need advice on heads for 540

[flying tomato]

Needing advice on a good set of heads for a 540 cid short block. Hyd camshaft, normally aspirated motor. Also, what cfm carb?

Blew my 489 cid due to Pro Comp POS heads. Broken exhaust valve. Had oval port aluminum heads on the 489. Ran good before they broke.

I do not have an unlimited budget. Want cheap heads that make power.

Thanks to all,

"non" flying tomato

[The Hedgehog]

Cheap? look around for some 502 heads that someone has worked over. A good example would be the heads that Tex sold off his 500EFI before he went to alum. Spend your dough on the setup and valves.

I run Brodix BB2X's on my 540. Not cheap but they make big power.

[BUIZILLA]

AFR big ovals

[mrfixxall]

need to know what cam your using? anything over 515" you need to take the cam specs into consideration with what cc's the head will flow in the powerband your engine needs to run..

p.s. i think it was the nos that killed your engine (held the button on a little to long) ?

[Donziweasel]

800 cfm carb.

[farmer tx]

What happened to the pro comp heads? Did you buy them bare or assembled? These heads look like good castings to me,I have not looked at or dissassembled their complete heads.

[flying tomato]

The add on ebay looks very good and it convinced me to give them a shot. Here is what I experienced:
1. Upon bolting up one of the heads (right out of the box), 2 of the rocker arm studs pulled the treads right out of the head. I called up the company in TN and the rep says send them back and they will repair or replace. They put in an insert and sent them back. (2 wk turnaround)
2. The heads require "customizing" of the guide plates. They have to be bent to line them up with the valves. No big deal really. Takes some time. They also require non-stock length pushrods. Not that of a big deal.
3. Finally get them on the motor, and am very impressed with performance. Gained 10 mph!!!
4. Exhaust valve broke and cratered the motor at approx 70 hrs on the heads.
5. Upon removing the non-broken head, I found that the water passage was severely corroded, and would have become another problem very shortly. It was about to leak into the combustion chamber!!

These heads were 11 months old!!!!
Note: Recently installed a 100 shot of nitrous. Hit the button 5 times for no more than 5 seconds at a time. Nitrous sys had timing retard, and progressive controller.

Anothe note: Bought heads assembled and the salesman at skip white assured me that I did not have to replace the ex valves with inconel.

[flying tomato]

Pics of the pro comp heads.
11 months old!!

[farmer tx]

My son in law was wanting to try them on a marine application. I know a few people using them on the street (sbc) with no problem (were not pre assembled). I think I will discourage him from using them in a boat,looks like the material used in castings would not hold up to freshwater cooling. Thanks for the info.

Mark

[DonZi 26]

be careful what to buy....certain heads are not worth the bang for the buck and you'll end up spending more than you'd spent if you would have bought a set of good heads....

i would personally go for DART !! thats my favourite and are one of the best brands out there if not THE best....brands which imo compete would be BRODIX but these only manufacture alluminum heads and also EDELBROCK...they're all great stuff it all depends on one's taste, yet again it all falls on how much you're willing to spend, but it also depends on your set up aswell.......

good luck