First of all, "out of the box" for edelbrock heads is nothing worth getting excited about - I agree w/ Steve. Those are not ported or polished. Get those heads up on Keith's bench whether you believe his numbers or not, the guy does great head work. Hell, I could take those heads and a die grinder and some sand paper and probably get 20-30 HP out of them.
I'm just a nobody smallblock guy but I've spent a lot of time running many combinations through computer and real dyno's. Someone I met at the Spring Fling has a 427 Windsor with 12.5:1 compression and a BIG solid roller cam. I have a 407 Windsor with 10.25:1 and a smaller hydraulic cam. Guess what....we have the same horsepower and he has a little less torque. Why? Big Vic Jr. heads not great for torque. Non-ported big Vic Jr. heads also not that great for high HP! My AFR 185cc heads "out of the box" are already top notch heads. If he port matched and polished those heads, something like a KC Stage 2 job, he'd blow me away. Period.
Out of the box to me means needs work. unless it is an expensive box.
Sounds like Keith is going to set you up nice. Let us know how it goes. Glad to hear I'm thinking similarly to the guy that seems to bug everyone with making "the most power".....LOL
