The issue is not simply bolting on the new head and being a rocket ride. With more flow you need more RPM, so now you need aluminum rods at least. More RPM will also take years off the life of your stock 85# crankshaft, so here comes a billet. All that weight swinging around in there has your block Twerking like Miley Cyrus, so off to find someone who will fab a girdle.
Aluminum has a cooling effect on the chambers, so now we need more squeeze, $600ish for a set of good pistons, another $200 for a good ring set.
More flow above .500" means your camshaft is now good for beating squirrels, so another couple hun for a new stick. Uh-oh, solid lifters don't like the new profile, so another few hunnert for some Hemi rollers and pushtubes. Stock rockers won't cut it anymore either, break out another $600ish for some good rollers.
RPM and a billet roller cam now mean that the stock oil pump is a paperweight. Might as well dry sump it. Toss out another $1-2K.
Now the tried and true Clifford intake is not much more than a coffee table curio. Wallet gonna be smarting from a sheet metal intake and injectors. With that fancy aluminum lump a carb just will not do.
Ooopsie, now your $700 ceramic coated Hooker headers are acting more like tampons than headers. Kiss another $1000 bye bye for a decent custom set.
Now you have a running motor in your car, but wait, it won't leave the starting line. It feels like the brakes are on. Time to send the converter out to get it loosened up, and hope you don't drive through it when you get it back in.
Now, we can leave like gangbusters, but the thing just won't run in the back half. Time to pull another $500 out of your azz for a gear change. Hope we get it right the first time.
The $3500 for the shiny head is the easy part, no?
no, I am not mad at anyone. It is just the fact that, every 3 months or so like clockwork, someone comes up with the great idea that we need an aluminum head. For a street car it would be a waste of time and money. For a race car it is just one piece of the puzzle. To make a head that would not exceed what our expert head porters can do with an iron head would be foolish. Even on a super-double-throw-down high zoot ported head you will be hard pressed to spend $2000. That won't even get you in the show for an alloy unported.
The intention of this post is merely to educate people as to what you will get in to when going to a super flowing head.
You want to lose 35# off your car, call Jenny Craig.
In all seriousness, if you think I'm full of $#!+ on the motor build, just look at the thread on Howard's billet head and see what his shortblock looks like. He didn't do that just because it's easy or cheap.
