Small Block Chevy Cylinder Heads

A small block Chevy head is bought by spec, and the spec is six facts: intake runner volume, combustion chamber volume, valve sizes, material, bare or assembled, and plug angle - plus one pricing fact, whether the sticker buys one head or a pair. This page pulls together 24 in-stock small block Chevy cylinder heads from FLOTEK, EngineQuest, Dart, Air Flow Research, Brodix, Edelbrock, Trick Flow and Chevrolet Performance, from $356.20 to $2,994.00: stated runners from 170 to 227 cc, chambers from 58 to 76 cc, 20 aluminum heads and 4 cast-iron heads, 8 bare castings and 15 assembled heads (one listing states neither). Every runner, chamber, valve and material quoted below comes from that product’s own listing. Every order over $200 ships free.

OUR SMALL BLOCK CHEVY HEAD PICKS

Product	Spec (from the product listing)	Price	Why it is here
SBC 180cc Alum Cyl Head 64cc 2.02/1.60 S/P Bare	Bare, 180 cc intake, 64 cc chamber, 2.020/1.600 in valves, straight plug, aluminum, FLOTEK (per listing)	$356.20	The floor of this page, and a bare casting on purpose: the cheapest way into a new aluminum head, with the valves, springs and hardware still to buy and fit - the bare-versus-assembled decision below starts here.
SBC 195cc Enforcer Cyl. Head S/P 64cc Assembled	Enforcer, assembled, sold each, 195 cc intake, 64 cc chamber, 2.020/1.600 in valves, 1.580 in springs, straight plug, aluminum, Air Flow Research (per listing)	$657.99	The assembled step-up in the middle of the ladder: AFR’s Enforcer line at 195 cc, sold each and stated as such in its own listing - one of only three listings on this page that says each outright.
SBC 200cc IK200 Heads 64cc S/P Assembled	IK 200, assembled, sold as a pair, 200 cc intake, 64 cc chamber, 2.020/1.600 in valves, 1.470 in springs, straight plug, aluminum, Brodix (per listing)	$1,451.99	The pair-priced pick: Brodix states Pair in this listing’s own spec line, so its price covers both banks - compare it against the each-priced heads around it on that basis, not on the sticker alone.
SBC Fastburn Cylinder Head Assem. 3rd Design	Fast Burn, assembled, 210 cc intake, 62 cc chamber, 2.000/1.550 in valves, angle plug, aluminum, Chevrolet Performance (per listing)	$1,626.67	The factory performance head: GM’s own Fast Burn casting, the smallest chamber among the big-runner heads here at 62 cc, and one of the seven angle-plug heads on the page.
SBC 227cc CNC Alum Heads Eliminator Race 65cc A/P	Eliminator Race, CNC, assembled, sold as a pair, 227 cc intake, 65 cc chamber, 2.100/1.600 in valves, 1.550 in springs, angle plug, aluminum, Air Flow Research (per listing)	$2,994.00	The ceiling of this page: AFR’s CNC-ported Eliminator Race head at 227 cc with the biggest intake valve here, priced as a pair in its own listing - the top of the ladder the $356 bare casting starts.

THE SPEC, IN ORDER

Intake runner is the passage air travels through, quoted in cc: the heads here run from 170 cc (the two EngineQuest iron castings and its 305 Vortec) through the 180-200 cc middle most street and street/strip builds shop in, to 210-227 cc at the race end. Chamber is the combustion pocket in the head, also in cc, and it is half of your compression ratio: this page spans 58 cc (the 305 Vortec) to 76 cc (EngineQuest’s iron Sport Mod head), with 64 cc the most common size here. Valves are quoted intake/exhaust: 1.940/1.500 in on the iron heads, 2.020/1.600 in through most of the aluminum range, up to 2.100/1.600 in on the CNC race pair. Material is aluminum on 20 of the 24 and cast iron on 4 - three EngineQuest castings and Chevrolet Performance’s Vortec. Bare or assembled decides what else you still have to buy. Plug angle - straight or angle - is a header-clearance fact as much as a spec: 16 here are straight plug, 7 are angle plug, and one Edelbrock listing states neither its plug angle nor whether it is bare or assembled, so the page claims neither for it. Questions before you order? Call 213-549-4279 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm PT) and we will read the listing with you.

RUNNER SIZE: MATCH THE VOLUME TO THE ENGINE

The runner number is a volume, not a power rating, and no listing on this page turns it into one - there is no horsepower figure anywhere below because none of these listings publishes one. What the number does is sort the page. The 170-180 cc heads (FLOTEK 180, Dart SHP 180, Trick Flow DHC 175, EngineQuest’s three iron castings among them) are the small-runner end, the sizes sold for mild street engines and smaller displacements. The 195-210 cc heads (AFR Enforcer and Eliminator, Dart Pro-1 200, Brodix IK200, Edelbrock E-TEC 200 and Performer RPM 210, Chevrolet Fast Burn 210) are the middle and upper-middle, where most 350-383 street/strip shopping lands. The 215-227 cc heads (Dart Pro-1 215 and 227, AFR’s 227 CNC) are the big-runner race end. Bigger is a direction, not an upgrade: a 227 cc runner on a mild 305 is volume the engine cannot use, which is why the one head here built for the 305 - EngineQuest’s 305 Vortec, 170 cc with 1.840 in intake valves and a 58 cc chamber - sits at the small end on purpose.

CHAMBER SIZE MOVES COMPRESSION

On the same short block, a smaller chamber raises compression and a larger chamber lowers it - that is the whole of what chamber size alone decides, and it is why the same head family is sold here in two chambers: Dart’s SHP line alone appears at 64 cc on this page, and the wider range carries its 72 cc versions too. The exact ratio your engine ends up with also depends on piston shape, deck height and gasket thickness, none of which any head listing can state for your block - so this page prints chamber volumes, never a promised compression ratio. If you are matching a head to an existing short block, the chamber is the number to settle first; call us with your piston and gasket facts and we will work it through before you order.

BARE OR ASSEMBLED - AND WHAT ASSEMBLED LEAVES OUT

Eight of the 24 are bare: a finished casting quoted with its valve sizes because the seats are cut for them, but with valves, springs, retainers and hardware still to buy - the FLOTEK 180 at $356.20, all three EngineQuest iron heads, Dart’s SHP 180 and Pro-1 215, Brodix’s Wissota spec head and Edelbrock’s NHRA-legal head. Fifteen are assembled, and their listings quote the spring diameter they are assembled with - from 1.250 in on Dart’s Pro-1 200 to 1.580 in on AFR’s Enforcer heads. What no assembled listing here states is a spring spec matched to your camshaft: the springs fitted are the maker’s standard package for that head, and a cam with more lift or a different style (flat tappet versus roller) can need different springs. Check the spring package against your cam card before you order an assembled head - that check is the difference between a bolt-on and a second purchase.

EACH OR PAIR: READ THE PRICE TWICE

A V8 takes two heads, and this page’s prices do not all buy the same thing. Three listings state Each outright in their own spec lines - FLOTEK’s assembled 180, AFR’s Enforcer 195 and Edelbrock’s Performer RPM 185 - so their stickers buy one bank. Two state Pair outright - Brodix’s IK200 at $1,451.99 and AFR’s 227 CNC race head at $2,994.00 - so their stickers buy both. The other 19 listings do not state it either way, and this page will not guess: a head priced per each at $755 and a head priced per pair at $1,452 are the same money spent two ways. Before you compare any two prices here, open both listings - or call us - and settle which quantity each price buys.

VORTEC HEADS TAKE A VORTEC INTAKE

Two heads here are Vortec-pattern castings, named as such in their own listings: EngineQuest’s bare 305 Vortec (170 cc, 58 cc chamber) and Chevrolet Performance’s assembled Vortec (185 cc, 66 cc chamber, cast iron, 2.000/1.550 in valves). Vortec heads use a different intake-manifold bolt pattern from the standard small block pattern, so a Vortec head pairs with a Vortec-pattern intake manifold - the manifold you already own for a standard-pattern head does not bolt up. Every other head on this page is a standard-pattern casting as listed. If your build is planned around an intake you already have, the pattern is a first-order check, not a detail.

AN HONEST NOTE ON WHAT IS NOT ON THIS PAGE

The wider range linked below carries the rest of the cylinder-head shelf, and three families are deliberately not here. The 18-degree race heads (a Dart 272 cc CNC casting and a Trick Flow 250 cc CNC casting in the wider range) use a different valve angle from the standard-angle heads above and belong to dedicated race builds with matching parts - they are not a step up this ladder. Top-end kits and components - the range’s engine top-end kits, valve guides and valve seats - are not cylinder heads and are not here. And the wider range carries near-duplicate listings of the same head families (Dart’s SHP heads and AFR’s Enforcer heads each appear more than once, in different chamber and finish variants); this page takes one listing per distinct spec combination so the ladder compares like with like. Two more limits. Spec-class heads are labelled, not hidden: Brodix’s Wissota head is a class spec head (its listing states no runner volume, so none is printed) and Edelbrock’s 185 cc head is listed by its maker as NHRA Approved - both claims are the listings’ own words, repeated as such. And no listing here publishes an airflow (CFM) figure, so this page prints none - flow numbers live in the makers’ own data for the exact part number; call us and we will check rather than guess.

QUESTIONS BUILDERS ASK US

What runner size does a street 350 want? Start in the middle of this page: the 180-200 cc assembled heads (FLOTEK 180, Dart SHP 180 and 200, AFR Enforcer 195, Brodix IK180-class castings in the wider range) are the sizes builders start from for street and street/strip small blocks. The 215 cc and larger heads here are race castings, and the 170 cc iron heads are the budget and small-displacement end. Your cam and intended rpm settle it further - bring the cam card to the call and we will narrow it.

64 cc or a bigger chamber - what changes? Compression, on the same short block: the 64 cc chamber makes more of it than a 70-76 cc chamber does. Which one you want is set by your pistons and your fuel, not by the head alone - a dished-piston short block and a flat-top short block want different chambers to land at the same ratio. The listings state chamber volume only, and that is the honest number to plan from.

Is a bare head cheaper in the end? Only if you already own, or were already buying, the valves and spring package it needs. The bare FLOTEK 180 is $356.20 and its assembled twin is $502.40 - that $146 gap is the valves, springs and assembly you would otherwise buy separately, at whatever your chosen parts cost. Bare makes sense for a builder specifying every part; assembled makes sense when the maker’s standard spring package suits your cam.

Why do two similar heads differ so much in price? Usually one of three facts on this page: one is bare and the other assembled, one is priced each and the other as a pair, or one is a CNC-ported casting (AFR’s 227 CNC and Dart’s Pro-1 227 both say CNC in their listings) against an as-cast runner. Settle all three facts on both listings before the sticker difference means anything.

Will these fit my engine? Every head here is listed by its maker for the small block Chevy, and the listings’ own fitment line stops there - they do not name years or vehicles. What varies inside the family is on this page: intake pattern (standard or Vortec), plug angle against your headers, and chamber against your pistons. One block deserves its own line: a 400 small block needs steam holes in its heads, and no listing here states whether it is drilled for them - ask us before ordering a head for a 400. Check the rest against your build, or call us at 213-549-4279 with the block and the parts you already have.

Shopping the wider range? Browse the full Cylinder Heads collection, read our guides on the News & Builds blog, or see the page that came before this one: Rod Ends by Spec.

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