After a month of research and tons of input from you guys, I decided vortecs were the way to go.

I scored a set of complete heads, valve covers, pushrods and all the associated bolts and hardware for 175 bucks. They are 906 heads. Ive read all the shimsham about the seats and that these are the less desirable heads but Ive read just as much saying there is negligible difference....

Anyways, the owner seemed on the level with me. Heads came out of a pickup with 58,000 miles on it. The Intake manifold water jacket port leaked coolant into the engine and she spun a bearing. The guy put in a new engine and parted the old one out. The heads are IMMACULATE, he took the time to clean all the gasket surfaces and they look perfect.

Im sure Im gonna be posting all sorts of questions about them.....thanks in advance!

 

scott scott scott..

those are most deffinatly not nascar heads. come on man. haha. But congrats on the find. possible to take the car to a dyno before and after the swap? for concrete proof of power gained or lost?

 

before you install them, have them checked to make sure they are square. if they arent, have them machined. costs a little bit, not too much, but it will also increase your compression ratio a small amount

 

Yeah, it would be silly to put them on without having a shop giving them a 'once over'. Ive been reading up a bit and seen some discussion about different thickness head gaskets. Do I need to really worry about this or is it really just a racing thing? I dont know if my block was ever decked.

 

From what I see the goal is to have a piston to head clearance of .040 to .045. Stock deck hight is supposed to be 9.025 if the block is 0 decked the deck height is 9.0. It doesnt necessary mean the piston height will be at .025 below the deck height in an undecked block because some pistons are designed to sit lower in the bore this is true with some replacement pistons. Long story short is you need to measure once the head is off a machine shop will have the proper tools to do this, I used a dial indicator to determine TDC and then put a machineist straight edge and feeler guages to measure the engine we currently run. I realized I could not achieve the .045 head to piston clearance even with a .015 coated steel shim gasket so the having the machine shop measure was a waste of money. I think we ended up with a .055 clearance. I believe the closer you can get to the .045 clearance the better but I also dont believe the cost of decking the block is worth the potential gain from the .010 reduced clearance.

 

Decking the block is not an option. I dont even know if Im gonna pull the engine out to do the head swap. My biggest concern is to make sure the heads are ok (Im sure they are but for peace of mind...)

Ive got several months of cold snowy winters to figure this all out. I plan on getting the heads checked out, buying a new intake, tearing the engine down, deciding if I want a new cam or torque converter.......in that order. Ive got my work cut out for me.

 

If you decide to do the head and cam swap torque converter it would be easyer to pull the engine. My machineist told me the vortecs really dont have the guide wearout problems of the older heads. I believe the vortecs already have a three angle valve job factory, They dont seem to respond a whole lot to increased valve size or porting of the intake side cleaning up the exhaust side does seem to help though. I am sure you are aware of the lift restriction of the heads you can do a getto mod of grinding down the retainers to get more clearance(I ported the exhaust and ground down the retainers) The valve spings are a little weak stock I upgraded to some old high performance 350 style springs and took out the dampers to get them to fit. I have run several cams in the engine the one in it now is only around a .450 lift the difference wasnt alot when compaired to the .470 lift cam I think there is a little more overlap with the .450 cam. I just bolted them on without having them checked. I had bought a 350 with a busted crank snout for $75 I put a cast crank we had and we hand honed it out put in a set of cheap rings new bearings and new oil pump so I didnt have a whole lot invested it.

 

Griff, you seem to know your shiznizzle. PM inbound......