hey all !! new Q. i am getting the hot cam. i have a set of corvette heads i am porting. i had these cut .003" to clean up the mating surfaces. do i neen to machine the heads to acomidate larger valve springs? do i need the short valve seals? or can i just go with the stock stuff? oh, i'm going to run 1.6:1 rr's so the lift will be .525/.525

What valves will you be running? If the hollow LT4 valves, you can run GM LT4 springs which are regular 1.2xx OD to my recollection. Nothing special on the seals back when I had my Vette heads, plenty of room for 0.525" lift.

With heavier solid valves you'll probably want something stiffer, I went with 1.46x" part# 987 springs from Comp Cams. I rev the snot out of mine on the track, so I went with Ti retainers and the lightest cheap valves I could find...Manley Race-Flo valves.

Next time around it'll be a solid roller cam and major spring upgrade again.

just the stock valves. so i can just use all the stock vette stuff with the hot cam? that would be great. i'm almost ready for the swap. i still need hardened pushrods and guide plates. should i use 5/16 or 3/8 pushrods?

any suggestions for porting these heads?

i remember a very good porting article on the aluminum l98 heads that was on a crossfire corvette board, don't know why it was there but it was very in deepth and showed a lot of bowl work which is were us amatures will run into trouble. This might be the site. To view the site you have to be logged in now: http://www.crossfire.homeip.net maybe a member from the site will know the tech article i'm talking about.

Not sure on the valvesprings or valves, they may not be the LT4 pieces on there. If the valves are non-LT4 they're heavier, so you'd need more spring. If the springs are non-LT4 they may not be designed for 0.525" lift.

As for pushrods, I'd go with standard SBC diameter (11/32"?) and be done w/ it.

Guideplates are up to you, if you run self-aligning rockers there are not guideplates involved. I bought my HOT cam as part of the kit, came w/ LT4 springs, retainers, locks, and self-align rockers.