I have a set of heads from my 85 camaro tpi. I was thinking about using them will they work good on a 350 or 383?? maybe 350 horse. Any info will be appreciated!!!

 

If you port and polish them, cut them for 1.94/1.6 valves, screw in studs, seats cut for bigger springs. just then they might support 350hp on a 350, give you high compression to so you would need dished pistons to keep it on pump gas.

there is no way the heads would support a "health" 383.

 

Would it be cheaper going with a set of vortecs???

 

Dont pass on bad info. YOu wont need dished pistons. By the time you get the valves changes, and deshroud them, and work the chambers, your compression will be fine. Also, they can support more than 350. I have seen engines dyno with 416's and make 375.

 

Vortecs will need the spring & guide work to support more lift.

You don't "need" 1.60 exhaust valves. But, if you can get a decent price for cutting the seats while the intakes are being cut, it would probably help.

Standard diameter springs are available that will support 375 horse cams in a 350 package. But, the same tool will cut the guides and spring seats at the same time, so it's not a bad idea to go with larger diameter springs.

Do the heads first, determine the chambers' CCs. Then decide on pistons, head gasket, deck height, etc., to get the final CR.

 

Check and verify the head casting numbers before you start spending $$$$ TPI heads are "081" castings.
HO heads are "416's" avoid TBI heads 191 or 193 castings.

 

I took the leap that '85 heads would be 416's. That is true - the only question is whether or not the heads on the engine in this '85 TPI car are indeed '85 heads. Therefore, check the casting #'s.

Most likely, they're 416's, since that's all they used with the old standard bolt pattern. But, weird things do happen, and they (or one) could actually be 1.72" intake wonders.

Back in 2000 I picked up an '87 LB9 engine complete. Had the later angle intake bolts. Was supposed to be an untouched engine. Turns out it was .040" over with dished pistons and had one 081 head and one 191 head. And the block was cracked, anyway. It was supposed to be the base of my mods (including a ZZ3 cam), in the end I wound up using exactly one centerbolt cover bolt on each side from all those LB9 parts. Everything else, I either used the LG4 parts, or aftermarket.

So, check what you have carefully before you make plans for what you've got...

 

Do you guys know anything about the 325 heads???

 

Never heard of them, personally. Is that the ending of a casting number, or what?

What are they supposed to be?

 

The casting number is 3998993. Hecho in mexico. 325 castings. They are on the motor in my 81 trying to figure out the valve sizes and runner volume.

 

Still not familiar with the "325 castings" part. Guess I'm a little slow.

But, 993's are 75cc chambers, and from what I understand, have from 1.72" to 1.94" intake valves. Very poor flowing ports with little room for improvement.

 

My brother has a set of 993's on his truck engine. They really arent bad, for a truck engine like his. For something resembling a performance engine, they are horrid. When you look at the runners, etc. you will see there is virtually no room at all for porting, which is hard to believe considering how bad they flow. But, what you gonna do? If it were me, I would get me a set of 416's 601's or something of similar ilk, home port them, and have the machine work done to swap over all the parts from the 993s.

 

So let me get this straight. The heads that are on there now are the 993 castings. I am better off taking the heads from my 85 camaro cleaning them up and throwing them on that motor than keeping the 993's???

 

Probably.

If...

By "cleaning them up", you mean a good port & bowl clean-up. And you put 1.94" intake (and possibly 1.60" exhaust) valves in them. And you unshroud the valves/chambers. And you upgrade the valve springs. And you verify proper guide/seal to retainer clearance. And the 350 has dished pistons.

But, if the 350 has a lame cam, restrictive exhaust, restrictive intake/air cleaner, etc., etc., etc., it may not make much difference.

 

Well it has an rpm intake with a 600 cfm edelbrock, hooker headers flowmaster duals. Not sure of cam I was told it was by lunati. It does has a lumpy idle and it starts pulling at about 2500 to 6000rpm. I was also told that it has 9:5 compression but the heads are 76cc Not sure of pistons. I do know that it doesn't ping at all no matter what gas I use. It does still pull 14.0 with a 4000 pound car. Can the 416's go 2.02 and 1.6???

 

If you want the bigger valves, you're better off using heads that were intended to have them.