I know my car seriously lacks exhaust and intake (as well as cam) but what heads would be better than what I've got? what could I find used for less than $500?

 

You arn't going to like what you hear but here goes: Doing a head swap with stock intake and stock exhaust isn't going to help a thing. You will still have the same bottlenecks that you do now: Cam, intake, exhaust. Work on those 3 things and THEN get heads. You will be glad you did.

 

Thats what I'm in the process of doing dude! I have $500-600 for mods and I'm working on stuff like this!

btw I don't have a stock intake anymore!

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1992 Pontiac Firebird
- 305ci V8 TBI / Automatic Trans / Loaded
- MODS: Edelbrock 14x3 Open Element Air Cleaner, Dual outlet exhaust

 

I don't think you're going to get anywhere for that amount of money for a couple of reasons:
1) The factory didn't make good 305 heads, certainly not with the '87-later intake bolt pattern.
2) '87-later heads were often swirl port, not good flowing heads.

If you can find somebody selling used World Products 305 S/R Torquer heads for '87-later, you may be in business. If intake pattern isn't a problem, then L69 or LB9 heads could be ported and 1.94 intake valves installed for about that much money. Assuming you don't have any of these: $50 for a set of used heads; $45 for Standard Abrasives deluxe porting kit (includes instructions); $30 for high speed die grinder; $300 for air compressor to run the die grinder. That leaves you $175 for the valve job - that's pushing it, but you may find someone to do it for that if the guides are okay and they have some good used 1.94 valves sitting around.

You still need gaskets. And exhaust. And you still have press-in rocker studs. And you haven't improved the cam (rollers are more expensive than flat tappet).

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R4. 2.93 limited slip. Cat-back from '91 GTA, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 w/'87 LB9 block, ZZ3 cam and intake, World 305 heads, Hooker headers & y-pipe, 3" Catco cat & 3" cat-back).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. '66 396, 9.7 CR forged TRWs, Weiand Action+, Edelbrock 1901 Q-Jet, GK 270 cam, Magnum rockers, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" Hedders & 3" Warlocks, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & Trans-Scat shift kit, MegaShifter, 3.08 8.2" 10-bolt w/Powertrax, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Idles smooth @ 600 RPM in D. Best 15.02/95.06 @ 5800' Bandimere (corrected 13.93/102.4 @ sea level).

 

I dont think i CAN do a cam swap because I sure as hell aint gonna tear out my engine to do the damn thing. Ive got NO training/education with that sort of thing. And I dont have the extra cash for labor for a shop to do it.

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1992 Pontiac Firebird
- 305ci V8 TBI / Automatic Trans / Loaded
- MODS: Edelbrock 14x3 Open Element Air Cleaner, Dual outlet exhaust

 

If all your spending now is $500, then get 3.42 or 3.73 gears.. Have them professionally installed. Those will help you now and you will see a big improvement, moreso than getting heads done...

An open element filter will help your intake airflow, however it's not going to help you enough that you won't need a higher flowing intake manifold.. Theres a reason why the redline on these cars is at 4500 rpm, to change that you have to upgrade about 4 things: ignition, intake, exhaust, valvetrain. Why mess with the heads if you can only get the same amount of fuel/air in and out. $500 is really not enough to fix all of the problems, so go for the biggest area you can fix with that money which is the pathetic 2.73 gears they put in from the factory.

 

I do not know how to shop for heads very well, so someone please recommend some for me. And how much time in labor would a cam swap cost?

 

Some good heads are l30 vortec heads, s/r torquer heads, l98 vette heads, lt1 heads... The l98 and lt1 heads may need to be milled in order to compensate for their larger size to keep compression about the same..

I was quoted by the same shop doing my gears as $500 for a cam swap, and thats only if I supply everything. They said it's much more cost effective to do the heads, intake, and cam all at the same time because pretty much all of everything has to be taken off for them to do a cam swap. 500 is not even considering you'll need new valve springs, lifters, gaskets, timing chain, and 2 oil filters and 10 qt's of oil.. If you don't think that you can do a cam swap then I wouldn't recommend working on the heads either. Head gaskets are no fun and especially when they go out. Plus it would really suck if a head bolt broke off in the block..

 

Why are you recommending the LT1 heads? You can't run those unless you have the LT1 block, reverse flow water pump, and intake designed for the reverse flow of the coolant. There isn't much that can be swapped from an LT1 and a pre-LT1 engine, except rods, slugs, valve springs, cam, etc. Those are Gen. II motors and everything has to be swapped at once due to that good old reverse flow cooling.... Nothing that has coolant flowing through it, can be interchanged.

Don't get me wrong, the LT1 design was great, but just not very compatible with the Gen. I. Das all.

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92 RS w/t-tops 305 TBI Auto.
170K miles and don't burn a drop o'oil
-K&N Truck filter #1500 w, open ele.
air cleaner
-Dynomax 2 1/2" cat-back
-B&M TransPak
-Jet Stage2 Chip
-180* T-Stat w/ 185* Fan Switch
-JVC CD--Alpine speakers & 4ch. amp
Rockford 2ch. to 2 MTX 12" subs

[This message has been edited by AJ_92RS (edited July 06, 2001).]

 

Yeah, you are right, for some reason I was thinking lt1 cam wouldn't work, but lt1 heads would. Thanks for the correction.