Silverhawk_02TA

First, let me take a second to totally plug ARP head studs. Having previously done head swaps using stock torque to yield bolts, after using the ARP studs I'll never go back. It helps avoid moments like this:

Me: "Hmmm... Does that look like 50 degrees to you?"
Buddy: "Um, sure... I guess..."
Me: "..."

3 steps to 70 ft-lbs. Enough said.

Also, no pics. Forgot to bring my camera when I flew down to do the install. Sorry.

They arrived 3 days after being ordered from Summit. Definitely packed very well. Surfaces were taped, and each head was slipped into a heavy duty plastic sleeve and double boxed. They're a meaty set of heads; actually a bit TOO meaty in one area, but more on that later. Seems to my admittedly untrained eye that they would make a great candidate for porting with all the extra material. The ports and chambers were slightly rough due to it being an as-cast head, but not so rough that I thought it would be worth it to spend the time smoothing them out. However, I did see that the throat area behind the valves had been hand smoothed at the factory. Overall I was very impressed by the appearance of the heads.

I did run into two issues during the install:

1.) The rocker bosses were so wide that the stock rocker pedestals would not fit over them (hence the "TOO meaty" remark). Not a major problem, and only required 5 minutes with a grinding wheel to grind off 2 of the locating tabs on the bottom of each rocker pedestal to fix. The stock rocker pedestals fit fine after that and all the rockers lined up correctly. Ran a search here and seems that this is an issue with Dart heads manufactured prior to 4-10-06, after which Dart changed the machining on the bosses. Just something to be aware of.

2.) The header bolt holes were shallow enough that my stock bolts bottomed out with about 1/16th of an inch gap left between the bolt head and the header. Again, really easy fix. A quick trip to the hardware store for a set of washers and I was back in business. I have no explanation as to why this should be, and can't find a post of anyone else reporting the same issue.

I can definitely tell a difference in performance with the heads installed. Low RPM and part throttle response and power feels much improved. No WOT yet, but I'm going to try to get on the dyno this weekend to get her tuned and post some numbers.

What I really found surprising was the MPG improvement. Before the Darts I was averaging about 26 MPG on the highway. After the install I drove from NM to NY, and averaged 28.5 MPG for the trip, just a little bit shy of the 30 MPG highway that I was getting when bone stock. I'll take an extra 2.5 MPG any day.

Hope to be able to post some numbers this weekend.

teke184

iTrader: (5)

very cool

man i need to keep your SN handy. you have almost a mirror image of my car and it's mods (prior to the heads/intake)

i really want to see what mine does on the dyno before i get heads. i'm thinking with the few upgrades and the bugs worked out since the last dyno...i should be right where you were...400rwhp.

keep us posted on the dyno results.


and answer me this....how did you drive from NM to NY....and NOT go wot???
i'm not sure i could drive from rochester to my parents place in syracuse without doing it just once...ok...maybe twice.

lastcall190

iTrader: (36)

^ I can't drive to the post office without going WOT...

Glad to hear it went well. Am I mistaken, or were these at once popular but there was some kind of manufacturing defect that kind of put them under the radar for a while? I am positive my friend HAD Darts, but they didn't work for whatever reason, then went to PRCs... In any case, sounds like if anything was awry is now fixed. When you gonna get it back on a dyno?

-J

Mike94ZLT1

iTrader: (3)

You drove it untuned from new mexico to new york?

Silverhawk_02TA

I'm actually a fairly sedate driver considering the car I drive. Keeps me from getting constantly pulled over. Besides, I want to get the AFR nailed down before I do any WOT. I'm running speed density, so the fueling will definitely be off to a greater or lesser extent. Better safe than sorry.

The local dyno is booked tomorrow, and is closed on weekends (grumble). I'll be out of town next week, so I don't imagine I'll be able to get her tuned until the week after.

Aside from the rocker bosses being slightly too wide, there was never a problem with out of the box Darts. The PRC Stage 2 CNC ported Darts, however, had alot of problems with burning oil. There was quite a bit of back and forth on the forum between Dart, TSP and others, but there really never was a definitive conclusion as far as I know. Some claimed loose guides or defective seals from Dart, others claimed excessive porting by TSP causing cracking of the intake ports. Unfortunately after that many people formed a negative opinion of all Dart heads, even though the unported, out of the box heads didn't have this problem.

Silverhawk_02TA

Lord no. I'm an HPTuner bandit. WOT is the only tuning it needs, hence the need for the dyno.

davered00ss

iTrader: (4)

I'll be interested to hear what your gains were from the darts. I was afraid after the TSP incident and bought AFR 205's. Very pleased with the results. Just like to see how others stack up. Good to hear about the partial throttle and low end response. With the AFR's that was incredible. The gains were all across the RPM range. Gas milage also increased.

Congrats on the heads.

vettenuts

iTrader: (4)

I noticed a mileage increase with mine as well, think it was the boost in compression.

cablebandit

iTrader: (37)

i have some of the refurbished ported darts...love em!!! No oil burning here....and a great deal too!!

SIC LSX

iTrader: (10)

i was told darts are not worth it unless you have someone open/clean then up a little

vettenuts

iTrader: (4)

Not from anything I have seen, they do seem to be constantly slammed though. Very good quality parts used including springs and valves. Mine don't use any oil, I would even go so far to say my oil usage dropped when they were installed.

Silverhawk_02TA

I guess that depends on what you're after. They're definitely not a max-effort NA set of heads out of the box. They're more of a budget, "under the curve" set of heads, which is precisely why I bought them. They make good numbers though. For example:

205's + F14 - 451/423
Another 205 + F14 setup - 440/411
205's + F13 - 444/426

Those are just some numbers I pulled from the following threads after a quick search:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...highlight=dart
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...light=Dart+205
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...light=Dart+205

Seem to be consistent performers out of the box. I'm sure you can find some more numbers if you dig a bit.

Silverhawk_02TA

More Dart 205 numbers:

205 + F13:



205 + TR 230/224: 433/408 https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...highlight=dart

I believe all of the numbers above and in my previous post are with the stock LS6 intake.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I plan on getting some 225s and port them out some for a solid roller setup like so:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/dynamometer-results-comparisons/647910-372-preliminary-results.html

Silverhawk_02TA

Dyno results are in!

432 HP and 400 Ft-Lbs

That's a gain of approx. 35 HP and 20 Ft-Lbs over my cam only numbers.

Graphs are in the dyno thread, here: https://ls1tech.com/forums/showthrea...59#post7239359

studderin

iTrader: (28)

nice burout

Silverhawk_02TA

And props to the guys at NewEra! They hung out late so I could get on the dyno! Thanks guys!

SlowazzVette2

iTrader: (1)

Nice numbers.

BigKap94z

iTrader: (47)

Congrats on the numbers. Looks like Dart was getting a bad rap for no reason.

WOTFMAN

iTrader: (3)

From what I gather the TSP incident was TSP's fault and not Darts.