HEAD-2-HEAD part:2 Robert Pond Motorsports stage 1&2

This head manufacture needs very little introduction for most FE guys, his name is Robert Pond. NHRA racer , manufacture , engine builder and all around FE guy. Robert offers many parts for FE's from blocks to SOHC heads, but when he saw a need for a well designed FE head he delivered in style . Based off the  Ford SK-35369 and it still carries that part number in this incarnation . Robert approached this head with performance in mind , with increased  thickness  in the deck and rocker mounting pads it addresses some of the weaker areas .  Craft Performance is the machine shop responsible for the porting and on these heads the final machine work.  The heads tested were with 2.25/1.73  valves  providing plenty of area for air flow. Below is the flow results of the standard and stage 2 for you to review . As reported to us by Lance at Craft Performance the Pond head has such a great exhaust port that on the stage 1 & 2 it required no additional work to keep pace with a modified intake port. With the flow numbers we saw it supports this claim, it is some of the best out of the box flow exhaust numbers we have seen.

             intake stage 1                                      exhaust                                        intake stage 2
          lift              cfm                                lift               cfm                               lift                cfm
        .200             162                               .200               109                             .200                157
        .300             233                               .300               158                             .300                230
        .400             284                               .400               204                             .400                286
        .500             297                               .500               238                             .500                319
        .600             298                               .600               251                             .600                341
        .700             302                               .700               260                             .700                350


Many thanks to RPM and Craft Performance for the loan of these heads . For those of us that came up in the "Tween" years of no factory production and no aftermarket to speak of, to see numbers like these rival the best factory High Risers and Tunnel Ports though the best of the factory exhaust could not compare . The CNC port job that Craft performance applies to these heads in just the Stage 2 addition is an increase of over 15% shows the potential of these heads plus the expertise of Craft Performance at extracting the best from an FE combination.  look for a test on their Stage t3 heads coming soon. Next installment will be testing the Promaxx Stage 1 &2 heads stay tuned!! As before all testing is done at Cleveland Performance Center by Dan Rawls , great shop and many thanks for their help.

combustion chamber shows off healthy valve and throat size

on the left is the stage 2 port comparing it to the right one
you can see the extent of the cnc work






                                                                              

a shot of the impressive exhaust port