LT1 vs edelbrock heads

[bigdan]

Hi everyone ,Im new here
always rebuilded carburated engines (Im old )I want to switch to FI engine in my 84 olds cutlass ....
just bought a 9C1 cop car with the LT1 in it ....(iron heads)
I want to give it more hp in he 400 hp range (cam, headers etc...)

after reading some posts on different heads ;what s the best choice:

1) I keep my iron heads get them ported
2) get some LT1 aluminium heads and get them ported
3) get some edelbrock alu heads

for sure Im on a budget but if edelbrock heads are far superior
I will go the expense ... I can get some used alu LT1 heads for 450.00

waiting for your advice
Dan

[1bad2k2ta]

bigdan said:

Hi everyone ,Im new here
always rebuilded carburated engines (Im old )I want to switch to FI engine in my 84 olds cutlass ....
just bought a 9C1 cop car with the LT1 in it ....(iron heads)
I want to give it more hp in he 400 hp range (cam, headers etc...)

after reading some posts on different heads ;what s the best choice:

1) I keep my iron heads get them ported
2) get some LT1 aluminium heads and get them ported
3) get some edelbrock alu heads

for sure Im on a budget but if edelbrock heads are far superior
I will go the expense ... I can get some used alu LT1 heads for 450.00

waiting for your advice
Dan

Welcome to the site, bigdan! I hope you enjoy it and get a lot out of it. I am not as familiar with LT1s as I am with LS1s, but I am sure one of the other guys will chime in with some good advice.

All the heads you are thinking about will perform well if properly ported and polished. Aluminum heads will allow you run a little more compression and timing advance on pump gas without detonating, because they run cooler. It really depends on what you want from the car. A good performing street car, or all-out race car. A set of stage 3 racing heads will not work well on a street car because they are made to flow the best and make the most power at high lift and rpms. They are more for air volume than air velocity. For a street car, you want heads that have good velocity at low lifts, yet decent flow at higher lifts. While stock heads can be made to flow well, it is tough to beat a head that is made for performance by design. To me, you get what you pay for, and heads are where the power is made. Edelbrocks, Trick Flows, AFRs are all good heads and flow well right out of the box. I recently bought a set of AFRs and had to send them back because they had the wrong chamber size (bad info on their website), so I bought some Edelbrocks that have a custom CNC job and significantly outflow the AFRs, but they weren't cheap. Whichever you decide on, you will want to take them and get them flowed so you can pick a cam that will best take advantage of how the heads flow.

[Fire67]

400hp is easy with heads/cam full exhaust... Probably be able to get more, just depends on how radical of a setup your willing to deal with. Or how far from street stock you want to take it as far as manners go.

Being on a budget, I would pick up a set of Stg2 ported stock aluminum heads from someone like Harold @ www.portpros.com
Send him your intake to be ported/matched to the heads, get a bigger TB (52mm would be fine), longtube headers, and a free flowing exhaust.

The edelbrock heads as they come from edelbrock arent really that good. They outflow untouched stock heads and thats it. The runners in them are actually smaller than stock heads for cc's. Which picks them up a little bit of velocity. They also have slightly smaller chambers to bump the compression up a bit. The extra velocity moves more air, and the higher compression makes more power out of the air... But its marginal

For the price of those heads, you'd be better off getting stock ported castings.
FWIW, Harold did a set of stg 2's for me and they outflowed the 195cc AFR heads(70%porting) all across the range. The 195cc competion ported (100% porting)heads only outflow mine on the exhaust side. And the cost was just over half of what those AFR's cost at the time

[AAron]

i say switch out that crappy 4l60e tranny for a t56

oh and for what its worth, the stock iron heads are better than the aluminums. unless my memory is failing. but if you port them the aluminum heads can help because you can have a little higher compression and not detonate

[Fire67]

aaron said:

i say switch out that crappy 4l60e tranny for a t56

oh and for what its worth, the stock iron heads are better than the aluminums. unless my memory is failing. but if you port them the aluminum heads can help because you can have a little higher compression and not detonate

Stock for stock, the average iron LT1 head does outflow the average aluminum one.
But the benefits of lighter weight, cooler temps, and the ability to safely run more compression far outweighs the marginal difference in flow.
Plus, having iron heads ported would cost more than aluminum due to the difference in material hardness and how fast it can be cut.

[bigdan]

thanks for the prompt posts .
i did some drag racing for 15 years (72-87) with 455 olds W machines.. ;D ( love to run high 11)
rebuilt the engines myself including all the porting .

what scares me a bit in my new project ( LT1 conversion in a g body car )is to make the right choice in the cam selection
seems crane & comp cams are the big contenders now .

but there is so many cam selections even in those two companies that i dont want to make a wrong choice .

switching a camshaft is a serious chore ,so i want to make the right decision

[Jim Rockford]

sorry , but irons do flow more than the stock aluminum heads, in some cases by almost 20% more flow. and the edelbrocks don't flow more than iron LT1 heads. They are in fact a waste of money, just like the intakes.

[itsallgood]

imo, stock LT1 heads are very good ported by someone like Lloyd Elliot. they will out flow most if not all after market heads. i would look into a good head porter for the stock heads and save yourself some money.

oh, ya, hello everone. I'm new here. Curt