ok guys and sponsors.i need your advise on this really bad. i am on the edge of selecting a cylinder heads for my solid roller engine. i am thinking of a 5.3 truck heads being ported but withen a reasonable price.. i decide to send an e mail to Bennett racing. Bennett Racing are Known for ford engines and heads, which they hold the highest flow rates on heads in the country. so i decide to e mail thms and guess what they do port LS1, LS6 and 5.3 heads. they got different CNC programs for different stages. but they quoted me for 3000$ and that for a 2.02/1.6 with all the goodies. they claim it flows 310cfm on the intake for the 2.02 and 330 cfm for the 2.08.
the heads are going for a 3.905 bore and 3.622 stroke and it will be a 12.5:1 cr with really big cam.
and suggestion or ideas or thoughts

 

Dayum thats a lot of green. But, if you get what you pay for, you will have a NICE set of heads.

 

That is a lot of money for heads.
Are they hand ported after the CNC?
Do they have Ls1 cars that consistently Dyno high or have put the numbers down at the track?

If you do not have good answers to those questions, I'd look elsewhere. Many of our sponsors can back up their claims and leave a little more green in your pocket.

 

i am planing to call them today, to see if they can back up thier claims.
there heads are 100% cnc i think, cause he didnt mentioned any hand porting. but 3000$ without a core its alot.
any sponsors here that can give some advice or suggestion

 

that's ridiculous, especially if there is no hand clean-up. Also where is the .310 at? if it's a 700, who the hell cares? I'd like to see some low and mid lift flow #s. Personally, I'd check more into the Absolutes, Patriots or TEAs. I'd really look at the new JPRs also. You could have a cam/heads/springs/pushrods, AND install for that kind of $$$

 

$3000 for ported LS1 heads? Seems pretty pricey.

 

If you are gonna pay that much for heads, call Lou @ LG motorsports. His heads are probably the most expensive, but I've never heard of anyone being disapointed. He is all about race. Consider the cams he has come out with and continues to produce. His heads are made to match those cams.
I think he got almost 460 rwhp out of his heads and G5X2.

 

Bennett definately makes some serious race parts, and are well known in the FORD arena, however, you're not going to need to spend 3k IMO to get what you want, you might as well get what you WANT.

if i was going to pay for headwork, i'd first look for a hookup at SAM, they have the best LS1 cyllinder head guy in the country. Casey is the guy that did the initial port work for Lingenfelter that made the CNC model for GMPP's CNC LS6 heads. the heads on the 8 second TT 427 vette? yep, he did those too. anyway, SAM would be my first choice just based off of experience, and results.

im sure that bennet is more than capable of cranking out a great set of heads, but how many LS1 cars do you know of that are using them with great ET's to back them up? if im spending that much money, im going with a prooven name, and prooven results. but thats just me.

 

with bennett you are going to partially be paying for the name as well. When you are a hi-po shop like that you can get away charging a little more because you are going to "bennett"

 

He's going solid roller, so depending upon the cam he has in mind, flow at .700 lift could be relevant and certainly flow in the .6 - .650 will be relevant.

 

2399 from GTP will get you a set of 10 sec all motor cylinder heads.
Phillip

 

They worked well for me. The solid roller prepped cylinder heads do cost a bit more though, as you are going to need custom valves, resized guides, and extra machine work for the solid roller. The valvesprings, retainers, locks,etc are much more expensive too. It all adds up in a hurry.

Jason

 

We would do a set of 5.3 heads with 2.055 and 1.60 valves for that setup. They are all hand ported and flow in the 300+cfm for the ranges your cam will need. And they would be less than $3000 w/ no cores.

Nate

 

OOPS didn't see that part! still $3G?!?!

 

so where do you suggest to get them from... man i am confusied, only because, some heads they shave the seats too much that with vlave lift pressure might smash the seats in to the heads, and the other thing, each time i ask a sponsor what type of valvetrain they gona use with it, they dont give me an answer.

 

We know that Frutal and GTP have solid roller cars that are fast. I'd start my search by talking with them.
ARE should have experience with solid roller. Other good head porters like Joe Prince or Jay at Absolute might be interested in working with you on a custom set if you have a $3k budget.

 

well, i dont post here but felt the need to after Jon Bennett's name surfaced.

it is my strong suggestion and opinion that you find another cylinder head shop to purchase from.

Now this is not a flame this is a post of MY again i say MY experiences and observations... Take them how you will.

Bennett makes full effort race engines ie. Joel Greathouse and Donnie Walsh Jr. use them in Pro 5.0 and NMCA Super Street competition. I have never seen anyone running Bennett heads on a "street" car..

I have seen some of his heads on other peoples flow benches... i know 2-3 percent variance can be expected....BUT ive seen 45-50 cfm difference between what he advertises and what his head actually flowed...

Yes i know we dont race flow benches...

ive seen people dyno some of his ford heads... be down on power swap to Total Engine Airflow heads and pick up 40-50 rwhp on the dyno. ( no this isnt a cheering session for them either).

MY choice for cylinder head shops personally is Total Engine Airflow no matter what brand they are.... they've had 450 rwhp cars on this board.... Thier heads were on 9 of 12 class champions in NMRA last year and 3 of 8 in Edelbrock Pro series last year as well..

If i buy heads from someone i want a tried and true product... and i want results.... its my opinion that TEA ( along with others like GTP and Absolute) are showing these results.... How many sets of heads does Bennett have on LS1 cars running around??

How many people spend the money on the equipment required to port heads with a 5 axis Simultaneous CNC machine?

How many CNC shops do thier heads 100 percent in house?? from port design to digitazation to final product??

Does Jon Bennett CNC his heads in house?? does he design the ports himself? does he digitize them? For that matter how many shops do this period???

These are just questions i feel you should ask before looking at purchasing something as expensive as 3 THOUSAND dollar cylinder heads.

Again this wasnt a flame just an observation from someone in the Ford world that KNOWS the name Bennett.

 

well, i talked to Brent at TEA, and i explained what i want exactly, so he gave a good price that i cant beat. i dont think that i will spend 3300$ on a truck heads, i know Bennett Racing name is way up there and i know they will give me a good price, but i cant spend that much money on heads espacially if 700$ going back to my pocket

 

FWIW

Read up on what the last dozen TEA headed cars have dyno'd that posted on this board. I think you find 2/3 are in the 396rwhp to 420rwhp with a few at ~435 to ~440 rwhp.

TEA has great rep in the Ford world but not all of their expertise in the Ford world seems to directly transfer to the LS1/GM world. I have TEA Stage 2 5.3 heads that stall at .500 lift with the LS6 intake in place. They flow a max of 250 cfm at .500 with the intake in place. TEA may have revised the valve job and corrected this. While my TEA's were stated to flow 255 cfm on exhaust w/pipe, when tested without a pipe they actually flowed a mere 200cfm on exhaust. Brian at TEA was made fully aware of my findings and I was told my heads should make great power as is. The results is a very ordinary/below average 408rwhp thru exhaust & 418rwhp thru but out.

If you get TEA heads for your project, I strongly suggest you get the heads flowed what whatever intake you select attached.

For a 12.5 compressino roller motor, I would think you'll want a head customized to your needs. I would not put a set of heads that stall at .500 w/LS6 intake place on an engine like your talking about.

 

now you are making worried. i talked to Brent, and we decided the head will be a stage 3 CNC machined and in the same time after the CNC he will preform a multi angle valve jod(hand porting ), and the heads will have all the hard core parts that will quilfay as a solid roller head. the heads will be fitted with 2.055/1.6 5/16 valves and finished to 12.5:1 cr.
but you are making think if heads will flow up to .700 without stalling. cause i am planing to use either ls6 or a custom intake with it depening on the funds