I have always been partial to the Wbody FWD cars, and I thought I read somewherethat the VANS had a better head on it because the van was so heavy. They put like a 'vortec' head on it to make it look better against the honda's and toyota engines. Thats why the van motors were rated at quite a bit more HP then the impalas, grand ams, cutlass' etc...... I cant find anything on it now. Does anyone know?

Ok I know I'm sort of resurecting this from the dead, but I weighed a bare '97 3100 head and a bare pre-'87 (small valve) iron head last night to find out just how much difference there is and thought this would be as good a place as any to post it. Anyhoo, the iron head tipped the scale at 25.0lbs while the aluminum 3100 was only 12.6lbs. That would be a weight savings of just under 25lbs (or cutting the weight in half) just by changing the cylinder heads, not bad.

This weekend I'm going to dig out both sets of intakes and see what if any weight loss there will be between them. I'm curious how much the total weight change of the swap will be.

Edit: forgot to mention the iron one had already been ported etc. so in stock form it would be slightly heavier, the 3100 is stock.

I weighed the top ends a long time ago for comparison, IIRC the irons came in at 84lbs and the aluminum was 45lbs.

I got all excited reading this thread, especially the part about a possible workaround allowing use of the distributor, and then I realized how old it is.

I spotted a 3100 at the junkyard yesterday though. I'm tempted to get it and start doing a fab-up on my old 2.8 block.