Anything is better than the $599 Aerohead offerings IMO. You get what you pay for in everything. So a set of irons with $600 worth of Indy valve job IMO is not as good as $600 worth of my local shop..Who does much nicer work. Whether heads are right for your build requires me to know what you want from them (power range, compresssion ratio with certian pistons), exh(like some take special headers) plans, current parts you have, and budget. It's easy to get iron heads to make up to 500hp on pump gas. It gets harder beyond that. Some iron heads are more expensive and are not as good for detonation avoidance. IMO, when you combine parts with the costs of good amchine/valve work, you get very close to the cost of the entry level performance heads. (that would be Edelbrock RPM) Within a few hundred anyway. So the next question becomes if you do have the room in the budget, how can the better heads help? Is that worth the few hundred? I have very few times when the answer is "no." I see heads for sale with fresh "valve jobs" for $500. Just the parts for my heads cost more than that total job. There's no way those heads are as good, or IMO even can be classified as "re-done". I recently held a set of $700 327 Chevy heads. They are to be used on a build at the shop. He just paid to have them "done". They replaced the valves, ground single angles on the seats, re-used the retainers and locks, and installed stock springs with umbrella seals. What wasnt done (and still needs to be): replace guides (they knurled them...), install unleaded seats, cut spring seats and guides for performance springs, replace retainers and locks to match new springs, and get 5 angle performance valve job. Now these are a Chevy small block. You can get good performance heads fully assembled for $800/pr. It doesnt make sense to spend $700+$600 to get iron heads work unless rules tell you to use them. Of course, we drive mopars...lol. So you have to double the costs...lol
