Cylinder Head Testing - LS2 Dyno Thrash Part II: Head Shootout

Wow! What a cylinder head. With a reputation for absolute excellence in flow design, it seems the engineers at TFS have finally turned their attention to the LS1, and for the first time in these heads, the LS2. We waited and waited, and finally these heads showed up. They were worth the wait. Are these good examples of what you'll get when you open the box on your own set of LS2 heads by TFS? We really don't know because it would appear that we got ourselves a hand-finished set of heads just for this comparison. These were clearly the most "worked" heads in the group. Mirror polishing, perfect ports, and a very racy look told us that these things were serious. Regardless of their status in the TFS catalog, TFS did a great job with these LS2 heads.

As they did when they revolutionized the Ford small-block market, TFS looked at the LS1 cylinder head with an open mind. From their Web site, we learned that "during the development stage, Trick Flow engineers determined that the valve angles needed to change from 15 to 13.5 degrees. This change decreased valve shrouding, increased mid-lift airflow, and increased rocker arm-to-valve cover rail clearance. Testing also proved that relocating the spark plug position in the combustion chamber further enhanced mid-lift airflow and increased the rigidity of the casting to prevent cracking in the chamber area. Furthermore, additional material was added to the rocker arm mounting points for high-rpm valvetrain stability."

On the flow bench, the TFS units flowed over 327 cfm at .600-inch lift--a real number for the cam we were using in this study. They also offered up solid low-lift numbers that bested--or at the very least kept pace--with the other heads in this study.

On the engine dyno, the TFS heads recorded the highest measured horsepower and torque. Again, we want to remind our readers that this isn't the point of this test, especially given the detailed heads (let's call them what they are: prototype LS2 heads) from TFS. And, looking at the dyno graph, the LS2 outfitted with these heads shows a nice horsepower curve that gets to a peak number and just stays there.

If you are serious about making power with your LS2, you have to look at the TFS. We like the fact that, like the AFR, you can get them with a CNC port from the factory, and if TFS is going to offer the hand finishing that we got on our test heads, it's a bargain. Big inches, monster cams, blowers, nitrous--bring them all on. We can't wait to see where these heads take us in the future.

The TFS head equipped LS2...        read full caption The TFS head equipped LS2 on the Livernois Motorsports engine dyno.

The TFS LS2 head came out...        read full caption The TFS LS2 head came out of the box looking all the part of a custom head, and for the most part it was...

...CNC-ported from the factory...        read full caption ...CNC-ported from the factory and appearing to have been hand-lapped in the finish process, we knew this was a serious head...

...It was the best performer...        read full caption ...It was the best performer in the group--by a very narrow margin--and the TFS head promises great things to come.