ALB posted:I would NOT put Panchito heads on a 1776 that doesn't make power above 6,000 rpm. The small gain you'll get in the top rpm's doesn't justify the loss of airspeed (and fuel dropping out of the mix) through the intake ports the engine will experience in the lower part of the powerband.
edsnova posted:On the contrary: the Panchos are designed to make more air speed through the intake ports. That's their whole schtick: you get high flow numbers at high RPM and, unlike a BugPack 044 or similar, high velocity at the low end so you don't lose low and midrange torque.
I agree completely with Ed, and have finally found a point of disagreement with Al. One gives up nothing (as compared to a stock head) with a set of Panchitos.
A VW Mexico 043 head has 57cc of intake runner volume. A CB Panchito has 54cc. There is no "loss of airspeed" with a Pancito head. Port velocity is as good or better than a stock head, and yet it will flow 167 cfm at .500 lift. A Panchito head will outflow an "as cast" 043 at every lift from .100 to .600, often by a factor of 2x, with a smaller intake runner. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, these heads are the best thing to hit the VW market in at least 20 years (maybe ever). Pat Downs deserves a place of prominence in the VW pantheon, and should be knighted or something.
There is zero downside to Panchitos. Zero.
Also, regarding the heads Mike's got: regardless of what the ad says they are, I'm almost 100% sure they aren't Mofoco 042s. The Mofoco castings have always been domestic (Manitowoc, WI), and the heads in Mike's first picture were Mexican castings. I'd bet a donut they are 043s.
@Michael Pickett: perhaps the best place I can direct you to compare heads, both OE VW and everything readily available on the aftermarket would be this page on TheSamba. A guy with the handle of "AlteWagen" has done a lot of work to keep it up to date.
The thumbnail is:
- OE Mexican or Brazilian VW dual-port heads are 040, 041, or 043 castings
- Mofoco heads are 042
- CB calls all of their street heads 044s, but they have 2 different castings: 044 Pancitos and everything else.
- RevMaster castings are 049s.
- AA Performance has a couple of castings from China: 500s and 501s.
Tims, DRD, Headflow Masters, and everybody else take one of these raw castings and ports to their own specs and desires. CB and Mofoco have in-house CNC porting that creates different classes of heads on these same castings for different applications.
CB also makes a giant head (Comp Eliminators), as do AutoCraft and Pauter (I believe), but these heads are strictly for high-end 1/4 mile drag motors, as the port volume is enormous. There are a couple of guys in Northern Europe carving very interesting heads from chunks of solid billet, but as you would suspect- they cost many thousands of dollars.
The power is in the heads. It always has been, and always will be. An investment in heads when the engine is torn down will pay dividends down the road when a guy wants to upgrade, because (if chosen correctly) the right heads will fit the application now and when there is more potential (bigger carbs and a better exhaust).