Engine Pro has long been a leading supplier of supporting components and tools for your rotating assemblies, valvetrains, and other systems in high-performance and race cars, but this year, the company has been focusing on its vision and strategy for the future — and that future involves entering new and more central product segments.
The first step in that is the unveiling of a new set of cast aluminum cylinder heads and intake manifolds. At PRI, the company showed off its new small-block Chevrolet head, known as Mayhem; this is an 18-degree head that accepts a 23-degree valvetrain and any GM 5-degree intake manifold. Or, you can purchase Engine Pro’s accompanying — and also brand-new — Mayhem intake manifold. A regular 23-degree manifold will not fit.
“We’re adding these aluminum cylinder heads into the product lineup. These are extremely high quality and high purity — it is not a sand casting, but is an actual permanent tool mold,” says Engine Pro Product Manager Alan Stevenson. “We’re going to offer it bare, but our aim, with Engine Pro already offering all of the valvetrain components, is to develop a kit that we can sell to engine builders and machine shops who can then finish out the package, buy it all it one place, and know it’s done right. We’ll have complete packages, so if you have a 23-degree, you can convert it over to this. We’ll have pistons, rings, heads, intake, the whole hardware kit including rocker arms, valve covers, and so on … everything you need to swap it over. It will retail for about $6,600.”
The heads have a 237cc intake runner, with a CNC program to take it out 250cc. They also sport a 2.125-inch intake 1.625-inch exhaust valve seat.
“We’ve toured the facility where they do the casting and seen for ourselves how they conduce the process — we weren’t just going to throw our hat into the ring and just think ‘whatever’ about the quality. That’s not when Engine Pro is all about,” Stevenson says.
The Mayhem intake manifold — which Stevenson is quick to point out the show model is a very rough, non-production prototype that will be far more visually ‘complete’ when it goes to full production — will come with two adapter plates to accommodate any style of carburetor.
“This is the first of many — we’re going to do a complete line of cylinder heads. We’re looking to do big-block Chevrolet, there’s some Windsor part numbers, Cleveland, big- and small-block Mopar, so we’re looking at upwards of 30 SKU’s as we work to develop this line more. This is a real departure for us, and it’s uncharted territory. From design to manufacturing to prototype delivery, it’s a process.”
Alan says Chris Straub at Straub Technologies aided significantly in the development of this initial small-block package. Straub built a big-inch small-block with 12.5:1 with a custom cam all spec’ed out to run pump gas, and with the as-cast head it made 704 horsepower, and the CNC ported 769 horsepower. “Pretty compelling numbers,” Stevenson says in closing.
