Oval, peanut, rectangular heads?

[BuzzMarr]

what is the skinny on BBC heads? best?, drawbacks? aftermarket?

Thanks
Buzz

[stepside454]

Peanut ports are generally best suited for low RPM applications, although Ive heard of a few cases of modified peanut ports doing very well. Oval ports are great for street performance & mild racing, they flow well to about 5500 RPMs in stock form, & respond well to adding 2.19/1.88 valves & some porting, can make em work well to 6500.
Rectangular port heads generally arent best suited for the strett, they just have so much valume, they dont make good power to roughly 3000 RPMs, but they outperform ovals in upper REPMs ranges.
There are plenty of good aftermarket choices ,depending on application.

[dunes]

Here! if your vehicle is a daily driver and no drag strip action staywith oval port small valves, that will keep your torque band within drivability. now if you have a havy right foot and like to step on it often peanut's will do even with 2.19/2.88, or if you take your hot rod to the drags and cannot pay for some aftermarket heads square is the choice if you can find a good shop that can port/ polish and re-valve your heads to 2.300 combo for max flow, remember that can become expensive, like i always tell my friends and customers think of wath you want to do with your car, because, you cannot have the best of ALL Worlds.. also remember heads are the best upgrade to an engine but , must take in consideration other items, such as, cam , compretions, tranny, vehicle weight, gearing, etc. and most of all. the use of the vehicle...

[Chevytu]

One thing that i don't understand is: why, if large oval port heads are superior to the rectangular ports for a street car, 454 and 502 crate engines use the latter ones? makes no sense to me