Head questions

[dads95gt]

I am finally going to bite the bullet and buy a set of aluminum heads. As I look at various websites I see there are both pedestal and stud mounts. What is the difference and does it matter? Also I see that a lot of the heads have two or more different combustion chamber sizes available. AFR as an example has 58, 60 and 61cc chambers in their 185's. The 165's are 58cc. Whats the deal on this?

[Killercanary]

If you do not already have rockers, go with stud mount. Setting up the valve train is much easier than with pedestal and it is more stable at higher RPM's and spring pressures. I've had both and will never own pedestal mount again.

As for the combustion chamber, choose it based on the compression ratio you hope to achieve. Typically 58cc chambers are for naturally aspirated combos and 60cc+ are for power adder ones. The larger the combustion chamber the LOWER the compression ratio.

I've run AFR's with great success and highly recommend them. 165's are goo for stock shortblock combos, if its not a stock shortblock then look to the 185 or larger head depending on cubic inches and power goals.

[White5.0]

pedestal and stud mount refers to the way the rocker arms bolt on to the heads. if you go with stud mount, you will need to buy new rockers if you dont have stud mount rocker arms already.

the advantage with stud mount rockers is that they are adjustable. the only way to adjust pedestal rockers is to use shims.

the different chamber sizes will give you more or less compression depending on the size. 58cc chambers will give you more compression than 60cc chambers.

im pretty sure i got all that right, hope it helps

[biminiLX]

What are you building and what are your goals? do you need help picking out parts that will work well together?
Looking at AFRs are a good start.
-J

[Steve-0]

Ok, my dad asked me to ask some questions for him...

would there be any disadvantages to getting the AFR 185s over the 165s? As in, for $50 more you supposedly wont lose low end power and will gain in the upper RPM over the 165s. any truth to this? I think my dad already has rockers but I dunno what they are. Ill take a look.

I dunno what his goals are, but I'd like to see the car make close to 300rwhp with the stock block. The car already has a cam, trick flow upper and lower, injectors, MAF, full exhaust, TB, pulleys, etc. etc. just has stock hand ported heads on it still.
thanks for any help!

[biminiLX]

If its a stock shortblock/stock pistons the 165s will work best, otherwise go 185s.
-J