I have a friend that has a complete new set of AFR 210 heads complete from AFR for sale, $1200...and he bought some aluminum Toplines...I told him to use the AFR (66cc chambers) but he insist on the Toplines...which would you use on a 9.5:1 383?

Man you're opening a whole can of worms with this question. This has been a long debate on this site for quite some time now. It seems that the overall consensus is that both are good heads. Each brand seems to have advantages and disadvantages. It really boils down to your friend's goals.

If he's more concerned about cost, then the obvious answer would be to keep the Pros and sell the AFRs.

If he's concerned about getting the utmost perfomance out of a set of heads, straight out of the box, then most would likely lean to the AFRs (if money's not a variable). Will the AFR's performance gain over the Pros be proportional to the cost of AFRs over the cost of the Pros? I doubt it. It may be larger, but not proportional. Just my opinion. I personally haven't tested each head to make a comparison of performance gains, just stating my opinions based on what I have read on this site.

While typing this reply, I came up with an idea.....maybe your friend could do an experiment for all of us. Do you think he would be willing to install each set of heads and test for performance to see which heads truely out perform the other? Of course we would need to make sure that all things are equal between the heads, i.e. valve size, intake runner volume, and combustion chamber volume. I think some real world testing of this nature would helpful and since he will already have both heads on hand...what the heck???

I think many members would find his conclusion pretty interesting. This would also help others when making the same decision....AFRs or Pro Toplines?

Keep us posted on his decision...

Hell, at the very LEAST have both sets of head flow tested to give us some hard data to go by.

i have pro's 220cc head, and love them. they flow great, and perform great. but, i have to tell you, if i had a set of each offered to me, i would likely go with the afr's. historically, they are great heads. i still would say, if buying a set, you have to seriously consider the pro's, for the money they just plain perform. i totally agree with what 1fast has said, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, if i had both sets of heads, i would do back to back testing of them. what can he lose? and you really never know which head will like his combo better either. it would be very interesting to see, convince him to do it graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Well he has both of them nbow, so I may go by his house and look them over. They vary in size, as the AFR's are 210cc and the Pro's are 200cc, 64cc combustion chambers and the AFRs are milled to 66cc.
Me, and this is personal preference, if he had the new AFR's, use them...but now he has two sets of new heads... :D

Depends on the cam and the rest of the combo IMO. If the cam is mild go with the 200cc ProToplines. If the cam is wilder and he plans to rev it stay with the AFRs. The 210cc AFRs will clearly Flow more than the 200cc Pro Topline's but there are more variables than just flow.

If the compression, cam, converter, and gears are set up for a 9.5:1 400-450 hp engine then I personally would go with the Pro's because you only need 230-240 cfm flow to make 450 HP anyway. Driveability will be better with the smaller 200cc runner.

If he's got the compression, gears, and cam to make 500+ HP (9.5:1 is a little low IMO) then the only way to go would be the AFR's --- you wouldn't want to be flow limited. A 500+ HP engine will need flow in the 260-270 cfm range.

Also, he should consider future plans for the engine. If he wants to build a "bigger & badder" engine down the road then stick with the bigger heads.

Just my opinion.

Eric,
Yea, it will be a mild, say mid 9.5:1 383, cam will be a mid 230ish roller motor,dual plane AFR intake, etc.
So your right, maybe the Pro's will be the way to go...it's all going in an S10, so either will be plenty. :D

It is hard to compare heads unless they are identical. I sell Toplines (which are great heads). Most people are going to tell you AFRs are good heads if they use AFRs and Toplines are good heads if they use Toplines. But a comparison with 66CC chambers and 64CC chambers, different intake runners and springs are going to give different results. I know a lot of guys that buy heads and say that they stink because they bought the wrong heads for their car. Like putting a 200CC intake runners on a fairly basic 350 engine. I used Pro Toplines on my car over Canfields I sell both. In my opinion for the amount of money you spent for AFR's on Canfield's over Toplines the $200 could go some place better. The difference the AFR's or Canfields are going to make over Topline's isn't worth $200.

graemlins/waving.gif

Well he just emailed me, and sold the AFR's for $1200 last night...so guess we'll see hwo the Topines work... smile.gif

Good choice . . . let us know how it runs! Even a mild 383 in an S10 ought to really rip.