dart little chief vs. sb 2.2

General engine tech -- Drag Racing to Circle Track

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RZ@D
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Post by RZ@D »

The Little Chief heads require the block to have the lifter bores in totally different locations than a factory style block and the angles are also different (43* intake/ 46* exhaust). ChrisU, yes, you turned your block into a "regular" Iron Eagle block, with a higher raised cam bore. Dart offers putting the lifter bores into a Little Chief block for an additional charge, but will only do it at the angles for a Little Chief head, and the bores are bushed for the Jesel keyed lifters. The cam bore in a Little Chief block is raised .434" vs. .391" on a Iron Eagle block. A custom cam core is required as well (since the lobes are in different locations). Intakes are unique to the Little Chief as well and do not interchange with the SB2 stuff. Definitely BADASS but you must be comitted to go all the way.
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Post by ChrisU »

Thanks for the info RZ.

I raised this cam to the Aurora cam height of .444, so I could get rid of the idler pulley, but looks like I ruined the block for the chief head....

Ah well it's only money :shock:
phoenix
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Post by phoenix »

Hey Chris, if its only money, can I have some? I mean ALOT!
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Post by ChrisU »

:D I meant to say it's only money because it's not my money!!

It's a lot more fun spending other peoples money!!!!! 8)
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Post by la360 »

The Splayed valves are used in Pro Stock, but I would imagine it would be the V8 Super Cars (Circuit class roundy round stuff) that would be pushing the use of the Splayed stuff. With a few rule changes a couple of years back for parity of the class, the GM racers, some of which are factory backed, had to go with the GM splayed Valve heads, and the Aurora based block. This was so the valve layout was like the Yates heads, and the Aurora block was the same deck height. Some revisions were made to the Auroa castings (engine mounts etc), and I believe that revision is called a Holden Motorsports block.
With the Main class, and the development class, I am sure they would be using anywhere from 30-50 pairs of these heads a year. There would be lucky to be 15 pairs in Pro Stock in Australia, and the majority of these engines are sourced out of the US anyway.
Sorry to hijack, back to the action
AL....
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Post by 526FIREHAWK »

I was Looking around at some Little Chief heads on the net and came across a set from They had a flow sheet of a 345cc head and it flowed right at 470cfm at 1.0" lift. But at the bottom of the page and in very small print it said, flowed a .50" of water. wont your flow #'s be alot higher at that setting, rather than 28"? I know from reading here flow is not everything. But alot of people buy heads based on that number. Would that 470cfm number be alot lower if it was flowed at 28".
racer189
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Post by racer189 »

Is the new splayed valve head referred to here from GM part # 24502517 and if so, how does it compare to the Little Chief for performance potential?
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Post by highVE »

GMs splayed valve head will smoke both the sb2.2 and the little chief. I can't speak from exeriance, but a friend of mine works with them often and taught me alot about them. Its unbelievable the capability of HP they can produce. Hopefully He'll chime in in the next few days to share his experiance.

Ricky, you out there?? :o

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Post by cboggs »

highVE wrote:GMs splayed valve head will smoke both the sb2.2 and the little chief.
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Don't know if I would totaly agree with that, .. L chief is a strong part.

The older casting splayed valve used to be a real
, .. um, . .problem to work with.

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Post by Dan Barton »

The little chief is based off of the pro stock truck heads that Carl Foltz did which was a sectioned and re-welded GM casting.... with that being said I think that the little chief is a better head than the GM casting, which is one bad dude in its own right when modified correctly! The most power per inch stuff that I have done was with that casting. Happy holidays to all!!!
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Post by racer189 »

Does anyone know how Brodix's BD symmetrical port head compare to the Little Chief and GM's Splayed valve Symmetrical port head?
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new sb2.2 Rox

Post by kickin472 »

Does anyone now about the new "rox" sb2.2 http://www.who-sells-it.com/ctp/245/153/full/ head and how it compares to the little chief or how much better this compares to the last sb2.2 head
possibly 2.250 or 2.300 intake on these?
Anthony
Ricky Mcconathy
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Post by Ricky Mcconathy »

Mike, thanks for calling me out on this :shock:

I have limited experience with the little chief head, and a lot of experiece with the splayed valve gm head; therfore I favor the gm head. I will be working on a set of little chiefs after the holidays, so maybe they'll impress me, but so far they haven't.

I began working with jeff and lump as the pro stock truck class was ending and making its' transition into comp so I don't know the whole story behind cfe's little chief splayed valve hybrid. I can see the advantages of the intake runner layout allowing the manifold plenum to be shorter front to back and getting the runners under the carbs better, but I don't really like the left and right ports. Plus the set of little chiefs I have at the shop aren't that thick in the places I would of thought the casting designers would have placed more material. I agree with everyone that the splayed valve has its' share of design flaws, but nothing that can't be fixed with a good welder. I too am awaiting gm's release of a redesigned splayed valve head and 15* casting to alleviate some of the work that has to be done to them.

Darin stated that a little chief motor a little under 400" could make 1080 hp. That would be stout considering our best 400" splayed valve motor only made 1045.(Roger Brogden's A/SM motor)

If we could get the splayed valve head like a DRCE casting I don't think there would be any argument whether it was better than the little chief.

The sb2.2 rox head is for the new 4.500 bore space blocks, so yes it will have better capabilities than the standard sb2.2 head.

We just finished our first 4.500 splayed valve headed motor that will be replacing the customer's old 4.400 splayed motor. Should know in two weeks how much faster it will be capable of going.

I think of it this way: little chief= little sister of 11* big chief
gm splayed valve= little sister of DRCE pro stock head

I don't think KB Racing is running big chiefs :lol:

Hope I didn't step on any toes as that was not the intent of this post; just an explanation of one man's opinion. Merry Christmas everyone and sorry for the long post :D
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highVE
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Post by highVE »

Forgive me!! Maybe the word "smoke" wasn't the proper choice.
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racer189
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Post by racer189 »

Ricky - Just curious how it went with the Little Chiefs and if you've heard anyomore on the new GM splayed valve heads?
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