AFR headed builds

Just wondering who has used them and to what degree. I was interested in the 285 heads but from what I'm told, Wiesco makes the ONLY piston for use of the heads. I can't find any builds or credible info beyond the generic hotrod article engine build. Surely people must be using them.

octanehuffer wrote:Just wondering who has used them and to what degree. I was interested in the 285 heads but from what I'm told, Wiesco makes the ONLY piston for use of the heads. I can't find any builds or credible info beyond the generic hotrod article engine build. Surely people must be using them.

I have a customer in Manitoba doing one right now with a set of the 285 heads. It's a 532 pump gas 11 to 1 build. I will post the results. Should be early August.

octanehuffer wrote:Just wondering who has used them and to what degree. I was interested in the 285 heads but from what I'm told, Wiesco makes the ONLY piston for use of the heads. I can't find any builds or credible info beyond the generic hotrod article engine build. Surely people must be using them.

For sure DIAMOND has the digitized chamber and valve pocket necessities, also.

I lent them the head to do it.

rmcomprandy wrote:

octanehuffer wrote:Just wondering who has used them and to what degree. I was interested in the 285 heads but from what I'm told, Wiesco makes the ONLY piston for use of the heads. I can't find any builds or credible info beyond the generic hotrod article engine build. Surely people must be using them.

For sure DIAMOND has the digitized chamber and valve pocket necessities, also.

I lent them the head to do it.

CP Pistons has the chamber also.

octanehuffer wrote:Just wondering who has used them and to what degree. I was interested in the 285 heads but from what I'm told, Wiesco makes the ONLY piston for use of the heads. I can't find any builds or credible info beyond the generic hotrod article engine build. Surely people must be using them.

I've used them, and have three AFR headed builds in process right now. I've also sold several sets of heads, intakes, top end kits, etc.

So far, the only AFR specific pistons I've used are from Diamond. Racetec/Autotec has pistons available for them, but I haven't used them yet.

For one of the builds I'm working on, I'm using pistons with an SCJ valve relief. The SCJ valve relief shares some real estate with the AFR valve relief, so it offers "some" valve/piston clearance. My initial measurements showed that SCJ reliefs will provide enough v/p clearance when using AFR heads that a lot of guys will be able to switch from SCJ/P51 to AFR without replacing or notching the pistons, and I'll have some real world data to share on that soon.


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I had come across your site last night Carl and liked what I saw. Just to get me rolling, I was thinking about getting a nice forged stroker assembly and put it in a D9 block I have sitting around and a set of the 285 AFR heads withe their intake and fuel inject it. THEN after the car is all sorted and I'm tired of it being slow, I'd like to toss on a 108 turbo and give it an eliminator block. I'm trying to not buy everything twice and hopefully the heads will handle 10 lbs of pressure. Am I being realistic here? Its just a street car with an 8.50 cage

octanehuffer wrote:I had come across your site last night Carl and liked what I saw. Just to get me rolling, I was thinking about getting a nice forged stroker assembly and put it in a D9 block I have sitting around and a set of the 285 AFR heads withe their intake and fuel inject it. THEN after the car is all sorted and I'm tired of it being slow, I'd like to toss on a 108 turbo and give it an eliminator block. I'm trying to not buy everything twice and hopefully the heads will handle 10 lbs of pressure. Am I being realistic here? Its just a street car with an 8.50 cage

I don't think you'll have any issue with the strength of the head itself, but at some level of boost, you might start lifting the head because it's only a ten bolt design. 10psi isn't likely to be an issue, but as always, tuning can play a big role.

I got a set from Carl a few weeks ago. It's gonna be a simple pump gas flat top 466 with the larger chamber size and the matching 4150 single plane. Not sure if I'll have the engine dynoed by itself. I will probably just do it in the car. I'll be sure to post the build here and/or the other site.

I was finally able to make some measurements with AFR heads on a motor that has SCJ/P51 pistons.

Long story short:
-An SCJ valve relief that's ~.260 deep offers about .150 worth of valve relief for an AFR head
-When using AFR heads with pistons made for SCJ/P51 heads, a cam smaller than (~265@.050 with 75cc heads) (~285@.050 with 85cc heads) will probably have sufficient valve/piston clearance...maybe a little less with the 2.300 valve used on the 300cc version.


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Thank you some intel. Going to order an A460 block next week and will be going for a completely forged stroker kit with diamond pistons for the AFR heads. Would like to keep it around 530". Nothing special. Not sure if I should go with a Scat, Ohio, Lunati, 4.3" crank. I fully expect to be making near 2k power when this thing has a turbo on it after a couple years of N/A EFI power, but bottom line is that I do not want to be tearing it apart and needing to buy more internals when the time comes. 285cc AFR heads and their single plane with a throttle body for now and possibly a custom intake with 16 injectors later. What will I need or want to do to the block in terms of reliability? lifter bores? Rollerize cam? Oiling mods? Im a transmission builder and am just gathering parts and a game plan before bringing a bunch of parts to the machinist. Was on your site again last night Carl, if you can or have a kit available, I'll probably just order from you.

PM sent

Another question. My local Frpp dealer can sell me SCJ heads for $900 each. Are the AFR heads that much more desrieable to justify the extra $1000 for the pair. Not that I have a problem with buying them, but I can get a pair of heads for $1800 vs. $3000. Strictly wondering which direction to take and eventually, this will see 15-20 lbs of boost.

If you looking to pay 3k for heads why not go with the 18 bolt a460 heads? You said down the road you going to adding a turbo.

I have no idea what head I need. Simply like what I've read and hear about the AFR's but didnt think i would need 18 bolt heads. I certainly don't want want to be changing things out later

With 15-20 lbs of boost, you'll need all the clamping force you can get.....

The other thing I need to consider is the exhaust. Im not aware of any headers that will fit into a 97 Thunderbird. Im looking for quality flanges and tube kits to use still.

You will have to build custom headers for just about anything Ford.

octanehuffer wrote:Thank you some intel. Going to order an A460 block next week and will be going for a completely forged stroker kit with diamond pistons for the AFR heads. Would like to keep it around 530". Nothing special. Not sure if I should go with a Scat, Ohio, Lunati, 4.3" crank. I fully expect to be making near 2k power when this thing has a turbo on it after a couple years of N/A EFI power, but bottom line is that I do not want to be tearing it apart and needing to buy more internals when the time comes. 285cc AFR heads and their single plane with a throttle body for now and possibly a custom intake with 16 injectors later. What will I need or want to do to the block in terms of reliability? lifter bores? Rollerize cam? Oiling mods? Im a transmission builder and am just gathering parts and a game plan before bringing a bunch of parts to the machinist. Was on your site again last night Carl, if you can or have a kit available, I'll probably just order from you.

If your considering a turbo engine I would put the least amount of stroke in the engine. Go large bore, short stroke, and then add the turbo(s). Just did a package of parts for a customer on a 4.440 x 4.140 x 6.700 11 to 1 combo with the AFR300's. The goal was 700HP and we exceeded that by 80HP. AFR has done their homework on the head.

If you go the turbo route Stainless Works does have two sets of headers for the BBF but they are not vehicle specific. The configuration is Down and Forward or Up and Forward.

rmcomprandy wrote:

octanehuffer wrote:Just wondering who has used them and to what degree. I was interested in the 285 heads but from what I'm told, Wiesco makes the ONLY piston for use of the heads. I can't find any builds or credible info beyond the generic hotrod article engine build. Surely people must be using them.

For sure DIAMOND has the digitized chamber and valve pocket necessities, also.

I lent them the head to do it.

And Phillip sent them a mold of the chamber for the baby dome pistons that just came in so, Diamond has every thing they need and then some.

AFR supplied CP with all the drawings of the chamber so CP can make pistons. Mahle has a listing of stocking numbers but at this time they dont' know if they are going to produce them.

Lem, what is your take on head selection for 20 lbs of boost? Will I need 18 bolts? I'm building from scratch and need to choose piston cuts before I order. I do not want to find out that I'm pushing head gaskets when the time comes to lay into it

I guess the 1st question would be, do you have a 18 bolt capable block?

Just bought the A460 block this morning