Words And Photos: Richard Holdener

Believe us when we say we love a bargain. There is nothing better than getting a $100 intake manifold for $50, or even better yet, $40, but think about this for a minute. Imagine you are summoned for a quest to slay a deadly dragon. Would you put your trust in a questionable sword or spend a few extra shillings on the mighty Excaliber? The proliferation of inexpensive “offshore” performance components has flooded the market with an abundance of low-buck possibilities. Though we love a bargain, care must be taken when choosing from the many offerings, lest you forget the old saying-you often get just what you pay for! In simple terms, this means that low cost often comes with other sacrifices, including quality, performance, and longevity. To illustrate this point, we decided to compare a set of bargain basement, small-block Chevy heads purchased off E-Bay to a set of Brodix Dragon Slayer heads. From a pure cost standpoint, the near $1,100 E-bay specials seemed to hold the advantage over the $1,800 Dragon Slayers, but remember, price points don’t make power.

In the tale of the (advertised) tape, the two competitors looked pretty equal. The Brodix heads held a slight advantage in the valve sizing department, as the 2.08/1.60 valve combo was slightly larger than the 2.02/1.60 valves used on the E-bay heads. Port volume was another matter, as the intake port on the CNC heads exceeded 230 cfm making it slightly larger than the 225cc port used on the Dragon Slayer heads. Though valve sizes and port volumes were certainly indicators, both heads advertised flow numbers near 300 cfm. The Brodix heads took this round by exceeding 300 cfm and did so at an impressive .600 lift, where the E-Bay heads advertised slightly under 300 cfm but at .700 lift. As we would find out, the promised flow was nowhere near the actual flow and difference in peak flow was less important than the changes in average flow through the entire lift range. Now we toss in the fact that, unlike the E-Bay heads, the valve spring package supplied with the Brodix heads offered sufficient valve control all the way to 6,700 rpm and Excaliber was looking for some dragons to slay.

The Dragon Slayer heads from Brodix were more than your average, run-of-the-mil, as-cast, small block heads. In fact, you might be wondering why Brodix would go to the trouble of offering an as-cast head in a world dominated by CNC porting? The answer is quite simple, as the as-cast Dragon Slayer was in fact a CNC-ported head, well almost. If we go back in time and look at the development of a cylinder head, the best way to maximize power from a head is to apply an efficient CNC-porting program. To develop the Dragon Slayer head, Brodix did just that. Starting with their Track 1 head, they first developed a CNC program to maximize the flow through the desired 225cc intake port, then digitized that port and recreated it in a casting. Basically the Dragon Slayer head was an as-cast version of a CNC-ported head, meaning it offered the flow rate of the CNC program without the expense. Not only did the flow rate of the as-cast port exceed 300 cfm, it did so at a more useful .600 lift, since .700-lift, small-block cams are somewhat of a rarity. This combination of impressive flow and affordability made the Dragon Slayer heads a formidable weapon in the battle for performance.

An epic battle of this magnitude must of course, take place in a grand arena, and ours was the dyno facility at Westech Performance. The two heads were run on a 383 stroker created by combining a 4-bolt block with forged internals that included a stroker crank, h-beam rods and JE flat-top pistons (with Total Seal Rings). The stroker short block was further equipped with a powerful COMP Xtreme Energy, hydraulic roller cam. The XR300HR cam combined a healthy .562/.580 lift split with a 248/254-degree duration split and 110-degree lsa. We needed a powerful cam profile to properly test the merits of the two heads and the Xtreme Energy cam was just what Merlin ordered for slaying some dragons. Additional modifications to the test mule included an MSD billet distributor, a Brodix single-plane, HVH intake manifold and Holley 950 Ultra XP carburetor. Both sets of heads received optimized timing and carb tuning to dial in the air/fuel mixture, though both heads made best power with 35 degrees of total timing.

First up were the E-Bay heads. It should be noted that the two heads shared identical 68cc combustion chambers, as any changes in chamber size would affect the static compression ratio and ultimate power production. After dialing in the air/fuel ratio and timing, the E-bay heads produced 483 hp and 441 lb-ft of torque. It was necessary to replace the valve springs supplied with the heads, as the pressure was inadequate for proper valve control. We could not rev the motor past 5,900 rpm with the supplied spring package without experiencing valve float. Obviously a spring upgrade would add to the cost of the E-bay heads. After replacing the E-Bay heads with the Brodix Dragon Slayer heads, the peak numbers jumped to 538 hp and 481 lb-ft of torque, meaning the Brodix heads were worth an extra 55 hp! So, what exactly did we learn from this day on the dyno? The bargain heads cost less and performed reasonably well but, if you are looking for serious adventure time, call Brodix for some Dragon Slayers.

The head test revealed impressive results. Equipped with the CNC-ported, E-bay aluminum heads, the 383 produced 483 hp at 6,300 rpm and 441 lb-ft of torque at 4,700 rpm. We figured these were pretty decent numbers considering the cost of the heads, or at least until we saw how well the Dragon Slayers performed. Equipped with the as-cast Brodix heads, the 383 pumped out 538 hp at 6,500 rpm and 481 lb-ft of torque at 5,300 rpm. Not only were the peak numbers up but the head swap elevated the entire power curve.

Sources

Brodix
brodix.com

COMP Cams
compcams.com

Holley/Hooker/Weiand
holley.com

JE Pistons
jepistons.com

Lucas Oil
lucasoil.com

MSD
msdignition.com

Total Seal Rings
totalseal.com