head flowing

Ok i have a ? for the head flower out there do any of you flow the heads with the carb,intake,headers as if the heads are set up to run in the car/truck ect? Dose this efect the flow numbers it has had me up to about 2am think about it. Is it any different if you do it that way or is flowing the head by it self just find.

They can be flowed both ways. By that I mean that flowing the head by itself is certainly viable and you can tell what gains you have made in regards to cylinder head porting. Then you can also flow the heads, manifold and carb together as a whole system and you can tell what gains you have made,,,,if you have worked on the manifold and/or carb. Generally speaking you will always see a flow "loss", with the entire system bolted together, when using a single plane or dual plane manifold. (Good tunnel ram manifolds, will often show an increase in flow, over and above what the head will do by itself.) It a percentage "loss" of what the head will flow. The percentage becomes even greater as the flow goes up, i.e. and you are flow testing in the higher valve lift areas.

Hope this helps,

Charlie Evans