ok well im building a 388 stoker motor for the street and im pretty much forced to use dart iron eagle heads with pretty small 165 cc runners, i know this is not the best set up and i know it will choke the engine alittle, but what i want to know is will this engine still be fun to drive or will it be a real dog with these heads. it was either these heads or some old style chevy camel hump heads from the 60's and i knew these will flow better so i got them. my goal for the engine is to produce about 370hp and alot of torque, will these head be able to do that? is there away i can make them breath any better with out spending a ton on them?

I dont think the Iron eagles will be a dog, Spend a little money to have the Bowl blended by a professional, and you should get the 375hp your looking for with a carefully selected cam, intake, and bottom end parts.

You are onto the main idea. Ask question about the heads and search for answers. A dremel, drill and stones could give you some good options of doing your own grinding and polishing. Somebody will probably let you know what's the best training type of tape for doing your own heads.

You can make alot more HP with 165cc runners, that's for sure. 370 will be no problem.

It will be torquey, and that equals fun!

For a mild street motor they will be fine if not better than a set of 200cc heads. Just remember build the rest of the motor to match the heads.

Like Oger said, make the rest of the engine match and gear it right.

A bowl blend on the ports will help a little and match port the heads to the intake as best you can. This way you will get the most out of your heads.

Keep the cam on the smaller side --- like duration @ 050 lift in the 220's. Stroker motors like a tight lobe separation angle so if you can find one with a 108* LSA I think you will be happy. The Isky 270 Megacam comes to my mind: 270* advertised duration, 221* duration @ 050, .465" lift, 108* LSA.

Use a dual plane intake like the Performer RPM and a vac secondary carb. Small tube 1-5/8" headers (full length though) and 2-1/2" exhaust.

Gears in the 3.55 range would work nice, you might even get away with 3.42's or 3.23's if you want more top end speed. A 2400 RPM stall would really help this type a combo come out of the hole hard.

I bet you could run in the 12's with this combo if you match it all together real well.

Sell'em and buy a set of Vortech heads and intake for more grunt!! Or pocket port them yourself!! It's way to easy to pocket port to send them out ;) Or do like get a good convertor and gear and cam with more duration and lower centerline like the S/E class boys,to trick the motor into thinking it has bigger ports. :D

Those heads are small (about the same as a fuelie) but can make 370hp.
You could really bump that up by raising the roof on the ports, as high as you can,
(1/8 - 1/4" inch) this will increase the runner size in the high flow area
(top of the port) where you need it and wont increase the runner size too much.
Also do some bowl work around the guide and seat, with this these heads should
flow upper 200cfm and have around 200cc runner, which would be good for a 383.
Then you'll have a head thats good for 500+hp (future mods)
All you need is a die grinder and some metal cutting bits/sanding rolls, and time.

It's supposed to be a mild street engine isn't it?

Oger
Just lookin back to my 383, I ported the "big" TFS 215R heads, probably ended up 220-225cc
and flowed good #s, and my 383 made 490hp with a puny cam, 19 inches of vac. - almost
smooth idle. This engine is intended for my daily driver, I'd say its "really mild".
So by raising the intake port all the way you make almost a "raised runner head", kinda like
a big chief, which will flow good #s and be reasonably small with good velocity. Sometimes
staring out with something small can be a benefit if you know how to use it. (like chambers)
Theres no reason why you cant build a 450hp 383 that has a dead smooth stock idle, so
why shoot just for 370hp and probably around 450-475tq when you can make 450hp and
around 500tq with daily driver streetability. IMO

I'm kind of with Oger on this one - if he has never ported heads IMO chances are 50/50 of hurting flow if you start changing the shape of the port. Simply raising the roof may not help based on what I've read, but maybe I don't understand exactly what you are suggesting. Biggest gains at low lifts will be in the bowl area, if he wants a high lift cam then the bigger cam can take advantage of larger runners and MAYBE more serious port work like you are suggesting would be in order.

well thank you all very much you told me what i wanted to hear. i dont think im going to get into major porting right now because im not willing to do it my self untill i gain some more skill and i cant aford to have some one do it for me, so im just going to use them like they are but im going to polish up the chambers alittle. im basicly trying to get as much power from what ive got right now so 370hp was just a very modest goal if i could get more it would be great. if im using a 4 speed tranny should i still go with a vacume secondary carb? ive always heard differantly, and i have a close ratio muncie so would 3.42s be the best choice in gearing? i want to really feel it in the seat when i punch it from a stop. thanks again
~Rob

Originally posted by oger:
For a mild street motor they will be fine if not better than a set of 200cc heads. Just remember build the rest of the motor to match the heads. As a few more have stated,I agree 110%.

The smaller ports will be MUCH better for a smaller style cam.This is what you want for a out the a$$ torque/street motor.

You need to get a book or some info on porting & polishing heads.You don't need to "hog" out a lot of material,just shape the short side radius & give the exhaust a very good polish job on top of that & maybe have the bowls blended & you'll have a jam up set of heads.

For a cam,I'd check into a CompCam Xtreme energy cam or a small solid lifter cam.I'd go with the solid lift flat tappet cam over a hydraulic & keep the duration @.050 lift down around 230-240 duration & around .480-500 lift.

Good Luck !
graemlins/beers.gif

I used a pair of 170 cc edelbrock heads and a 224/224 comp cams solid cam on a 383 and it was a real tire burner.

Yes, for a mild combo stick with a vac secondary carb even with the manual transmission.

That "vac sec carbs are for automatics and double pumpers are for manual transmissions" thing is just an old wives tale IMO.

I've seen a 406 CID motor with unported Edelbrock 170cc RPM heads and a 230 to 240 degrees duration roller cam dyno at 330 RWHP. I don't recall the torque figures, but it was definitely a lower RPM torque motor. It was all done at 5,000 to 5,500 RPM.