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My 350 currently has a Performer RPM intake and the old smogger (original) cylinder heads. This winter I'm looking at swapping out the cylinder heads for something that breaths (a lot) better. I was thinking of going with Edelbrock Performer Cylinder heads, but a friend in the local GM club is insisting that I can get the same if not better performance (plus $$$ savings) by switching out to Vortech heads and a Performer RPM Vortech intake. What say you guys? What do you think I'll get better performance out of?
The Performer RPM heads would give you as good as or better performance than Vortec heads for the same or less money. Vortecs are not performance heads as delivered, they need some help. Coupled with the added expense of a different intake manifold, I'd say you're better off with the Edelbrock heads. Plus, they're aluminum.
I agree with fiveseven,for the money,you can have aluminum.But shop around,just because the Edelbrocks have a big time name,IMO,there are better heads on the market for less $$$.
I would not look at just the $$$$ figure when shopping for a performance cylinder head.
If you want to go cheap, port a set of 305 heads with larger valves.
The vortecs work great. (I'm on my third set). Yes they need upgrades to get them ready for install. You can buy them from a few sourses already upgraded (machining and parts) to the level you need ready to install. Even then they are good value. Should be slightly less than aluminum heads overall.
You can even find the Vortec RPM intakes used now. If you went the vortec route, your conventional port RPM manifold is very easily sell-able, to help offset the cost of a new or used vortec intake.
The Edelbrock Performer RPM heads work very well and can really be improved with some simple hand porting before installation. All the motors I've seen that use the RPM heads ran very strong.
There is lots of potential over and above what you get "out of the box." Even after porting the small 170ish port makes for a nice snappy motor for the street.
The Edelbrock ETEC 170's are nice too.
You have lots of other good choices like Dart 200CC Pro 1's
Brodix has a new series called "IK-200" I like.
Trick flow has a good entry level aluminum head. good bang for the buck. "Kenny Duttweiler Signature Series 23 Degree Aluminum Cylinder Heads"
GM has new "Bowtie" vortec heads that have improved design and all the nessessary mods for performance. Worth a look.
In truth any of the popular aluminum or cast head that have 200cc or smaller intake ports will work very well for ya.
Reguardles of which brand of performance head you buy you want to watch for unusually cheap(er) advertized prices. Usually (but not always) it means inferior valvetrain parts and or rough machining.
Some of the real cheap stuff is actually "seconds" that were deemed for recycling and sold off.
Watch the ebay stuff.
