Hey, I've got a 350 that I'm dropin' in my 89 trans am... the person who built it said it has vortec heads... the other day I was looking at this site http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/howto/97458/
....and there's a picture of the front of the heads and it has a little sea-saw pattern in it and says that's the easiest way to identify them.... well... mine don't have that mine are completely smooth... so now I'm trying to figure out what the hell they are ...when i take the valve covers off it says "Pro S-RT" and one of them says "C4" and the other says "C8" .... and here's some #'s I got off the front of the heads

53270 5 01
2237694167T

Thanks for the help

 

Those are ProTopline Torker replacement heads. They are not Vortecs or vortec copies. But they are very good replacement heads. Feel very lucky, they are better then stock.

http://www.protopline.com/2237694167t.htm

 

so, are they better or about the same as vortec heads or what? .... I'm going to put my TPI from my 305 on this engine.... I was thinkin' I was going to need a new TPI baseplate..... i take it I won't need one now....? can i use the stock one?

thanks

 

Those heads have the standard intake pattern.

The only mod you'll need to do is to the center two bolt holes on each side. Yours are at 72 degrees, the heads are at 90 degrees like the rest of the bolts.

 

They probably do not flow as well as vortec, but define good.

 

I would be pissed that you didn't get what you asked for. I swear "vortec motor" is the replacement for "corvette motor" nowadays. It used to be that everyone had a "corvette motor", now it seems everyone has a "vortec motor" with too many intake bolts and perimeter valve covers .

 

If the person lied about something so easily recognizable like vortec heads, who knows what else he lied to you about. And if he thought they were vortec heads would that be the kinda guy you'd want to build a motor? I dont think so.

 

Hey I like your setup what kind of times have you run with the setup?

 

in 3 weeks we'll find out. My cars been sitting on jackstands for 5 months without a transmission. Should be back together in a few weeks ...hopefully

 

Nice. PM me when you run it, I am interested to know how it does!

 

well, I had this engine built for a 76 gmc truck about 3 years ago... the truck was totaled parked in front of my house after I put about 5000 miles on it...I pulled it and, it's been sittin' around waitin' for a car.... I'm positive they guy can build engines... he's been doing it for 40 years.... and I didn't ask for vortec heads... I just asked him to build me a powerful engine and told him my budget.... (he was a friend of my dad's so I didn't really see a problem with that)..... at the time I was 18 and didn't know a piston from a spark plug... well... I wasn't that bad... but you get the point.... so either he lied to me for what would seem to be no reason... cuz I really didn't know why vortec heads were supposed to be good..... or what I'm hoping is that I was just confused about what he said because the site with the specs on my heads says "Chamber Style ---- Vortec 'D' Chamber".... so yeah... I'll stop rambling.....

 

He probably didn't lie, you probably heard something wrong or he was talking about something, else or was mistaken. He wouldn't use those heads if he was trying to scam you.

 

you prolly still have the vortec heads check the casting number on them im willing to bet its 906 which were the stock ones that came in trucks , but if you have the ones ending in 062 , those are good heads the only differnce between them both is 906 have harderned seats so you can NOT port them ,and they dont flow as well as the 062 (which can be ported) i think its something like 15-30% less flow or something theres alot of information out there if you google it

 

Glad to see that bizarre myth is still running around, even after the one magazine article that had that mistake in it printed a retraction in a later issue.... Hard to believe that anyone could put such a stupid thing in print in the first place, after we've had unleaded gas exclusively for all these years, which requires hardened seats....

Just goes to show, you can print ANYTHING in a magazine, and people will believe it. Maybe it was deliberate, actually a test to identify gullible people.

 

Since he already posted the casting #'s, and they confirm the Pro Topline heads of non-Vortec style ports (but with Vortec-style chambers), there shouldn't be any question left as to whether they are Vortecs.

BTW, the Pro Topline info does say 'Vortec "D" Style' for the chambers. So, the builder wasn't totally off-base.

Just curious, what about hardened seats keeps the heads from being port-able?

 

Well, in the grand scheme of things, it keeps anyone that probably shouldn't be porting from actually trying it...if you don't know enough to recognize that porting doesn't touch the valve seats, you probably shouldn't be in there.

 

906's have stellite exhaust seats. They do supposedly hurt flow very slightly in the .050-.100 lift range, but after that they're pretty even. Its a difference in flow that you'd never notice.