Im just glad i dont have to use shims, i really didnt want to and now i can tell him to keep em. Its time to drill some steam holes and bolt this thing together.

And they did.
AhhHAH! I thought so.
Curve the max advance to be in about 4000 rpm and watch the HP numbers around 5500. It'll be an eye opener.
~chanting~ build it, build it, build it.

It has the potential.
The only limiting factor at this point is the Vortecs. From what I've seen they can supply enough air to support about 450hp. However there are a lot of details before the heads become the limiting factor.

'Maroman:
Did you ever get around to CC'ing the combustion chambers in the heads?
What do they actually measure?
It's not hard, or expensive, or time consuming. My previous post has details for the method.
"enquiring minds want to know"

The heads have been in the machine shop since january 9th, im getting them early next week. I havent even seen them in awhile so no i havent ccd them, im going to drill the steam holes as soon as i get them. The guy at them machine shop might of though because thats the main reason i dropped them off, for him to enlarge the cc. He didnt have enough material to do so, which might be a good thing since my cam is helping with the compression situation.

The one thing id like to uprgrade but cant afford to right now is the intake. When i built my 355 i went with torque so i got the edelbrock performer intake for the vortec heads. Now i wish i had got the performer rpm because this 400 is gonna have enough torque the way it is i dont need the regular performer, but intakes for the vortec heads are like 200 bucks so ill have to run performer for now which will limit some horsepower and give me even more traction limiting torque.

I just picked my heads up and the crack repair was in the very middle, on the intake side, so would it be better to put it on the pass side between 4and6, or driv side between 3and5 thanks.

http://www.competitionproducts.com/p...p?number=52028
I'd sell off the cracked/repaired heads and get new ones.

He assured me the heads were good to go, that i wouldnt have any problems out of them, i actually ran a set of them on a 350 that had a crack repair and i didnt have any problems, will a have problems with these? And are the profession products intakes as good as the edelbrock as far as performance, i dont care about looks but performance. Because ive found alot of them on ebay, i just didnt know if they were a cheap knock off or actually good quality. thanks.

3 & 5 just happen to be the hottest cylinders so if you are going to use them, bolt them on the passenger side...

this is the head i was already running on the pass side so that works out good anyways, are 4and 6 the second hottest?

No.
Hottest=3&5 followed by #7 and then #8

Coldest=#2 followed by #1 then 4&6

EDIT: (this is the individual combustion chambers we're talking about on a 400 block motor)

I have used both the edelbrock and PP crosswind vortec manifolds.
The quality and machining on the crosswind is fine.
Some claim they actually make a little more power.

Some (but not all) of the stuff sold on E bay is scrap, seconds sub standard.
I bought mine from a retail speed shop with a reputation to protect.

Reguardless of brand, once in a while you'll get a fubared manifold.
Open the box and inspect at the counter for quality, reguardless of brand.
If you're going to buy (anything) from a ebayer be sure you can return it if its not right.

This is just general advice. My PP manifold fits and works just fine.

You could try a 1" (or 2") spacer under the carb. They tend to rock the torque curve towards higher rpm and give a little less grunt off the line. May help the top end a little too. You're 400 is going to want to breathe.
Hood clearence may become an issue though.

well, bad news. I finally fired it up with the cooling system hooked up and after about 10 minutes of run time i turned it off, it never got above 170 degrees. I went to start it back up and my starter was making an awful grinding noise. well, i jacked it up to check my starter and noticed water dripping out of the pass side header and decided to pull the two spark plugs where the crack repair was done on the head and water came out of both spark plug holes Ive been busting my *** spending every bit of money ive got getting this thing going and now ive got to pull the topend off to get another head and find out whats wrong with my starter. I guess youve got to pay to play, but damn i havent even got to play yet.

Tough luck. I hope and trust the machine shop that did the crack repair is going to make good on it and get and prep another Vortec head for you.
Another example of why I won;t use a "used" vortec head.
All the "used" ones got separated from then original engine for a reason.
I've always started with new GM 062 assembled or bare castings.
Drain your oil and "pre lube" it again to force out all the water/antifreeze from the oil galleries. Then flush that prelube oil out and refill with good oil Shell Rotella T and a Zinc anti scuff additive. "Comp or Crane Cam break in lube." GM EOS or Lucas has a high zinc engine break in lube additive.
Antifreeze makes a very crappy lubricant.
Check your starter for proper gear teeth gap. May need shimming.
Do not operate the starter without the starter end mounting brace attached.
If it's missing, go to GM or the wreckers and get one.

Which intake manifold is on it?

It shouldnt be to hard to take the topend apart, ive just got to get a head and ive damn near spent up all my budget. I didnt shim the starter or anything, i looked at it and the gear on the starter was staying out against the flexplate? i guess it needs shimed away from the flexplate alittle bit. I put just pure water in it for the first start, so all the oil could have in it is water which i dont guess is as bad as antifreeze. The intake i ended up going with was a crosswind, which is like a rpm air gap. Its got a 850 demon double pumper, longtube headers, crane 292 cam, 3200 stall th350, all kinds of good stuff, but now a blown head gasket. Im calling the machine shop tommorow to see what he says, im not getting my hopes up he will probably tell me tough luck. But on a high note, the engine sounded sweet, never got above 170(guess the steamholes did there job) oil pressure held steady a 60PSI (high pressure spring) and it would yank up to 4K every time i blipped the throttle(didnt want to go that high).
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I was also wondering, if i got another head. How would i go about getting it matched to the head a currently have, as far as Milling it to match, and the valve job. Can they measure the head thats good and match it?

"They" can do a lot of things, if they are of mind to.
If "they" won;t come good on the cracked head, find a new they.
Whats so different/unusual about your heads from stock?
Who supplied the castings? you or "they"?

You could also buy another pair of heads and sell off your remaining spare.
I guarrantee you aren't the only one with a cracked junkyard vortec head that needs a replacement.

RHS vortec 906 torker.
http://aaeq.net/Enginequest/Home
If you get another used GM OEM vortec casting make sure you or "they" pressure test it and magnaflux it for cracks.
New bare GM 062 vortec castings are not expensive.
most of the used stuff has been abused and overheated. A common problem on the stock L-31 equiped trucks (loss of coolant from stock manifold leak and lack of fleet maintanance).
Performance applications like you and me use do not have a notable history of problems when new OEM castings are used.
I realise you've almost used up all your budget, but some things are just worth doing right (the second time), even if it costs more and you have to wait.

To make your 400 run cooler, hook up the drivers side rear water port on the manifold, to the water port on the top of the water pump.
If you have a heater that is where the heater hoses go.
Your 400 will run cooler and better if you recurve the distributor to match the cam as well.
I would buy a pair of http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku
these assembled Bowtie big port Vortecs and sell off/ebay the one good head.
You'll like these on your 400.

What did you eventually end up with for a static compression ratio?

I dont know what my compression ended up being. But whatever it was, i wasnt going to be able to change it so i put it together and was prepared to use whatever fuel it wanted, which so far is 93. And im not looking to spend big bucks on vortec heads, ill go aftermarket if the price gets up there, i just already had these heads from a 350 and decided to use them but i would prefer vortec because my intake only works for vortecs or etecs, and i got a polished set of valvecovers that only work with centerbolt heads.