i have an 87 iroc 350 and i plan on building the car. i will be adding the LT4 hotcam kit. i plan on getting afr's. however, i am not sure if i should get the 190's or the 195's?? also, what is the normal price on these heads? thanks

 

~$1250 I think

I can't remember but I think they dropped one of those sizes, I can't remember which size though. Either one would be a good head for a 383. For a 350 I'd go with the 190 especially with a stock intake.

 

i forgot to mention that a miniram or stealthram will be on the car, i just haven't decided which one yet. also, i probally won't build it to a 383, but a 355 instead. so, i assume that is $1250 for both heads without springs, retainers, etc.?

 

I believe that is for both heads, assembled, with as cast ports. Oh, and go with the stealth ram, it's cheaper than the mini ram.

 

here's the idea. you want to get your intake, heads and cam that'll compliment each other in the same power band...

Intake: HSR and MR both go to around 6500 rpms, but the MR pulls more power on top over the HSR. proof

Heads: AFR 195cc sbc street heads have an ideal operating range of 2000 rpm to 6500 rpm. that right there should match your intake. AFR 180's are good from idle to around 5500 rpms (if you want to stick with TPI or SR)

Cam: get yourself a nice cam that compliments your heads and your intake. easy as that if anything, you could always call crane or comp cams and ask them... just tell them what heads you have, what intake, and where you want your power on the rpm range and they'll suggest a cam for you based on the information you give them.

Edit: ohh, and AFR dropped the 190cc heads and left the 195's

 

i have the 195's and love them. but now that i registered out of county and wont have emissions.. im going to prob jump up to 220's and get a bigger cam.

 

AFR 195's

They come fully assembled, ready to bolt on. I know of a place selling them for $1200. Online, reputable website. PM me if you want the address. Needless to say, these are the heads going atop my new motor

-Corey

 

My understand is that you want to buy them bare and assemble your own springs. Word is their heads are great. The valvesprings are not the greatest.

 

I hear they use cheap springs and even cheaper studs. Get them bare, and pick up a Crane valvetrain kit (springs, retainers, locks, rockers, and 7/16" studs) and you'll be a lot happier in the long run.

 

A word of caution about buying "bare" AFR heads. AFR typically sells their heads fully assembled and fully CNC ported in 2 levels of performance- street performance and race performance (my words, not theirs). $1300 and you'll wait about 4 weeks for them.

If you buy them bare from AFR you DO NOT GET the full CNC porting everywyere like the fully assembled heads. And you only save about $150 vs. the fully assembled heads. The CNC porting is where all the "magic" happens with their mind-bending out-of-the-box flow numbers. Bare AFR heads with a set of XYZ company valves and springs thrown on will not flow anywhere near the numbers that AFR quotes on their website for fully assembled heads DIRECT FROM AFR.

Also, there are some companies distributing AFR heads for prices considerably cheaper than AFR sells them direct. They are buying the bare castings and throwing in their own valves and springs in them with QUESTIONABLE flow results (see warning in the previous paragraph).

Fully assembled and stright from AFR is how you want to acquire them. If you think the valves and springs suck then remove them, sell them off, and put your own stuff in- DON'T buy bare heads.

They will cost about $1300 delivered and you'll wait 4 weeks. Beware anyone sellign them for less. AFR builds all heads to order, no exceptions. It will be worth the wait.

 

Another thing....

The difference between the 190s and 195s is ONLY the size of the intake port opening. The 195s are matched to the larger-than-stock intake ports like on an Edelbrock Victor Jr. Intake manfiold. The 190s the intake port is much closer to stock in size.

Depending on the intake you decide to use the 190s might be a better choice for having the ports line up better. For instance...

TPIS Miniram- large. Go with 195s.
Blower intake on my Weiand 142 superchager- small. 190s match up much better,

 

Damon,

Thanks for the words of advice regarding AFR heads. I'll be putting a set on top of a 383 in the next few months and I can't wait!

AFR 195's
RPM air gap
Comp XE282S cam (244@.050 intake, 250@.050 exhaust)
4.11's
Th350 with 3000+ stall (TCI Streetfighter)


That's the basics, I hope my car will be running strong by about June.

 

Now that I have the 190s assembled, it should be ported and what not. When I have the heads further cleaned out and ported a little more, couldn't I get it to become a 195 then?

 

...I had Kenny Duttweiller build a 415 small block for me about 8 years ago. I told him that I wanted to use AFR heads {I liked what I'd read about them plus its only a 1 hour drive from my house to there. I always feel better if I can look the guy in the eyes thats working on my motor!} Anyway, Kenny told me to tell AFR that I was using a HUGE cam in my car {even though I wasn't}. He said if I told them the size cam that I was really using they would put cheap valve springs in it. But if I said I was using a huge cam they would use the best valve springs so the springs wouldn't fail right away. Same price.... Hope this helps... Bill....

p.s..... 195's with 2.05 intake, 1.625 exhaust {AFR recommended the larger than usual exhaust due to my nitrous}, I believe they were $1280 out the door {$40 dollars more than usual due to steam holes being drilled because it was a 400 small block {well, 415 to be precise}... 75 cc's I think?

 

Nice combo bud! You can expect about 500 HP at the crank maybe more. I think that intake might hurt your top end. Reason being is, I herd that they are GREAT for low to mid rpm performance but not so great up high. I saw an articel that compared the airgap vs rpm vs single plane and the airgap had produced the best numbers under 5k rpms but once the rpms were above that, the single plane out flowed and produced more HP by far. You are going to use a 3k stall so you have nothing to worry about as far as loosing low end power.

I will also be using that XS282S cam in my 383 this spring and I can't wait! It's gonna be awesome.