I have a stock 350 (as far as i know) I want to put some good heads on it. But im ont looking to spend 1200 or anything like that. Im looking to shop junk yard or maybe less than 800 new from store.
Should i be looking at summit cast heads or should i look at some junkyard vortec heads. Im not going to build a drag car i just want to get the best performance without buying $4000.00 worth in parts. I dont have a bottem less budget as it seems most of us dont, im just looking to save a little and gain from it. I know there are things i can do please help me.

 

Vortec's are good but you have to buy the specific intake for them. You could probably port your heads and get them rebuilt cheap and get some good perrformance that way depending on what heads you have on the car now. If not check out e Bay for Pro Toplines or any of the other generic aluminum heads. They're made by the same company so just find the cheapest one's and pick those up.

 

You’re sort of fighting an uphill battle… Most of the newer designs you need a matching intake for, and to keep with the older designs you need to spend some money.

Any of the fastburn (fastburn, vortech….) heads are great from a design perspective, but they also have a uneque manifold bolt pattern and the ports are located higher then the older designs, requiring a new, “vortech” or “fastburn” style intake.

Others, like the RHS heads (used to be pro topline) and a lot of the cheaper new design heads have a similar problem but to a lesser extent. They use a standard bolt pattern, but almost all the new designs have taller/narrower ports then the older SBC designs.

The other side of that is that a lot of older stock castings can be ported to work quite well, the issue ends up begin finding a set and having work done for a reasonable cost. You’ll find that machine work just to return them to stock like condition will end up costing you half of that budget + the cost of the heads + the cost of the port work.

Essentially, the point is that unless you’re going to port them yourself or stumble on a smoking deal it’s going to be difficult to get some really good heads in that price range.

What are you hoping to end up with in the long run anyway?

 

HOT ROD mag. had an article out about modifying a stock SBC bolt location intake manifold to work with the vortec heads it showed where they took a dremel and removed some of the material to make the bolts go in at the proper angle to work with the vortec heads. You might be able to find the article on their website. But then again one false cut and ooops! no sealing there anymore. LOL I think I would find a cheap intake to practice on and see then buy a nice one l8ter and do that to save money.

 

You’re not going to make a traditional intake fit a vortec head or vice versa with a dremel. The vortec has 2 bolt holes on each corner at a different angle and with specific bosses designed to work with special bolts and gasket, and none in the middle like an older SBC.

I’m sure the article you saw was to make pre 87 stuff work with post ’86 non vortec stuff.

 

That might have been what it what but I could have sworn they were talking about the vortec heads. I will have to hunt down that article again and look. Your probably right though.

 

I got a set of vortecs from a local performance shop for 325. He bowl ported them and reworked them before he sold them to me

 

ask him if he's got any more I'll take em.

 

There's no need to hunt down the article, he's right.


IMO: Do it once, do it right. I wouldn't drop $800-$1000 on heads right now just to have to try and sell them a couple years later because you want to go faster.

 

if you go vortec heads you can avoid the special intake fro the tpi by going with the holley steath ram. they have the one that is made just to fit the vortec heads. since you can get the kit on sale at thunder racing for about $530 it might be an option. heck just the intake for the tpi to work is about $400!!! and it has the limits of the tpi system.

good luck!!

 

Vortecs and the Stealth ram are what I'm planning. That and a mild Lingenfelter cam should be a nice step up from the stock 87 tpi.

 

Hey 1991CamaroRslow you have a ******* performance trans? How has it been holdin up for you? did you get the transbrake equipped model?