aluminum heads

[earlbrown]

Who said anything about being WOT for minutes at a time? When fuel burns it creates heat. The heat does three things. Heats the exhaust, heats the radiator, and turns the crank. If you divert more heat to the radiator, that's less heat for the exhaust and the crankshaft. Exactly what you don't, ESP in a turbo engine.

Alum heads by themselves won't get you any massive gains, and the bang for the buck will suck (and not in the good way). If the irons aren't the cork, the only advantage is weight. Unless, of course, you start with a combo that's optimized for alum heads, If that's the case, getting rid of the 'wrong' heads an installing the correct ones would be an upgrade.

For alum heads to be worth it, the rest of the engine needs to be built with those heads in mind. Unless of course, you're bench racing... In that case a set of alum heads is worth more than 5 stickers.

Just slapping on a set of heads and expecting everything else to fall in place is like putting a 100mm turbo on a stock engine to have room for growth. Without the supporting cast, you'll most likely be going backwards.

 

[SAMBALLS1]

Earl question, what percentage of power loss would u have in heat transfer in a turbo engine given all else is set @ optimal settings? Lets say a 1/4 run? ie. . Lets speculate here. . . Ur car is @ 170 deg right before u do a burn out, stage, build boost, launch run quarter mile pass. . .Given all else is working properly. . .water pump, thermostat, everything. . . .Not enough to make a difference. . . . Hence why I made my statement. . It wouldn't matter. Even on a street application. . Driving amd cruising ur car amd letting her rip occasionally. . . Nothing. . . Not enough to make a difference and most people that are "smart" would let there car "cool down" before a real race. . . And if they aren't smart enough to know that
They shouldnt be racing anyway. . Not trying to start a debate with u. . . In all sincerity ur side effect statement gave me a homer Simpson moment. . . Given that all cars are transferring heat to the radiator at all times. . .even under extreme load. . .
Aluminum or iron headed. . .

Oh and my car picked up over .5 sec slapping stock non ported aluminum heads on my car. . .stock block, crank amd rods.. . . I did slap a sticker on my car and it has my name on the window. . . .didn't make me faster though. . .
$1300 and .5 sec sounds reasonable to me. . . .

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com
mobile app

 

[earlbrown]

I'm talking about cylinder temp, not coolant temp. Quantifying it with percentages would be impossible. That's a case by case thing. With a proper cooling system the extra heat going into the radiator will be offset by a slightly more opened thermostat. You'll never notice on the temp gauge unless the cooling system is already maxed out.
Depending on where you started from a basic bowl porting and valve job could have possibly found that same .5 seconds . (.5 seconds quicker from a 13.9 isn't the same as finding 1/2 second on a 9.90 car).

You mentioned 'they shouldn't be racing anyways' which implies to me 'race car'. I'm not talking about race only stuff. I thinking of street cars that may or may not be raced. (and by most people 'racing' means making passes at a T&T).

Since you already have the alum heads (and were being overly simplistic here) raise your static compression and find another 1/2 sec.

 

[Nick Micale]

Certainly do not want to start a pissin' contest, but years ago we removed a set of mild ported iron heads from a 12 sec. GN and replaced them with a set of Champion alum heads right out of the box.

This car had a 51 or 52 turbo and would just break into the 11's, and it picked up 1/2 a second without changing anything.

We then upped the boost a few pounds, still no knock retard, and it picked up even more!

I have a problem getting and keeping enough heat in my engine when going rounds, so I am not concerned about less heat killing HP.

What I do have is awesome head air flow which makes HP, especially when restriction is removed from the intake tract so the inlet air is cooler, and making more HP with less boost.

Port an iron head all you can, and I do not see it making 650 HP at 18 PSI on a Buick V-6!

 

[TurboTnZ06]

Happy with my champion aluminums. Same ET's and MPH as my irons, but with a lot less boost, 17-18 vs 27+ with the irons. Same cam, same turbo etc etc, except I went 250+ inches on the stroker vs a 35 over on stock crank.

Even my 2009 Suburban has alum heads on an iron block, in fact the same 243 castings as my 2001 Z06 has on its alum block....

 

[bison]

Port an iron head all you can, and I do not see it making 650 HP at 18 PSI on a Buick V-6!

Because you know you won't without a crap load of rpm. Probably another 1000rpm. Which would require a lot of other expensive crap to support that rpm and be about the exact opposite of what everyone else that posts on here does. After seeing the huge difference in power with a good set of aluminum heads it's hard to argue that iron heads can be as good when looking to squeeze out power because they can't. If you want to make big power they will become a huge limitation. Look at the postings on here Nick. These guys run 30psi or more to run high 9's with iron heads. You get it done with much less. The biggest contributing factor is the heads. The large bore helps a lot but it's no where near what the heads are doing.

 

[Pronto]

So I guess the next question is; are new aluminum Champion heads available? Seems every couple of weeks a thread is started about how none are in stock anywhere.

 

[Nick Micale]

So I guess the next question is; are new aluminum Champion heads available? Seems every couple of weeks a thread is started about how none are in stock anywhere.

I cannot answer your question, but I can tell you I saw a pallet of V-6 alum heads at TA Performance this week!

How many sets would you like?

 

[CGASTON]

Only your wallet and your goals can really dictate that. Check the mod's and times in some of the sigs on here. also ck if primary street or track use. I'm sure ported stockers have been nines.

Cal posted a couple of weeks ago that the first stock style iron heads have made it into the 7.78. I want yo say Harmon. Maybe Bison will remember who. But I do believe it wad a stage motor.

 

[pacecarta]

stock style , production head as in not stage head but it wasnt iron it was aluminum, and yes it was on a stage block and was gary harmon

fastest iron would be johnplogii at 8.96 , a link was posted earlier in this thread

 

[bison]

Cal posted a couple of weeks ago that the first stock style iron heads have made it into the 7.78. I want yo say Harmon. Maybe Bison will remember who. But I do believe it wad a stage motor.

Don't be confused or misled. Those were aluminum heads that likely were some of the best to ever leave champion racing. Probably better than a chapman stage 2. JD actually went in the 7's about 20 years ago with M&A heads that were heavily worked in a tube chassis car at about 900lbs less weight.

 

[CGASTON]

stock style , production head as in not stage head but it wasnt iron it was aluminum, and yes it was on a stage block and was gary harmon

fastest iron would be johnplogii at 8.96 , a link was posted earlier in this thread

See if I wouldn't have mis-spoken then it would have probably never been said.

 

[Jerryl]

Simple but effective.
I know the combo is for sale, turn key.

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/index.php?threads/403235/

 

[Ed Valvo]

Iron vs Aluminum can't be directly compared in just materials alone. They are different designs. Aluminum heads were designed for better performance without having to deal with emmisions and mpg.

 

[tbone87]

These are my stock irons that that Chris Hogeland is finishing up for my little stroker..

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[turbo89]

These are my stock irons that that Chris Hogeland is finishing up for my little stroker..

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

They should run !!! look really nice ... and you probably won't need to put in guides in 15K miles