ChrisFormula355

My girlfriends camaro has a fairly recent 305 crate motor in it with centerbolt valve covers, a 262 comp cam extreme energy, stock valvetrain, stock rockers, RPM edle. intake, and edlebrock 600 carb..........with 3.42 gears and a TH350 the car went a best of 98 MPH at SIR. I think that there is much more power to be had in this 305 so I have two options before swapping in the 350.................First, I have a set of 1985 Trans Am cylinder heads (305 heads) that are total garbage sitting in the desert at my parents house that would need a rebuild.......then I could port the snot out of them, or Second.......I have the crate motor's 305 heads currently on the motor which I assume are in excellent on condition and in no need of a rebuild, which would save major $$$$....I could just port them and stick em back on, but bad thing is car would have to sit and I would have to chauffer my GF around for a few days (doh!). Which heads should I use for the most HP? I know that some centerbolt late model non-TPI/non-L69 305 heads are of the garbage swirl port TBI variety. My old 350 in my firebird had heads like this and they absolutely SUCKED for power. Does anybody know which casting # 305 heads have regular ports and which have the swirl port crap???? Also.....I want to re-install the 305 heads (whichever ones I end up choosing) with thinner head gaskets in hopes of higher compression...............would it be OK to use a 350 .015 compressed steel shim gasket on a 305? I know its ok when you do it with a 350 with 305 heads but I"m not sure about 305 heads on 305. Thanx


EDIT: and if you're wondering why I would want to do so much work on a car that isn't even mine, when we go cruising in her car I drive it, and tonight we got spanked by my buddies 97 Cobra, but only be a car length at 90mph, and I'm SURE I could make this 305 faster than his car, and it would be funny if the slowest of our 3 cars still romps on his Cobra

Chris

1986redbird

I don't know about which heads would be better but you can find a little info. at moretek.com they have all the casting numbers and discriptions on that site.

F-BIRD'88

1986-88 14102191 350 1.94 1.5001 - EFI, swirl port
1986-88 14102193 350 1.94 1.5001 - EFI
1986-91 10110810 305 1.84 1.5001 - EFI,swirl port, stat wgn
1986-91 14101081 305 1.84 1.5001 - EFI, std port
1988-93 14102188 350 1.94 1.5001 - EFI, swirl port
1986-91 14102187 305 1.84 1.5001 - EFI, swirl port

iroc22

187 is the most common casting #.

The 85 T/A heads should be the 416 casting and are the best 305 heads for performance from the factory.

Joshua Leslie

I thought the swirl ports were good!

my buddy sold a set of em for 300 bucks to his younger brothers friend!

iroc22

If you're going to do a lot of towing and match them to a nice low end RV cam, then yes they're a good head.

But are any of us using our cars for towing? Not likely. (except maybe towing an extra set of tires to the track, and you don't need massive torque to tow 4 tires and rims). They're truck heads, and should stay with the trucks.

ChrisFormula355

Pulled the valve cover off............they are 187 casting # heads. Doh! We decided that we're going to go with either SR torquer 305's or Vortecs milled since the 416 heads I have at my parents house are in need of a total rebuild, might as well by aftermarket heads! Anybody know of a cheap place to buy vortecs?

Joshua Leslie

check EBAY, sometimes there are awesome deals.