Gills: Hughes Heads For Project Bad Fish

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 3

TECH

Gills HUGHES HEADS FOR PROJECT BAD FISH


Hughes Engines has an innovative “Big Mouth”
program that removes the pushrod pinch
The Digits
from the intake runner. We’ll stop stalling and give you what you want.
Here are the flow numbers for Hughes Big Mouth
heads and their stock Edelbrock counterparts.
Pay extra attention to the drastic mid-lift
improvements.

Flow @ Intake Exhaust


.100” 77 CFM 53 CFM
.200” 168 CFM 104 CFM
.300” 236 CFM 145 CFM
.350” 262 CFM 160 CFM
.400” 279 CFM 174 CFM
.450” 292 CFM 185 CFM
.500” 305 CFM 192 CFM
.550” 308 CFM 199 CFM
.600” 312 CFM 204 CFM
.650” 316 CFM 208 CFM
.700” 320 CFM 211 CFM

Written by Evan Perkins

L
Behind the Lens: The Author ast month we assembled a fully-forged 408
and Dave Hughes stroker bottom end for our project Bad Fish ’66
Barracuda. But, before we bring you the top
end story we had to share the killer set of heads that are
not only ready to bolt on and make power, but are a
unique departure from the average mopar build.
As we found out, quite quickly, when doing research
for this build: When it comes to the small-block Mopar,
the aftermarket is not exactly flooded with cylinder
head options. For those of us staffers with Ford and Chambers
Chevy backgrounds, that fact was a rude awakening.
the Few companies offer heads at all for LA block and all of that Dave Hughes of Hughes Engines has an innovative
Crane Springs
411 the factory castings (save for the hard-to-find W-series
race pieces) are severely lacking in the flow department
“Big Mouth” CNC program that removes the pushrod
pinch from the intake runner and yields serious air flow
4The finished bowl
has a streamlined air-path by modern standards. —perfect for our stroker’s 600 horsepower goal. line before their intake pushrod holes are drilled.
and the valve-guide bosses Fortunately, Edelbrock had an aluminum head to fit The process begins with a set of Edelbrock Performer The heads are packaged in the belly of an airplane and
have been profiled our application and even more fortuitous was the fact RPM cylinder heads that are yanked off the assembly travel the 2000-and-something miles from Edelbrock’s
4The chambers are Calif. production facility to Hughes’ Illinois outfit where
opened around the valves they get a major reworking.
and the rest of the Hughes begins by drilling the pushrod hole .375
chamber is nearly as cast.
inches away from the intake port, which allows it to be
4The ports are roughed opened much wider than a factory-style casting. For
out and note how the customers that already own a conventional set of
guides are pushed out of
Edelbrock Performer LA heads, Hughes can plug the
the head slightly for
clearance while cutting. existing pushrod holes and drill new ones.
“The biggest bottleneck to getting more power
4The Crane springs from small block Mopars, especially with large displace-
installed in the head have a
1.540-inch diameter and ment strokers, is intake port volume and airflow,”
Finished Bowl Cutting
carry a 434 lbs/inch rating. said Hughes.

18 August 2013
TECH
Gills HUGHES HEADS FOR PROJECT BAD FISH

Hughes’ Big Mouth heads sport


a robust 225 cc runner.

BIG MOUTH HEAD FLOW WITH


FULLY PORTED EDELBROCK
SUPER VICTOR
Middle Ground
Between the carb and heads there is one more
important part of any induction system:
FLOW @ IMPROVEMENT
the intake. And, what good is a trick set of high- .100 123 CFM + 9 CFM
Head Bolt flowing heads if they are choked by a poor .200” 158 CFM + 4 CFM
flowing intake? The Edelbrock Victor is certainly .300” 219 CFM + 12 CFM
While most heads spec in at about 180 cc of intake no slouch as-cast, but with some attention to .400” 258 CFM + 23 CFM
port volume, Hughes’ Big Mouth heads sport a robust detail and careful matching of the ports to the .500” 272 CFM + 25 CFM
225 cc runner—a 45 cc improvement! And, while head, Hughes was able to find more CFM in each .600” 281 CFM + 25 CFM
the cornerstone of the head is inarguably what Hughes runner. .700” 289 CFM + 25 CFM
is able to do with the intake port, the work doesn’t
stop there.
The intake and exhaust ports are treated to full CNC
profiling that ramp flow up even further. Hughes also The average flow of the Big Mouth heads between
the substitutes the Edelbrock-supplied 2.02-inch intake
valve for a larger 2.08-inch Manley valve. According to
.150 inches and .600 inches of lift is a 248.7, a 37
percent increase over the un-ported numbers.
411 Hughes, the undercut, swirl-polished Manley valve is This means the heads have picked up flow across the
4The way the heads are worth about 13 CFM on the flow bench. board, not simply in a small lift section.
designed (by Mopar) a
head bolt passes Lastly, the combustion chambers are machined to In addition to putting together an awesome head
between the runners de-shroud the valves, which allows even more air package, Hughes team went to work on the Edelbrock
limiting runner width to pass by them. This process enlarges the combustion Victor intake manifold to make sure it wasn’t bottle-
at that point. Exhaust Ports
chamber volume, which will knock compression down. necking the flow. As it turned out, the intake dipped
4Notice how little the To combat this, Hughes mills the heads back to 64 cc. All of the work on the ports bumps the flow flow down considerably. After port matching the intake
pushrod holes protrude numbers to a peak of a whopping 320 CFM intake
into the intake runner Pushrod Holes
path now that Hughes and 211 CFM exhaust at .700 inches of lift. While
has moved them. those numbers are impressive to say the least, the
true character and function of the heads is in their
4The exhaust ports
are opened up as
low-lift and average flow.
much as possible. “Flow at peak lift is a poor way to rate cylinder head
airflow,” said Hughes. “The mid-lift numbers are much
4Hughes includes all of more important because the valve is open longer in the
the necessary spacers to
align the rockers squarely mid-lift range and it is there twice, once when opening
Spacers
over the valve stems. and again while closing.

20 August 2013
TECH
Gills HUGHES HEADS FOR PROJECT BAD FISH

Clean Out Plugs

the
411
4Note the convenient
threaded clean out
plugs in the end
of the shafts.

4Hughes has all but


eliminated the pushrod
pinch from the port. Now, What’s Up Above
the smallest cross-
sectioned area of the port Hughes not only redesigned the heads for huge runners and big flow numbers, they also supply all of the
is the intake gasket at 2.58 valvetrain components to make the setup work on any pre-magnum Mopar small-block. The rockers are
sq/in and the runner Pushrod Pinch aluminum with steel roller tips and ride directly on Hughes rocker shafts that are thicker to reduce valve-
displaces 225cc.
train deflection. The 1.6 ratio rockers are designed to handle serious abuse and have a .350 offset to
4The heads utilize an accomodate the modified ports. Hughes also includes the correct rocker-shaft spacers to make sure all of
Edelbrock supplied 1.6 inch the rockers are perfectly centered over the valve stems.
exhaust valve and
a Manley supplied 2.080
inch intake valve
for added flow.
to the head and cleaning up the runners, flow improved With the heads in place this motor is in good shape
4Hughes offset
rockers are what make dramatically. to make some real horsepower. Stay tuned for
the whole setup come Because the heads move the pushrod hole over to upcoming issues when the motor gets buttoned up and
to life. These machined- enlarge the runner, an offset rocker is required to make subsequently takes a field trip to the dyno. g
aluminum 1.6 ratio,
roller-tipped pieces the valvetrain components properly line up. Hughes
are practically art.
Valve
Engines makes the exact rocker to compliment their
unique head. The rocker is made of aluminum and uses S O U R C E
a roller tip with a .350-inch offset and a 1.6 ratio.
The rocker kits include stronger rocker shafts designed Crane Cams
by Hughes to reduce deflection and provide improved 386.310.4875
oiling characteristics. Hughes also offers a studded, cranecams.com
billet-steel hold-down kit to keep the rocker shafts Edelbrock
firmly planted in their saddles even at high RPM 310.781.2222
or heavy valve-spring pressure. edelbrock.com
We had Hughes load our heads with Hughes Engines
Crane 1.550-inch springs and trick titanium 309.745.9558
retainers to work with the big, solid-roller Hughesengines.com
that is ready and waiting in the block. Manley Performance Products
Hughes Offset Hughes cautions that the 1.540-inch 732.905.3366
Rockers spring is an extremely tight fit that may manleyperformance.com
require rocker shaft saddle shims to
clear the rocker bodies.

22 August 2013

You might also like