AFR Eliminator Heads with Hooker 2129 Headers

[EVL VEGA]

Looking forward to the results! We just put a nice 406 in my dads 72 Vega. Got a wideband for Christmas so will be doing some testing.

I'd like some results as well...however we are wimps in SoCal. I mean it was down in the 30's this morning with a high only in the mid 50's. What is this..Antarctica?.
There is test and tune drag racing at least once a month at Barona Drags but i won't be going until the daytime temps warm up a bit.
That reminds me i'll need a new snell 2010/2015 helmet.

[6D9]

Lol...Im in Norcal and its been cold here too! We are going to test n tune tho on Thursday . The DA have been killer. Testing my bro n laws new ATSV caddy.

[v8vega383]

I too had the same concerns about the AFR210 heads possibly not working with the raised exhaust port and hooker headers. After putting the heads on I was happy to see that the headers fit great with the raised port and even the clearance was good over the frame tubes on each side. The great thing is the clearance for the steering shaft was good too.

After reading the post regarding the header bolt hole not lining up, I thought I was the only one to "fight" with the one header tube for over an hour. I had issues with the drivers side front tube, for some reason I couldn't get the one front header bolt in? I had to "massage" the hole on the header slightly and it went in fine. Anyhow, if anyone is considering using the AFR 210 heads with Hooker Super Comp headers your pretty safe. I added a few pics of the header fitment. Its not the best view, the garage is a little dark, but you can see they fit fine.

Cheers,

[EVL VEGA]

I too had the same concerns about the AFR210 heads possibly not working with the raised exhaust port and hooker headers. After putting the heads on I was happy to see that the headers fit great with the raised port and even the clearance was good over the frame tubes on each side. The great thing is the clearance for the steering shaft was good too.

After reading the post regarding the header bolt hole not lining up, I thought I was the only one to "fight" with the one header tube for over an hour. I had issues with the drivers side front tube, for some reason I couldn't get the one front header bolt in? I had to "massage" the hole on the header slightly and it went in fine. Anyhow, if anyone is considering using the AFR 210 heads with Hooker Super Comp headers your pretty safe. I added a few pics of the header fitment. Its not the best view, the garage is a little dark, but you can see they fit fine.

Cheers,

Thanks for the pictures..where the heck where you before i started this!! Did you have any PTV clearance issues?
I think i have "tunnel vision" (pun intended) because the only thing i see is that beautiful tunnel ram.

[v8vega383]

Thanks, I've had my Astre for almost 27 years now and its been an ongoing passion of mine. My wife calls her the mistress . lol
I just finished this 383 stroker engine install in early October and replaced my World products Motown 220 heads for the AFR210's. Two days after I finished the install I decided to drive it to the drag strip and clocked off a 10.85 @ 122 mph and 10.87 @ 121 (back to back) and then drove it home. This was at 2300 ft above sea level, 33 degrees timing and 94 octane gas. My best ET before that with the old heads and slightly smaller cam netted an 11.01 @ 119mph. I know with some tweaking (carb and timing) it should go faster. Hoping for a solid street-able10.50et, "all natural, no steroids".

A week after breaking in the motor I swapped out the Victor jr intake for the tunnel ram. Surprising how street-able it actually is! Don't think it will run any faster?, but it sure looks awesome!

To answer your question on the PTV, I actually milled my AFR heads to 59cc's because I wanted to increase the compression from 10.6-1 to 11.55-1. I'm using a solid roller cam with .650 lift and still had over 150 thou PtV clearance on the intake and 125 thou on the Exhaust valve using a 1.5 rocker ratio.

[chevyart]

hey 383 thats one fast street car.(and you are way up in the air and only 33 degrees timing)) no issues with all that compression and using pump gas(94 0ctane). im going to school on your setup.what did you do for rear traction, and what kind of 60 fts. are you getting? nice job. art

[v8vega383]

Thanks Art. Using aluminum heads helps with higher compression. I'm probably close to the limit, but I believe i would be good to increase timing to 36+ degrees without any ignition pinging. I'm also going to add an O2 sensor to monitor air/fuel. This should help with adjusting the jets for a little more power. I have a 4 link and 9 inch (4.11 ratio) with adjustable QA1 coil overs and 29 x 13.5 Hoosier DOT slicks. My 60ft's were 1.48 consistently, leaving at 4000 rpm. With the Trans brake activated I can push the convertor to 5000, but have to wait till next season to try that. Around here thats usually April.

[EVL VEGA]

I took the Vega out a few days ago to get some gas and run to the auto parts store.
Everything went well until i was leaving the part store. When i got to the light it started idling rough and acting like it wanted to stall. It felt like the fuel pump was off or something.
I made a U-Turn to head home and stopped about a block from house to take a look. When i climbed out and looked it stalled.
It started right up so i drove it home. Fuel pressure was good but my air fuel ratio was showing really lean.
My first thought was battery. I'm upgrading my alternator because it can't keep up with all the eltronics on the car. I charged battery and it started up but the idle slowly got slower and it stalled again.
Fast forward to last night i pull all the plugs..they all looked OK like this.



EXCEPT cylinder #1 which looked like this



Well there's a problem not necessarily THE problem.
Pulled the valve cover and one of the rocker arms was really loose.
Here's a link to a short video
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1l6om10ob73em5l/20160203_172827.mp4?dl=0

My buddy is the one who set the valve lash but he must have not had that one on the base circle of the cam.
So tonight and/or Friday night i'm going to check the pushrod. Verify that the rocker isn't hitting the retainer. Relash everything. I'll also clean the carb..check floats..idle speed..mixture..etc.

So if this wasnt' the problem then whatever problem that caused the bad idle and stalling was a blessing in disguise.

[EVL VEGA]

Well i hooked up a remote starter so i could set the valve lash by myself. I checked the pushrod and rocker for damage. Push rod was fine and rocker only had a little of the anodizing removed from underside. I set the cold lash and spot checked rockers for rubbing on retainer/spring. Only very minor scuffing. It appears to only be slightly rubbing on the last overlap of spring.


I put everything back together and fired it up. Same thing. Stalled out. Also i'm thinking what i thought was an exhaust leak might have been that loose rocker making all that noise.

It's hard to troubleshoot the engine problem when it won't stay running below about 1500 RPM. My buddy is probably coming over tonight so we can see what the deal is. I'm leaning towards something going on with idle circuit/mixture but it could be something as simple as i need some new plug wires. We'll see.

[v8vega383]

EVL Vega, I had a similar problem a few years back. I thought it was a bad plug or bad wire because the car was idling rough and didn't want to keep running at idle. When i revved it up the engine was missing really bad. I changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor. When that didn't help i changed out my MSD 6al with the spare box i had. Same problem, finally I took the front and rear float bowls off my holley carb and voila! Found one of the jets sitting in the bottom of the bowl. The whole time that issue felt like an electrical ignition problem and it ended up being a jet.

[EVL VEGA]

EVL Vega, I had a similar problem a few years back. I thought it was a bad plug or bad wire because the car was idling rough and didn't want to keep running at idle. When i revved it up the engine was missing really bad. I changed plugs, wires, cap and rotor. When that didn't help i changed out my MSD 6al with the spare box i had. Same problem, finally I took the front and rear float bowls off my holley carb and voila! Found one of the jets sitting in the bottom of the bowl. The whole time that issue felt like an electrical ignition problem and it ended up being a jet.

Thanks for the advice. It did turn out to be a fuel issue. My buddy came over Friday night and we tried to troubleshoot everything we could easily. He couldn't stay long though. We did find a bad connection at the Mallary Unilite distributor wires but that wasn't the cause of the miss. When he left it was still missing at every RPM and wouldn't idle.
Saturday was out because i had my daughter and it was my wife's only day off work.
So fast forward to Sunday when my wife had to work i was on a mission to get this thing whipped. I did some reading and thinking. I thought it could have been the unilite module..was going to test plug wires with a multimeter..was going to replace the plug that ran lean. But first things first..i was going to pull the bowls and metering blocks off the carb and clean everything and reassemble. I found something in the main bowl (maybe a bit of gasket) so it possibly was clogging a main jet periodically.
I took both sides apart and cleaned every orifice (in bowls, blocks, and body) with carb cleaner and compressed air.
That seems to have fixed the problem. It was about 83 degrees out..perfect for a drive. My daughter and i went for a cruise and it ran well. Then after her mom picked her up i drove it to my wife's work about 15 minutes from our house. All seems good!

PS I also put on the period correct sponsor stickers on both sides. Just out of frame is an STP sticker above the front fender turn signal. Still have a small Mickey Thompson tire sticker coming. I'm thinking i need one more big one to put on the fender above the rear wheel wells. I also might get an IHRA and AHRA stickers.

[avewhtboy]

Love the stickers and the pink ear protectors your daughter uses to ride in the car is funny.

[Monza Harry]

Love the stickers and the pink ear protectors your daughter uses to ride in the car is funny.

Passenger doesn't look all that Terri Fied to me! At that age if Daddy does it we must be safe, that sort of thing doesn't usually scare them much. I Don't Know but if "Pink Ear Muffs" are required perhaps a trip to "Midas" is required? And YES I am old, and everything is too D n loud! Harry

[EVL VEGA]

Love the stickers and the pink ear protectors your daughter uses to ride in the car is funny.

Passenger doesn't look all that Terri Fied to me! At that age if Daddy does it we must be safe, that sort of thing doesn't usually scare them much. I Don't Know but if "Pink Ear Muffs" are required perhaps a trip to "Midas" is required? And YES I am old, and everything is too D n loud! Harry

True Harry..she isn't Terri Fied at all..she is the one that is usually saying stuff like "we should race someone". I have to be the adult for once and decline. I do romp on it a bit when she's in the car..just short blasts of course. She loves the thumbs ups and waves we get. Says she feels like she's famous.
With Flowmaster 2 chambers dumping out basically under your seat in a backhalved car even i wear earplugs sometimes. Midas schmidas..i like it rumpity!

P.S. I found the stickers for the rear quarters. The large ones are about 4-1/2" x 12". Figured i'd pay homage to the Grump.

[Monza Harry]

Love the stickers and the pink ear protectors your daughter uses to ride in the car is funny.

Passenger doesn't look all that Terri Fied to me! At that age if Daddy does it we must be safe, that sort of thing doesn't usually scare them much. I Don't Know but if "Pink Ear Muffs" are required perhaps a trip to "Midas" is required? And YES I am old, and everything is too D n loud! Harry

True Harry..she isn't Terri Fied at all..she is the one that is usually saying stuff like "we should race someone". I have to be the adult for once and decline. I do romp on it a bit when she's in the car..just short blasts of course. She loves the thumbs ups and waves we get. Says she feels like she's famous.
With Flowmaster 2 chambers dumping out basically under your seat in a backhalved car even i wear earplugs sometimes. Midas schmidas..i like it rumpity!

P.S. I found the stickers for the rear quarters. The large ones are about 4-1/2" x 12". Figured i'd pay homage to the Grump.

That sucks being the "Adult" doesn't it? A true juvenile delinquent after my own heart she's shaping up to be. I am glad she Loves being in that environment as most kids today couldn't possibly have less interest! I am wearing hearing protection more and more lately and I thought I wore it a lot before, I am noticing some serious loss now 30+ years in noisy work environments has taken it's toll. Thumbs Up on the Grump, and you now have to complete the transformation and take her to the track! That will cost you, when you have to buy her a car as she may want to race, Junior dragsters and karting in general is an excellent start for a career in motorsports almost all the new shining stars start there! Small price to pay if she stays out of trouble and keeps listening to dad, and you will have fun too and your pride will be over the top too, I am sure! Harry