Which of THESE TWO heads will work better with my set up? These heads are in my price range so that's why I'm looking at them. It's not worth mentioning other heads, especially if they cost more!

I'm going to build a 350 for my 78 Camaro. The car is going to have TH350 tranny, I want to go with a stock or at the most a 2000 RPM converter, 3.42 gears. I already have 1 5/8" full length headers and a Flowmaster 2 1/2" full length dual exhaust system. Tires are going to be about 25 inches tall.

I want to keep my compression close to 9.0:1. I'm going to use a hydraulic flat tappet cam. Something close to GM Performance Part 350 HO cam. It has 212/222 dur. @ 0.050", around 450/460" lift. I'm thinking of using an Edelbrock Performer EPS intake with a 650 vac. sec. carb.

I'm going to drive this car a lot. All out performance it's my goal here. My goal is 325/350 HP with good torque 375 ft. lbs. or so. I'm on an EXTREME BUDGET!

I haven't bought any parts yet so I can go with either set up.

 

2123 seem to be the better.

 

....It depends!
Do you have flat top or dished pistons? If you have flat tops, the 67 cc heads are going to give you a rather high compression ratio, plus they're Vortec heads so you'll need to use a Vortec specific intake manifold.

 

I'm going to rebuild the whole engine. I'm going to have the block bored & torque plate honed, decked and have the mains aligh honed. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to buy a balanced rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons, rings and bearings). I found a few that use Eagle products. The one's I've been looking at start at $550.

As mentioned above, I haven't bought any parts yet. I want to pick the heads I'm going to use first so I can start buying the rest of the parts I'm going to need.

Edelbrock makes their Performer EPS intake for the Vortec heads too, so I'll be ok there. I've heard a lot of really nice things about Vortec heads.

 

Look into Patriot Performance vortec heads. They're about $630 a pair, assembled with stainless valves and .575 lift springs. You can also used a Gen I SBC intake with them, as well as perimeter bolt valve covers.

 

The one problem with doing that, is the runners don't like up vertically between the heads and manifold = restriction.

 

Yes, I looked at the Patriot Vortec heads too. They have larger 185cc intake runners (instead of 170cc). I figured they would be better for higher RPM and/or larger cubic inch, 383 and up small blocks.

I'm going to use the correct intake for the heads I use. If I use a Vortec head, I'm going to use a Vortec style intake.

 

You can make up for this by port matching the intake.

Actually worked vortecs are perfect for a mild 350, the intake runners are on the small side for a 383 however they will still work well.

 

What you're referring to is compared to compensating for getting off an elevator that's stuck between floors. The Vortec heads are a raised runner style, by a little under 1/4" difference compared to the Gen1 style. "Port matching" is for fine tuning ports that already match up (with a slight plus/minus fitment). Trying to compensate for a gen1/Vortec mismatch doesn't change the fact that the top shelf of the intake runner is a lot lower than the head, and in the end the runner height transition is reduced. Will it work? Yes. Is it the best for performance? No. It would require a lot of work to make the fit close. Not to mention not having a lot of gasket surface left on the manifold once the grinding off the top is done.

 

I'm not saying that it's as good as a vortec style intake, just that you can get it pretty close