Smitty Smith, a longtime fixture at Edelbrock and currently the Technical Sales Coordinator, has worked for years at the big ‘E’, logging over 22 years at Edelbrock. Prior to that, Smitty previously worked at several speed shops. Always looking to be a merchant of speed, Smitty was also an employee of Mr. Gasket Company and 4-Wheel Parts Warehouse. Because of  his decades of experience, we’ve asked Smitty to contribute this feature article with his insider view that we called “Smitty Sez.”

Edelbrock’s Smitty Smith is quite the guy, and a great addition to our “book of experts” offering a few words from “Smitty Sez” right here on CHC.

The benefit of having Smitty Smith explain the details of these different Edelbrock products is that it is a true insider’s view of the products and the industry trends. While we could always talk to Smitty and then rewrite what had been said, we felt that our readers would be more interested in hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth (yes, we’re poking a little fun at him).

Without futher ado, we proudly bring you Smitty Sez:

Smitty Smith: 

“A lot of people ask about the cylinder head castings and price in our E-Street and Performer RPM series kits. Here’s the inside story. The E-Street package was a result of our company facing competition in the aftermarket. Frankly, we learned that our customers were purchasing other brands of cylinder heads simply due to the price point. 

People were purchasing other cylinder heads because they cost less. Even though our heads are made here in the US, the consumer was still looking for a lower cost cylinder head package and lower cost options.

Edelbrock E-Street cylinder heads for hydraulic flat tappet camshafts.

So we set out on a mission. We found that by using a newer casting technology, we could take the hand work out of producing our heads – which resulted in our new line of E-Street offerings. These cylinder heads are designed to be an entry level street performance head and don’t require the additional hand work. This lowered the cost of labor and manufacturing because the hand work was taken out of the equation.

We also decided to offer these new cylinder heads in a set of pairs only. By producing more cylinder heads, we could take advantage of economies of scale. The more cylinder heads produced, the cost per unit of output decreases, as fixed costs are spread out over more produced units.

By focusing on producing in quantity and lowering labor costs by removing the hand work, we were able to offer the E-Street cylinder heads for less cost to the consumer.

We also chose to use a slightly heavier valve, it’s still a one-piece stainless steel piece, but costs less to use and in turn, lowered the street price of these cylinder heads. These E-Street cylinder heads are intended for hydraulic flat tappet camshafts only.”

Edelbrock Performer RPM Series

Our Performer RPM series line cost a little more than the E-Street line because we continue to do the hand work on these offerings. We hand blend all of the intake entries, all of the exhaust exits and all of the bowls under the valves. This adds value to the final cost of these cylinder heads and is the reason that the Performer RPM line costs a bit more than the E-Street line of cylinder heads.

The Performer RPM line of cylinder heads are now offered for hydraulic flat tappet camshafts and hydraulic roller camshafts. The valvespring rates are different for each.

Edelbrock’s Performer RPM series cylinder heads are available in two different valve spring package configurations.

Both utilize different valve springs and different installed heights and here are the two differences:

• Hydraulic Flat Tappet Installed Height 1.850” 128 lbs seat/closed with 338 lbs open @ 1.270” coil bind 1.130” 5500 RPM (Spring part # 5825)
• Hydraulic Roller Installed Height 1.800” 150 lbs seat/closed with 420 lbs open @ 1.200” coil bind 1.150” 6500 RPM (Spring part # 5845)

We have also expanded our line of Camshafts which now include both hydraulic flat tappets and hydraulic rollers. To accommodate both the hydraulic flat tappet camshafts and hydraulic roller type camshafts, we offer our cylinder heads with two valve spring packages.

For more information on Edelbrock’s cylinder head packages or the Total Power Packages, please call our tech resource line (800) 416-8628 or visit us online. Thanks for listening.”