to go same et. Never again!!!

 

In 1989 when I ordered my first hemi we had an R296 114* lobe center. By the mid 1990's the hot ticket was 116* lobe center. I heard a few years back that an R296 114* lobe center was the hot ticket. LOL

It a combination of camshaft, compression and fuel. But your results may vary.

 

et

fast smart guys run current heads...
Im sure they could go fast with less than than state of the art too.
The dyno has shown a couple hundred hp gain but lots of stuff has evolved along with the heads.

 

Air temp 60, track temp 80, baro. pressure 30+, water grns 25. That's what makes them run.

 

Combo

Hey Guys,

I realize its a complete combo that makes it run, just wondering if is worth upgrading to a head in the $5,000 range (used) before I sell the motor.

It sounds like I could maybe find a set of BAE 7's or 8's used for around my price range but may not be worth the upgrade for a motor that I'm just going to sell.

I did run into another problem, I checked my intake valve to piston clearance and had problems. I took my .064" Head gasket off and put a mockup head on w no fire rings. I ran the two end upper head stud nuts on snug and put in 4 rocker studs around the cylinder I was checking and snugged the rocker stand nuts down. Using a checking spring I ran the engine over and my intakes hit when the cylinder is at or near TDC (Looked through the spark plug hole. my cam is a 296-500-16 deal at 34-34.5 deg. This is identical to the previous cam that was in there (Might have been a 114) but I have went to a Manton high ratio setup vs. the old BAE low ratio stuff that was originally ran on the motor. so now I have .900 intake life if the ratio Noel gave me was correct. I am waiting on my exh pushrods to get here before I can check them.

Going to check the complete head that is torqued on tomorrow, using a dial indicator I will turn the adjuster so that it is at .050 lift when On the base of the cam then slowly roll the motor over and see if it hits.

Any suggestions on how I can fix this without changing everything? Thicker head gaskets? Cam reground for less lift? Degree cam differently

Thanks,
Trev

 

Clearance

So I ordered a proper tool that goes into the lifter bore and had a dial indicator on the top. Amazing how much difference good tools make. Now everything clears fine. I was within 1 degree of tdc but was off by quite a bit on getting .050 lift on the cam with my rigged up tool.

Also as a note it turns out that getting the 8X deal really helped sell my engine. They aren't even here yet and most of it is sold...lol

Thanks guys,
Trev