I am about to buy a new set of aluminum heads for my 383 stroker motor. I have seen people selling Pro Topline heads on ebay and at swap meets. However, I have never seen these for sale by big names such as Summit and JEGS. Can anyone tell me if these heads are any good? They seem hard to beat. The dealers let you choose the valve sizes, combustion chamber size, intake runner size, and spring and valve setup. They claim that they are the higest flowing SBC head available. Can anyone provide me with opinions about these heads? Your help would be greatly appreciated, especially when I am about to spend a thousand of my hard earned dollars. Thanks a lot!!!

I have no first hand info.
Summit used to carry them, may still...seems like straight plug heads were special order.
AFR used to carry them, may still...don't think so.
I think I read somewhere that their flow numbers were greatly exagerated...don't know about that either.
A while back they got a lot of good press, then it appears that the tide changed.
Made in Australia by crazy people, that I do know.

I'm on the fence with you and I'm waiting for some first hand experience myself. Summit sells them, but so do some other places. One of those other places, that advertises a pretty low price, seems to get a lot of bad press and it makes me nervous about dealing with them.

If I could find a rock solid dealer for the some 64cc heads in the $700 range, I would probably pull the trigger. I have only heard good things about the head, but I've been looking at the iron set. Just my .02, not much info.

I have flowed a few sets 200's & the numbers were a little better than a Dart of the same size but not the advertised numbers.
It seems a pretty good head for the money. The only issues I had were in one set of aluminiums the guides were too tight & had to be honed which meant redoing the seats & the ports on the one I measured were more on the order of 206-207cc's.
I do buy them bare as I am not a big fan of some of the work I have seen from some of the "super deals" out there.

I have heard these heads out perform the dart pro 1 heads. Planning on buying a set once I figure out my complete combo for my next motor. (SBC stroker 500hp on motor 200 shot or so n2o)

http://www.enginekits.com/heads/heads1.html

Ask what parts are installed on the complete heads too. PowerHouse sticks Elgin on their heads.
May not hold up to what your planning. They also send them to the biggest shop in town for work. I can't remember if they come bare with a valve job.
Meaning that volume shop might do the valve job too.

Don't buy em from Powerhouse, they use low quality equipment on em. I finally sent my 200cc's back after I had my local machine shop look em over and a couple of valve seats had to be re-ground and the shim job on their springs was way off...some were at 80lbs and others at 100lbs. And Powerhouse says these springs are 'approx.' 130lbs. Combine that with the oversized 2.08 valve that I think is too big for the chamber and seriously shrouded and my flow test revealed 237/165@.500.

The only good independent flow numbers I seem to see from Pro TOpline are from their aluminum heads. I've heard more than a couple people get a lot less then advertised numbers with the Iron versions, although I contribute mine partly to the bad machining and valves, etc.

What I have seen several times, is they make good flow numbers at high lift (.500+), but really lack from .200-.400. Also they use big ports that are often bigger than advertised. Sometimes up to 10cc's larger than advertised. Though flow numbers are one issue, dyno numbers is another, and then track numbers are ultimately the place you want to see the diff.

My first question would be why did they put a 2.08 valve in a 200cc port head??

As posted earlier I have flowed a few sets of the 200cc heads.
The flow numbers from memory were about the same on aluminium & cast iron & were in the 260 range @ .600. & pretty much quit there.
The dart's on the same bench were in the low 250's
As I recall the .300-.500 numbers were pretty close on both heads but again, the pro-topline ports I measured were 206-207cc's.
Didn't measure the dart port.
These numbers were with Ferrea Comp+ valves.
The valve used can make a substantial difference in flow numbers

So... Where is the best place to buy these heads? Mike - do you sell them?

Originally posted by jeffc:
So... Where is the best place to buy these heads? Mike - do you sell them? Jeff,
Yes, I sell them.
If you email me about what you need I will see what I can do. smile.gif

So from what ive seen here and on other message boards, the pro topline castings themselves are pretty good. Most people that have tested them say that they dont flow as well as advertised, but stil outflow many other heads. It seems that most people that have had trouble with them due to the cheap quality valvetrain componets that are used by some of the low price bulk dealers. Would it be fair to say that these heads are a good buy, but I should have them setup properly by someone who knows what they are doing?

That is probably a fair thing to say.
I'm with Mike.
Buy castings from a reputable supplier at the best price you can get.
The have a GOOD cylinder head machinist do the heads up.
Really not complicated to do properly for any GOOD machine shop but it would be best to find a performance oriented place to do it.

get quality components, Ferrea valves like Mike mentioned, etc..
Buy appropriate retainers and springs.
Have the valve job and assembly done by YOUR machinist.
That way you know everything is in order.
Or if not you have someone to ask, instead of a faceless nameless guy stamping out 50 sets a day with a wider margin of error.

Hey fast71 go to competitionproducts.com they are a authorized dealer for these heads. At least their catalog says so. They sell the aluminum and iron in all sizes. graemlins/beers.gif