Alright I of course got an 89 TBI LO3 Camaro Auto.

She needs valve seals. So I am just gonna flat out replace the heads. But figured I might as well upgrade a bit. Now for now I will just be bolting the heads on. As I DO NOT HAVE CASH FOR FURTHER UPGRADES!

So here is what I want to do.

Torquer S/R 305 heads for 389 apiece or whatever...

Now what do I need to just drop these on? Just what would be a good idea to make it run good maintence wise. I know doing a cam intake manifold exhaust tb would all be good ideas... and I do plan on it... but not for a bit....

I just need the heads for now so she doesnt smoke as bad.
Thanks guys any advice is appreciated.

though with a stock LO3 what kind of performance gain should I expect from just the heads? I mean everything else remainging bone stock except for an open element air cleaner?

 

They'll help a noticable amount on a tbi. Just bolt them on.
You could also possibly find some 305 TPI heads off ebay and save some money for other mods.

 

Thought about that. How much better do the torquer's flow?

Think 20-25hp would be a correct estimate of hp I will pick up from this mod?

Also think that this car is bone stock with 140,xxx miles and needs valve seals... So possibley more???

Also I have heard of going with thinner headgaskets.... Is this worth any real hp? If so what are some head gaskets I could use to recieve such gains?

 

I have #416 heads off an '85 LG4 parts car I bought. I'm going to attempt my own port/polish - they are cheap, and if ported/polished good flow really well for an LO3. I'll have under $400 total in the set (assuming I don't screw 'em up with the grinder). Look at Sitting Bull's sig for port/polish info if interested. I'm all for a little work to save some cash!

 

I think that if you have the money to buy the Worlds or aren't really into doing port work yourself then I'd say go with the Torquers. They flow very well right out of the box and then if you want to do some porting they'll obviously flow much better. You can run a thinner gasket to boost your compression a bit, but the chambers are already 58cc on the World 305's. Now I know you say you don't have enough money to buy a cam with this but honestly you can pick up an LT1 cam off ebay or something for like $35 and your gains will be much much better than if you were to stick with the stock cam, it'd also be alot easier to swap a cam while your heads are off too.

 

No. The stock O-ring type valve seals are terrible. I really doubt there's anything else wrong with the heads except maybe some carbon buildup on the valves.

 

Well I dont think there is anything else wrong with the stock castings on the car other than the fact they are stock LO3 castings... since I have to tear the bitch apart I might as well upgrade! lol when a part breaks upgrade! Thats my lil theory!!

 

You won't have to tear too much apart to change valve seals, the intake manifold can stay on, just the valve covers, rocker arms, spark plugs, and valve springs/retainers(I would change these at the same time though)

LT4 retainers and locks are only $26 shipped, shims for exh spring seats cost ~$5-6 and springs $30-60, valve seals are really cheap. You could fix your problem and be all set for a cam swap for less than $100.

Using a crude method of measuring I figured the LT4 retainers to be ~17g lighter on each intake valve and ~24g lighter on each exh.

Probably ~4-5 hrs work, probably 10+ hrs for a head swap(maybe I work slowly though). Took me ~15 hrs to do valve seals/springs/retainers and a cam swap.

If you do get new heads, I would do the cam at the same time since you'll have 3/4 of the parts taken off already.

 

hhmmm.... will I be able to pass emissions with the LT1 cam? what else do I need to do if I do that? I guess if I could find one cheap enough I would do it... But I would need it to be under 75 dollars...

What could I expect with thinner head gaskets an lt1 cam and Torquer heads on a 305 TBI auto car? Would it be enough to knock me into low 15's maybe even high 14's???

 

You can probably find an LT1 cam for less than $50. I ran 14.76@93 mph with the stock cam. I'm sure you can pass emissions with the LT1 cam, it's pretty small like 201/207?. A few of us on here are hoping for high 13s on the stock TBI heads N/A. I doubt a thinner gasket will help very much, the stock one looks pretty thin already (could be wrong?), so I doubt you'll gain more than .2 compression.

 

I got an auto with posi with 2.73 gearing I believe as I run 2000rpms at 70mph. But I would like low 15s high 14s with the heads and cam.....

 

you can do better then that with heads/cam.........

its up to you - you said you want something better so i would go ahead and get the torquers. yeah you might be able to fix the stock heads for less money, but then you dont have better heads. then when you have cash to do cam/intake/exhaust the heads will be there already. i would not expect a massive HP gain tho on an otherwise stock LO3

 

Heres the thing.... Right now I got a mustang and an Eclipse... The mustang is actually the slowest but not by much! Despite being a 2.3!!! Now the Camaro is going to be my daily driver... While the stang is a project car. The Eclipse is just too ****ing expensivie insurance wise.. So it is 2ndary...

But I want the camaro running high 14's low 15's with just the heads. If it takes a cheap used LT1 cam then I will do that...

But other than exhaust I dont want to do anything more than this to this car. At least not for a while. It fixes the biggest problem on the car and picks the car up some! Which is all I am looking for... I just want to be able to beat several of the cars on the road which this RS does not do right now.... Right now it is NO match for the Eclipse..... My buddy drove my eclipse since I wanted to see how she would do against me... by the end of 1st gear the race was over.... I am looking to run or beat the Eclipse...