i would suggest looking for pictures of the 84cc and 88cc chambers and flat top vs quench dome piston pictures. this will help you to completely understand what is best for what your working with. keeping in mind that the top of the piston is actually the floor of the combustion chamber and there are real advantages to matching these two parts up. I use flat top and quench dome pistons but I don't mismatch them with a given chamber design. pictures can be worth a thousand words.
the cost question was brought up but I don't think it was completely answered. the difference in money between what I have in the stage V heads vs the edelbrock 84cc heads is about the same. the edelbrocks did require custom push rods; no shelf push rod would work. ironically the same cylinder block, camshaft and tappets were used in combination with both types of heads. I think the argument about which is best, iron vs alum, is rather subjective. it just depends on what a person wants to do. with stock '452's anything you do will be an upgrade. even a simple pocket port/back cut will give improvements. I have a set of hughs stage I '452's I think would make a great street or moderate bracket head. the guy I got them from payed hughs $1000 for the work. the stage v"s have about $1600-$1700 in them. the edelbrocks I bought were around $1600 but I had to put an extra $250 in the combo for custom push rods; and to get the edelbrocks better than the stage V's may cost $400-$500. you can put way north of $2500 in a head up grade. I guess you have to ask yourself where you want to go with this and how much money do you want to spend to get there.
I did check out the pictures of the edelbrock chambers this morning. I was unsure if the 84 cc were actually a closed chamber being it does have quite a big chamber to it, but i do see the differences now though. As far as money, like i said, the money for E-streets is about the top dollar i can spend along with anything else i need to install them. They will go on the car as is besides being checked out first. Will probably never port them so thats why, in my price range, i want the best flowing heads out of the box. I am assuming that the 84cc's are being recommended over the 75cc's because of the lost flow with the 75cc's?
