Bulldog heads

[Crazy440]

Well, I finally get to a point where I want to get a set of Bulldogs, after reading about them, on this site and the old site.  Now I come to find out there is a problem with availability.  Hughes Motors have stopped offering them and are touting the Indy 440EZ heads.  And of coarse they have Edelbrocks.
Now I'm in a funk.  I've read a lot about the Edys, but haven't seen that much on the EZs.
Anyone have experience with them?  How do they compare to the Bulldogs and Edelbrocks?
Quality, fit, etc?

Did Bulldog ever fix their quality issues?


Crazy

[Chryco Psycho]

Bulldogs are OK , the set I got worked perfectly
the Indy EZ is the next best head , very similar to the bulldogs , I have had them in my hands & they look good

[4402tuff4u]

Bulldogs are OK , the set I got worked perfectly
the Indy EZ is the next best head , very similar to the bulldogs , I have had them in my hands & they look good

Back in July, 2005 I placed an order for a set of Bulldogs with Eric at Muscle Motor Racing in lieu of having the stock heads worked on, but had to discontinue the order because by December, 2005, I still did not have the Bulldog heads and Eric was not getting any substantial feedback from Bulldog on the status of the order. With Neil's advise I switched to the INDY EZ alum heads and in approx. 2 weeks I had them in my possesion. I'm not experienced enough to see a difference between the different aluminum heads, but I can tell you that there is a big difference in the comparison to the stock steel heads (906) my 440hp came with. The Indy's are much lighter, the valves are considerable bigger and overall the heads look like a well machined piece of equipment. All the ports were polished and smooth. I've tried to post photos before of the Indy's, but I'm getting an error message and the photos are smaller than 200 kb. I PM'd Troy.

On my 440 build, I'm trying to stay with highest quality equipment/supply I can afford. I probably could have found much less expensive heads, but the quality and performance might have been compromised.

Special thanks to Neil (Chryco) for his advise, assistance, patience and sharing of his knowledge.  Without his help I would be kind of lost on building my spiced up 440. 

[firefighter3931]

Did Bulldog ever fix their quality issues?

Crazy

Crazy, why would you buy a set of heads that have known QC issues ? I have a bud that runs the bulldogs on his blown 440 and they work fine, but needed a lot of work to make them right. The indy ez's are nice heads with lots of upside but you have to port them to get the power. The Edelbrock rpm's make excellent power right out of the box. Vegas Mike put together a mild, solid cammed street 440 that runs on pump gas and it made 528hp on the dyno. The out of the box flow #'s are pretty much the same between all these heads. The ez1's with the max wedge port will make more power but you have to use the matched INDY manifold to make it all work. The basic ez's are pretty much the same as an edelbrock head but they have more room to grow. Just depends on what your goals are for the car and engine combination.

Ron

Here are Mike's dyno results. This is a 10.2 compression 440 with a torker manifold, 750 demon, headers and stock unported edelbrock heads:

[Crazy440]

Crazy, why would you buy a set of heads that have known QC issues ? 

Ron, that's why I put this post on.  Neil has always touted them and was asking if anyone new if they had fixed their QC issues.
Thanks for all the info

Crazy

[firefighter3931]

Crazy,

You're welcome. If you do decide to get a set of Bulldogs, or any other head for that matter....have them looked at closely by a competent machine shop. The bulldogs are known for thin castings so it would be worthwhile to have them sonic checked for port wall thickness....especially if you're going to port them in the future.

They all need some work, but the Edelbrocks are closest to being ready to run out of the box. It depends how picky you are. The indy valvejob is poor at best and needs a lot of work. The Eddies are better, but not perfect. The guide clearance should be checked, no matter which head you buy. 

Ron