I was thinking about boosting the performance of my sbc that i have in my pickup..the motor currently specs out as a 350 thats bored .60 over, with stock 4-valve relief pistons, the cam is a lunati with .480 lift and has 292 duration, we also installed a edelbrock dual plane intake with a holley 670 street avenger...what would be a good set of heads for this engine..thanks TJ
dart2 II sportsmans check northern auto j.r motorsports competition products is also pretty reasonable on em id use the 64cc .man-a-fre
Both suggestions of the Vortec GM heads and the Dart cylinder heads are excellant. A bigger issue in lack performance can be uncovered with the proper advance curve in the distributer and total timing. The overall weight of the truck may to a bit heavy for that camshaft grind too. Glenn
Whatever head you pick, it NEEDS to have small chambers, you would really appreciate some more compression to go with that cam.....that's kinda a shitload of cam for a stockish motor, especially in a heavy vehicle. I tend to lean toward factory heads, in your case a set of ported 461s or 462s would be more than adequate. They can actually be found at a pretty good value on Egay usually, many already ported, and with fresh valve work.
id stick with the vortecs if you dont mind the center bolt, its seems to me that aftermarket stuff SUCKS, always trouble, geometry, clearances etc etc,, gm has put gobbs of money into theirs and tested it and tested it over and over, and have been proven good as they came on production vehicles, it jsut seems that everytime ive worked on a motor with some after market brand head its trouble, my girlfriends el camino has world head on it, they suck, my el camino had trick flow aluminum heads on it, i scrapped em cause they were trouble and stucka set of vortecs on em, perfect! plus tons of power. jsut my opinion JEFF
The Sportsman II's are an outdated design and would need a little port work to get close to a more modern runner flow. The Vortec's are great stock heads, and they can really wake up an engine for a little $$, but be aware that they'll have to have the springs upgraded and the guides cut for PC seals to clear that cam - they can only take like .450 lift stock. if you've got to do all that work and have to do a valve job and replace valves then the cost difference between them and aftermarket heads close real quickly. Personally I'd look for a 62-64cc chamber 180cc runner head, aluminum is great for weight savings, if you go iron - the dart iron eagle platinum series is a great out of the box head... ProToplines are good heads but hard to find - I think RHS took over the job of importing them and are calling them something different.
ALL OF THE ABOVE IS GREAT ADVICE. Having said that, I'm using DART Iron Eagles with the 64cc chamber, straight plugs, 200cc intake runners as cast. My 350 is 030 over with flattop hypereutectics, Comp Cams XE274H (I230@050, E236@050, .487 and .490 lift), Performer RPM manifold, and I alternate between between my Holley and my Edelbrock carbs depending on which one I'm pissed off with. I think the Iron Eagles are GREAT but then we all have our opinions. I did buy these just before the Vortech heads were released for aftermarket use so I might have looked at them. The Stude this engine is in has a shipping weight of 3200 lbs (I have no idea what it weighs as is, need to get a circle tracking buddy to scale it sometime). Good luck with your project!
squirrel...and for those that dont kno i am only 16 years old..and while i do have a good paying job and some money to burn, those heads are EXTREMLY hard to find where i live. All the old timers that ive asked all told me that if i could find a pair i was a blessed kid. I was thinking of buying a pair of aftermarket heads already assembled if i could.
Not that hard to find if you know where to look, but I wouldn't waste your time on them - they're 35+ year old designs and to get them near the flow numbers tehy'll take a $700 port job, $200 worth of undercut valves, $100 in springs, add retainers, locks, surfacing, screw in studs, and you get the point... They're only valuable to the racer's or restorers that want either a factory head (racer) or a restorer that wants a "double hump" head. Stock for stock the vortec blows it away in flow for a whole lot less and they can be had new from a dealer for around $500 / pr.
yup, you're right! at least you would be on a different forum..... The next small block I'm building is gonna have either the double hump heads (if it's over 300 cubes) or the X stagger bolt power pack heads if it's smaller. I have a pair of each. Porting is free, I can make a substantial improvement, not optimum, with a day's work. Having a buddy with a machine shop keeps valve job/guide labor cost down too.
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