[bvega]

fxbill is right. Although nowadays with AFR heads using smaller ports and valves then Ford Racing and other brands they flow much more air and have higher compression out of the box. They come cnc ported with 3 angle competition valve jobs and cnc blended combustion chambers. You can get them emission legal or non legal depending on your preference. For instance on 302 with a holley carb on it and a comp cams cam the increase between the stock E7TE 5.0 head and the AFR 165 head was 90 HP!!! the motor had the most torque and most hp and beat edelbrock and canfield and TW by about 20 hp and they had the highes average hp and torque. That is tough to do. They also had the most area under the curve which says a lot for its all around performance not just peak power production. Here is my advice spend $1,500 on the AFR heads. You will save 50 pounds by going aluminum, have out of the box perfect heads, spend $300 on the custom cam from Ed Curtis, and be done with the motor forever.

You will never want to do a stroker and with your lightweight cobra chassis you dont need to worry about torque down low as much. If you want you can put some 3.73 gears in it.

You car will easily do mid to high 11's in the 1/4 if you can get traction. Your car will scream and run cooler and you will never have to touch the motor until you need a bottom end rebuild. Then if you want rebuild strocker kit then you can just freshen up the heads with new guides and springs etc. Spend the money first and right. Dont buy the cheap parts because you wont be happy saving the $500 and always wondering what it would be like to have a 375 rwhp 5.0. I have a 5.0 Mustang running the AFR heads and it is EFI with the Cobra intake and it is making about 310 rwhp and 350 rwtq. It idels fine and has adequate low end.