32 valve bolt on SBC head

[69CamaroRacer]

Has anybody here ever seen these before?? They look to be a direct bolt on without any funk valve train componets or mods.. The flow and hp numbers are rediclous!!! The price is high too but what isn;t in this sport....

http://www.araoengineering.com/

[nicks67camaro]

http://www.falconerengines.com/prod04.htm

This is what I want......Chevy bellhousing and front mounts....No price does that mean its free?

[boodlefoof]

I've been looking at these for years. They look really nifty, but from everyone I've ever spoken to, the ship time is many months. I've never actually met anyone running the heads.

[Lowend]

I've never known anyone to actually make an engine run with those. I think that company used to be called Dominion... or maybe that was another company trying to do the same thing.

[Chad-1stGen]

Maybe it is on the site and I didn't see it. What is the cost of a set of those heads for a SBC?

[Twin_Turbo]

http://www.falconerengines.com/prod04.htm

This is what I want......Chevy bellhousing and front mounts....No price does that mean its free?

Not only that, it's small block everything apart from the crank, head castings and block casting. Basically what you're looking at is 1.5 smallblocks.

As for the arao heads, they have been around for a while, they were called dominion heads before and I think also batten heads (I know batten had some for a BBC). I had an opportunity to buy some in germany for a decent price (around 1500$) but I let them slide. Sure they look cool but I figured it may be a problem getting replacement parts and if they were so much better than anything on the market they sure would have had a lot more exposure.

[nicks67camaro]

I did some more research on that falconer v12 it was put in an early

[nicks67camaro]

..sorry for the bad post.... it was put in an early 90's vette. The price that I could find was around $45,000.00 out of my budget. This engine is used in marine, and aviation applications. I just think the sound of a V12 is heaven. The Bore and stroke are same as my 400sbc "just add 4 more cylinders.

[got_hp?]

Not only that, it's small block everything apart from the crank, head castings and block casting. Basically what you're looking at is 1.5 smallblocks.

As for the arao heads, they have been around for a while, they were called dominion heads before and I think also batten heads (I know batten had some for a BBC). I had an opportunity to buy some in germany for a decent price (around 1500$) but I let them slide. Sure they look cool but I figured it may be a problem getting replacement parts and if they were so much better than anything on the market they sure would have had a lot more exposure.


yeah, there is a member on the CamaroZ28 forums that had/has a set he had been trying to get running for years.

they require a custom sheetmetal intake, as well as a bunch of other custom work/parts.

theres not doubt they flow insane amounts of air and would make huge power, but the amount of custom work needed, additional costs, high price of the heads to start with are probalby why they never caught on.

i also heard that delivery time on them was rediculous and not much support, but that was back when it was dominion, maybe different now.

even considering all that, youd think we would see atleast a few cars running them???

[Chad-1stGen]

According to the website they accept any standard intake and only require special headers already being made by Hooker...

Maybe they have been refined or are indeed different?

[Chad-1stGen]

Ah found the price section. $5,999 and up. Wow.

[Lowend]

I read some theory on them awhile back and the peak flow numbers of a "big" 2 valve small block head have the potential to actually be better than the Arao's by a little. Where the arao's 4v design comes into its own is at lower lift where the increased valve area outweights the ability to achive lift through gross lift.
Its been awhile but I seem to recall they were claiming these things were flowing hi-200's on the intake side at less than .400 lift

Still wouldn't buy em...

There was anothe guy who was doing a DOHC conversion for small blocks... had a very cool red mid-year vette for a demo car

[racereno]

Here's a video of a blown 406 sbc with the ARAO heads on the dyno at Nelson Racing: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/b7ed8d75-1375-4c5a-af1f-9949010675ae.htm

[pdq67]

Anybody ever check into Pete Ardema's SOHC SB conversion done on the cheap!

I walked around a car sitting there running right along several years back and thought, way cool.

pdq67