a friend from work is gonna sell me a set of 882 heads cheap. need to be rebuilt but lucky me ive got 2 WORLD CLASS machine shops around here ( stagmeyers and rons porting service if any of you know of them) and within a stones throw of my home. Id take the heads to them to work some porting and polishing and make the valves bigger if i bought the heads. my question is am i just wasting money? or could i get a set of aftermarkets cheaper and have them flow just as well?

 

It depends on what they are going to charge you. Im planning on getting the Jegs brand heads when I go over my engine again. I think they're like $550 a piece and look REALLY nice.

 

probably 50 bucks for the set. thats why im thinking about it so much. if it were more i wouldnt even consider it

 

Well I meant if you are going to have the machine work done, its gonna be close to the price of a nice set of heads. If you're on a budget (yeah yeah, I know you ARE on a budget), a set of small valve cast iron vortech heads may be right for you as they are only about $550 a pair assembled. Only thing is, I can't remember. Were you swapping to TPI or staying TBI or going carb or what? If you're going TPI, you cannot use the vortech heads. If you go carb or TBI, you can get a vortec intake to match.

Jegs heads: http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS/750801/10002/-1

Vortecs: http://www.jegs.com/p/GM+Performance/749896/10002/-1

 

im going tuned port. ive even found a TPI lower manifold to fit a vortec head. forget wear but i saw it. but i dont wanna go vortec. i am on a budget but i dont want to buy parts that i wont be happy with. if it takes longer to get the car back up and running but its how i want it, then fine thats what will happen.

ive even found out that i can put an LS series engine in my car so im tossing that idea around a bit too. i was thinin the lq9 iron block ( stonger) and a super charger. But thats WAAAAAY more money that i dont really have, so maybe something like that will go into another toy some years down the road.

 

How much is it going to cost you to have those heads ported, polished, and larger valves/seats installed? From what I understand, a Vortec head will still flow better than those heads, no matter what you do to hop them up.

 

i havent priced it yet. just got word of it all last night. you think those vortecs will still flow better than a worked set of 882's will?

 

A good head porter can do great things with almost any head but what he cant change is the chamber design of the 882 head, The 882 is an open chamber smog head 72 to 76 cc in size whereas the vortec is a 64 cc chamber of much better design. In my opinion $50 is to much for a used set of 882s.

 

I think the Vortec heads have larger runners than the 882 too, if I'm not mistaken. Popular opinion is that the Vortecs are one of the best "Chevy factory" cast iron heads made.
Going with a smaller chamber Vortec head is going to bump your compression up though. You'll want to calculate where those heads will take you. But you can compensate with different thickness head gaskets if the initial c.r. is too high for your liking.

 

Don't bother with the 882s, go for some vortecs. Even if you are getting TPI, you actually CAN buy a baseplate for vortec heads, thought it's going to put you in the hole a bit. http://www.jegs.com/p/Edelbrock/749252/10002/-1 what I would do is find some performance heads off of another Camaro and have them ported, that's your best bet if you want them to compete with the vortecs... but, if you're budget is really low, then ported 882s will still be better than plain castings. All depends on what you want and how much you can spend on it.