Great Times, Mavman! But you're comparing heads that were cast over 30 years ago and not intended for high performance use. I ran those same heads on my car for a number of years before "stepping up" to a set of ported and polished 351W's. Regardless of how much porting, etc., was performed on the '68 heads, they were originally designed in the early '60's for Ford's 221 cube motor and had very inefficient port curves and approach angles to the valves, and terrible combustion chambers. The only thing Ford was concerned with was making them fit between the shock towers of Falcons, Fairlanes and Comets. A lot has been learned in the last four decades about head design. Your aluminum RPM heads are great pieces because they were designed from scratch to be a high performance item. The reason they make so much more power than the '68 heads is because they were designed that way, not because the material used in their manufacture is aluminum.
I say to #@!$@ with traditional cylinder heads, save up and get yourself a pair of these babies! http://www.coatesengine.com From what i gather, they only sell complete engines at the moment, but it also says that they have the heads available for most popular engines sometime in the future. The number are quite impressive though: Stock 302: 260hp/flywheel With Coates heads: 450hp/flywheel! To top it all off, since the design is really so simple, the manufacturing costs should be low, so you can't expect to pay TOO much for them.... I think i'll just wait a couple years to see what happens...
. I'm just learning how to build and engine, and I would love for you guys to tell me where to find all of this info out. You guys are naming off valve sizes and head design, cam compatability, where can i learn all this??
