MonsterBilly

There is a nice set of AFR heads for sale near me for 1100 that have been freshened up and are ported that have 185 chambers and are 61cc heads. Will these work well with my 289 that has a large lift lunati cam? i know the lift will work but what about the head flow. Should i go with a set of 165 instaed?

mr_velocity

I'd go with 165s unless you plan on spinning that motor up big. With the cam it's more about duration than lift, most rollers today have huge lift compared to the 60s. My mild cam has .563 with 1.6 rockers.

eZ

check the sptings on the afr too. if its the ones that come with the heads the suck ***...too weak for a big cam

67mustang302

Find out what springs are in them. If they're decent, buy them then have Ed Curtis grind you a custom hyd roller to match the springs. If the springs are meh, I wouldn't pay $1,100 for them. Also, if you're not going to get a cam that really works with those heads, I'd be cautious of using them depending on what amount of drivability crankiness you're willing to tolerate. AFR 185's on a 289 is going to need a good cam to work well.

mr_velocity

Some solid advice right there.

The original poster say that the heads have been ported If they started as 185 then had work done to them they are probably bigger than 185.

frdnut

They may also be worthless hunks of aluminium unless the porter new what he was doing...Do the heads come with flow sheets or anything?

MonsterBilly

yes they do havew flow sheets. there were freshly gone over. i am waiting for the guy to call me so i can go have a look

urban_cowboy

Unless the heads were worked by a very good company and technician, they probably hurt the AFRs more than they helped. AFRs are already CNC machined with a program developed through research and design done by AFR. A shade tree guy port matching them or "working them" could easily hurt the velocity and/or air quality if they did not know what they were doing. I can increase the flow rate on any head just just hogging out the runners, but am I making them better...heck no. Flow rate is not a good indication of much. Air quality and velocity is much more important and they cannot be tested by many people in the industry. Don't get me wrong. The port work may be great, but I would go into it with my eyes open.

In addition, I think 185cc heads, even at stock sizes, is way too big for a 289 unless you are going to run the motor at very high rpms all the time such as circle track or drag racing. 185cc is about perfect for a 351. I am running 205cc in my 383. The 225cc are good for large small blocks in the 427 range. I would stay with the factory 165cc and not port them or have them worked by a good research group like Dr J Performance, Mondello, or someone who does a bunch of R&D on head flow.

OCHOHILL

The cam choice will make or break the power output of a 289 with AFR 185's. I don't think they are too big. I think if you pick the cam it will be a dog. The timing events will be critical down to the last degree. Off the shelf cams were never designed to fill this new nitch (big heads/small engine) in the engine building world. That is why a custom cam by a guy that knows how to do big heads/small engine is critical. If you do not intend to buy a custom cam then you should pass on the heads or stroke it to a 347. This will give you more room to screw up the cam selection. Don't take this as me being a *****. There are few people on the planet that can do this correctly. I certainly am not 1 of them.

67mustang302

Like I said, Ed Curtis at FTI can grind a cam for it.