I'm looking into head options and i wondered what would be my best bang for the buck? I heard that vortecs, since they are built for 350's might have valve shrouding problems? Also on ebay i saw that they had "vortec 305 heads" which i haven't heard of before and it said that they were 87-92. I thought vortecs were 96 or there abouts. I am considering any ideas though, probably iron, since aluminums are so expensive. I have an lt1 cam which i havent put in yet and an edelbrock tbi manifold which i haven't put on yet either, if i got new heads i would probably go with roller rockers. Also, does a 305 tbi firebird from 88 have roller rockers or flat tappets? thanks for all the help in advance.

:hail:

 

Yep, roller block. The 305 Vortec heads - from what I read - arnt your traditional Vortec (L31) heads. Best to get the L31 Vortecs and have them milled between .020 and .040 then put them on. The only problem is that your Edelbrock TBI manifold wont fit on the vortec heads, which require a special intake. The only true tbi one is the GMPP / Chevy Vortec tbi mainfold and thats about $220 if I remember. Edelbrock makes several carb manifolds that you can make/buy a tbi adaptor and use with the Vortec heads.

 

The 305 Vortecs are not the same as the 350 ones. They are missing quite a few power making characteristics that the 350's heads have.

 

So there are no shrouding problems with the l31 heads? i have a set of the 350 vortecs on my 70 chevelle with a edelbrock rpm manifold, these are from scoggin dickey and are drilled and tapped for the older manifold style, not the newer vortec ones. I wonder if the tbi from edel would work on these? glad to know it is a roller block though.

 

Yes it is a roller block and yes it has a roller cam. but it doesn't have roller rockers.

 

No.

 

You could probably rig the intake bolts to some how line up with a traditional intake manifold, but the problem comes with the intake ports. They're much taller and rectangular than your standard more square shaped intake port (as seen here ).

 

Gotta love that updated intake runner design on the vortecs

 

What about the leaf in the stock heads?

 

Always a good thing to have

 

How much does it cost to have the vortec heads milled to work on my 305 TBI?