Quote:
We turned the 481 to 7500 RPM, peak HP is @ 7200 RPM. I will get dyno sheet up tonight if I have time, just spent a week with a 388" W7 motor on dyno that has occupied more time than I wanted.
I think 880 is about all you could ever ask to get out of a 2.16" valve Nascar truck W8. These were 15 degree Virgin Nascar truck heads from 2001, not CFE 10-13 degree moved Center 2.225 or 2.25" valve heads. The Truck heads have ~2.75" of CSA, the CFE's are anywhere from 3.0-3.25" depending on application, I would have loved to had a set on this motor for more power, but they are hard to find used & not many are willing to pony up the $ for a new set. (besides finding new castings with no spark plug holes is very difficult as well) Also all the ones I ever ever worked on & seen have had significant reliability issues due to everything being paper thin... This motor is for a part time, non points chasing bracket car that has to make 100-150 passes a year, I can't have the heads leaking water & off motor every couple of weeks. Our plan is to freshen this motor every 2 years.
This is my experience.......
I have owned my CFE W8's for over 10 years. With the exception of a couple years where I was either building my house and sit out by choice or changing venues I raced.
Only once did I have to pull the heads and found a leak not caused by some catostropic failure below. This was not a water leak but a leak in the pushrod area of the intake runner. The heads were built and tested for a Pro Stock Truck racing effort by Patterson Racing. I bought them from Patterson. They would never decelerate against the engine as those of us with automatics would.
After a few passes I started getting an oily plug at Englishtown NJ. We performed a compression test followed by a leakdown. No leak in the combustion chamber. Spread some silicone over the effected area and won my first KOS race. I talked with Ray Barton who was very helpful in giving me some tips on handling oil in these engines. I went home and pulled the heads to check all the intake runners. Welded up the effected areas and never had trouble with this again.
I recently had a water leak. Was absolutely sure it had to be the heads. Planning to part out the engine due to a cracked crank I sent the heads off to have them completely checked out and a new valve job done. Several with these heads have tried outsourcing these heads for a valve job. After butchering CFE's trick angles the heads do not perform as original. CFE is one of the two shops I have found that get it right. If done wrong you may have to replace all the seats to get it back to right.
Over 10 years racing/owning these heads I can not blame any problems on the heads. I had a set of Arrington castings that gave far more trouble in this area. They were early Craftsman Truck heads that Bob Kesoloski ran. Not complaining won a lot of races with these to.
Leon
Last edited by Leon441; 06/25/11 06:00 PM.
