Best heads, no intake? Or decent heads, decent intake?

[danielhv]

Getting close to having enough set aside for the next upgrade...

Car is a street car, don't run at a track. Still running stock heads and intake! Kinda curious if I'd be better off getting a set of used trickflow heads and an intake, or new AFR's and keeping the stock intake for now.

Would I ever realize the cost difference between other name brands like edelbrock, trickflow, etc. vs AFR for a street toy?



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[BMCSean]

Used TF's with a systemax intake!

[Lone Star Performance]

Heads and intake, airflow will bottle neck somewhere and kill power

[UserX]

Get good heads now, then add intake ASAP afterwards.

[danielhv]

Actually, let's talk about this first.... I'm 331 at the wheels... I'm assuming ~20% loss through the driveline puts me around 397 at the flywheel. If I put heads and intake on, will that push me too far to the block limit? I have no interest in messing up my block or trotting into caution territory. I was kinda planning on staying at 450 at the flywheel, which would net 360ish at the wheels. The money spent for heads and intake plus a possible pulley change only to net an extra 30hp to remain in the safe zone?

Kinda questioning the upgrade at this point....

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[danielhv]

Another concern is the transmission.... My T5 was built by Texas Motorsports... Kinda curious how much more it will take. In all fairness, I don't do hard launches. I always ease into it getting on a highway or something. Never power shift.

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[Blackpony]

I have made 450 rwhp on a stock block with no issues. You will be fine 400-420 hp level.

[FATHERFORD]

450 is "safe" as long as you don't wind up the rpms. I ran 450rwhp for a long time but never went about 6000rpm.

[Lone Star Performance]

You'll be good on power level as stated above. Your trans "should" be fine if your not launching hard or power shifting. You could see where you are power wise once everything goes together, and pulley up to make less blower speed too, if you wanted.

[majorownage]

renegade afrs

[46Tbird]

Actually, let's talk about this first.... I'm 331 at the wheels... I'm assuming ~20% loss through the driveline puts me around 397 at the flywheel. If I put heads and intake on, will that push me too far to the block limit? I have no interest in messing up my block or trotting into caution territory. I was kinda planning on staying at 450 at the flywheel, which would net 360ish at the wheels. The money spent for heads and intake plus a possible pulley change only to net an extra 30hp to remain in the safe zone?

Kinda questioning the upgrade at this point....

Your math is kinda funny

Get the better heads and run the stock intake until you can afford something else. You will make more power with good heads + mediocre intake than with mediocre heads + mediocre intake.

[danielhv]

Your math is kinda funny

Get the better heads and run the stock intake until you can afford something else. You will make more power with good heads + mediocre intake than with mediocre heads + mediocre intake.

Teach me, just going off of what a friend told me.

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[46Tbird]

Actually, let's talk about this first.... I'm 331 at the wheels...

That's high for any pushrod 302 running stock heads and intake. If the numbers are STD versus SAE (and I am assuming they are) then you are roughly 4.5% higher than SAE (link here.)

I'm assuming ~20% loss through the driveline puts me around 397 at the flywheel.

Hmm, 20% loss is optimistic through a T5 and 8.8, lol. I would bet it's less than that by quite a bit, more like 10-12%.

I was kinda planning on staying at 450 at the flywheel,

Again, 1.5hp/ci is pretty optimistic for any pushrod 302, regardless of head intake and cam.

which would net 360ish at the wheels.

That would be a 25% loss. There's that word again - optimistic. lol

Slap the heads on there, dude. If you can break the block, more power to ya. It's a couple hundred bucks and a weekend to fix it, and you'll have a story to tell your grandkids.

[BMCSean]

I think the car has an s-trim on it too......

[46Tbird]

Geez, would have been nice to know that.

Still, I'd opt for good heads and do an intake manifold later.