SB2 Heads

[Jet Jockey]

Looking to get everyone's opinion on who you think are the best SB2 head guys out there are. Don't necessarily have to be current builders but who has the best knowledge?

Thanks

[Mosidebite]

Race Rite in NC

[go2fast]

clements or vic hill

[sj valley dave]

Hendren's in North Carolina...Has had a lot of experience with them...We have one of theirs and have been very happy with power and dependability!

[TBRE]

Call me @ 601-847-4744 on Monday, I'm leaving in the morning to go to the Derby at Pensacola. We have customers that are winners, and happy with their SB2.2 engines. We are one of the few engine builders that "hacked up" a regular set of honing plates to use the actual fasteners that you use on an SB2.2 head, and it makes a tremendous difference on the ring seal.TB

[stockcar5]

a buddy of mine used rfd sb2's for a drag motor. very impressive heads.

http://www.raceflowdevelopment.com/RFD-heads-SB2-2.htm

[dynoman14]

TBRE is right on with the torque plates for the SB-2 Block.

As important as that is to getting ring seal, to ensure proper seat sealing I built aluminum and steel head fixturing torque plates to intall on the heads while working on my Serdi while I am installing seats, guides and doing valve jobs. Makes a huge difference on the final results on the dyno. I have built proprietary fixtures for Cup & NHRA teams with coolant circulation channels to perform machine work on the heads while they are hot.

How much difference does it make?
More than anything else you can do while doing a valve job, other than making sure it is round and flat and perpendicular to the guide.

[lawnjockey]

No disrespect to anyone. I think Mike Chapman out of Utah does the best job. We have a set of SB2.2's, it was the best motor in are 15 yrs of racing

[dynoman14]

Mikey did a real good job back in the day but has been out of the head business for a pretty good while. The guy who did his port designs does work for me on a regular basis and the intakes we do are second to none on both power and effeciency.

To be brutally honest a decent engine and head guy should be able to make 750hp with SB2s. 800 takes skills and 850 takes a lot of work (358" Engines).

Big inch stuff is way more forgiving cause the heads run great big with big intakes.

To determine the best head porter a lot depends on the usage of the head. Some heads make big flow numbers but don't have good swirl or tumble.

Pretty hard to beat Al D or Kenny B or Dennis C. Stormin Norman and there is a ton of other realgood guys out there.

The key to making any set of heads work properly is figuring out how they want to be run and what camshaft to use to tell them what to do.

[ptodd]

Contact clements racing engines 864-576-8082 one of the best if not the best at cylinder heads.

[TBRE]

Finish First.....................period

[Jet Jockey]

Tony, what can you tell me about Finish First. My Sb2.2's have Finish First stamped into them but I cannot find any information on them, other than they are located outside of Dallas. These apparently came from DEI and beat Bloomer, Schlieper, Moran etal in a heat at the World 100 three years ago. Have not been raced since. Just collecting dust. Don't know if I should revive them or not for a set of 13 degree.

Thanks for all your information.

[let-r-eat]

Finish First. Most SB2 head companies are not addressing the Dirt Latemodel car specifically. They are building a head based on normal parameters used in engine building. A latemodel in most situations operates outside these parameters. The biggest issue I see with the SB2 style powerplants are restarts and range. Most of these heads are designed to run in a narrow range and to have versatility on a dirt track you need "wider" range. Generally, the most hp you can build in a SB2 engine would virtually never win a race in a late model car. There are several 900+ hp builds out there that could never win a late model race. There are also alot of 650 think it has 825 builds out there also. SB2 builds are very combo specific and traditional building principles, cams, compression, valve size, port shapes ect. don't work on these engines.

[TBRE]

Jet Jockey, Finish First doesn't do work for the masses. Call me Tuesday, I'll help you if I can, we have several SB2.2's running on dirt, but they're not for everybody. 601-847-4744 TB

[sj valley dave]

let r eat...In some cases you're right, but definitely not close to all cases...When roadracing you can see the in car camera shots of the tach going from 5,000 to 9,800 all day long...Same thing for tracks like Phoenix and Martinsville...You are only talking about the hi speed 1 1/2 mile tracks where they don't let the rpms drop a lot....We run a 422" SB2.2 and never get yanked on re starts unless the driver screws up...And we only have about 820 hp....

[go2fast]

We just did a 419 ci with a set of 11/13 clements heads with a cam at 261 in @50 and 270 @50 ex 14.4 to 1 made on the dyno to day 829 hp @ 7500 and 658 @ 5700 tq these heads are about 8 to 9 ligther pr head them the sb 2.2

[wonkie67]

Tony --- what is the maximum RPM you run in a 430 ( 4.135 bore x 4.00 stroke ) ? And can you elaborate on the reasons SB2's aren't for everyone.

We love our SB2's!!! We have a couple of different head/manifold combos, but both win races.

[sj valley dave]

We're not TBRE, but we run a 4.165 x 3.875 combo built by Bill H. Because of the piston speed, he wanted us to keep it under 8600...We normally run a 8200 or 8400 chip...We love the broad spread of power it makes....

[TBRE]

Max RPM on a 4" stroke, 8400 with real good parts.
SB2.2's aren't for a rookie driver, they like RPM's, and are a little pipey, no matter who builds them. But, they are the KING on power. An inline valve engine makes more torque, but less power, same size engine. Our 388 SB2.2 makes a little over 800, an 18 about 750. Our 421 SB2.2 makes just under 880, a 13 around 830. Either will win with a good driver/car. The inline engine is more forgiving if you miss the gear.TB

[dynoman14]

Finish First is Phil Coleman. HIs work is pretty nice. He used to do a lot of Pro-Stock stuff and his SB-2 stuff is normally pretty big port volume and decent cfm/cc ratio. Most of it comes from Gibbs early plate stuff until MBE got a better port ( higher cfm/cc ratio ).

To really get any engine that drops below 5000rpm up and running, you have to be very attentive to the port-velocity and any good cylinder head guy can provide you with adequate information on your set of heads. I charge $250 for both heads with flow sheets 16 ports and an evaluation sheet on the heads.

From that point it is easy to design a cam lobe for the application.

Many times what you will find when purchasing SB-2's online or even directly from teams, they are not matched pairs. They can be consecutive numbers, or sequential but still not an even match when checking on the flow bench.

Most racers don't consider the original application of the head, was it plate, was it open, was it short track??? Plate heads stay at the same RPM +/- 500 on a good day, when racing. When we went to Talladega & Daytona we knew we were doing well when our drop in the corners was less than 200rpms.