this guy at work is going to sell me a set of ported 2.02 valve heads for $100

1) does this sound like a good deal?
2)will these heads fit my 305

he is also going to sell me an edelbrock cam and lifters that he bought especially for the heads

i'm not sure on the cam specs, but i'll post them as soon as i find out

 

What heads are they?

"202" isn't a kind of head, as such. It means somebody has stuck 2.02" diameter intake valves in them. They could still be total garbage castings; people do that all the time.

I would not use any of the Edlebrock cams. They are a very old design. There are far superior designs on the market.

Don't bother posting the cam, but do find out and post the head casting number.

Yes they will fit a 305. They may or may not work. Intake valves that large often do not fit into the bores, and may hit the block deck. depending on the casting, they could have any chamber volume from 58cc to 76cc; so there's no telling what your compression ratio might be after they're installed.

 

yeah, i guess i do have to find out what casting they are..............


hmmmm, he had this setup on his Monte Carlo he brought to work, it sounded mean as hell........................

i more-the-less thought that GM made a certain casting with 2.02 valves

what numbers should i look for on the heads?

 

You want to look for a casting number stamped in between the springs. GM made a few 2.02/1.60 castings over the years, the most popular one to find is the 492 casting.

They'll work fine on your 305. With a 60cc chamber, shrouding occurs at .550" and deck interference will occur at lifts of .600" and up roughly.

 

The heads have potential if they are infact high performance castings, but not for a 305. I'd put them on a 350 The Edelbrock camshaft ( that sounds so mean) can only be the performer rpm or Torker-plus cam, both are too big for a street 305. You hi energy 252H is a good cam for a mild 305.
You need to work on your own 305 heads.
See my posts about porting 305 heads.

 

so one person says they will work, another says their not worth it........................................thats what i hate about this forum, conflicting views

 

One of the most frustrating things about offering advice on this board is when people don't provide adequate information but expect exact recommendations.

Get the casting numbers, post them, and then see the type of advice you get.

Besides, there's a big difference between what "works", and what "works well". Also, "ported" is a very general term, which could mean anything from a mild clean-up of the bowls to one person, to complete rerouting and vast changes in flow characteristics to another.

 

yes i should have posted the casting numbers......however the guy i am buying them from doesnt know them off the top of his head


i dont need an exact recomendation........all i really want to know is: will my engine perform better with the setup i am buying than the way it currently is.............................

right now i have mildly ported LG4 heads and a 252 comp cam

i did find out that the heads i am buying are off a 350.........and they are iron...and they have 2.02 intake valves and were ported

 

Your question just isn't as simple to give a clear-cut answer to as you seem to think it is.

Without the casting numbers, there's absolutely no way to know what you are asking. As I posted above, there are a huge variety of heads that didn't come with 2.02" valves but that people might have stuck 2.02" valves into. Some are pretty good and will help your 305; some are garbage on any motor; and some might be fine for a 350 or 400 but terrible for a 305. On the other hand, if they're any of the castings that did in fact come from GM with those valves already in them, you probably wouldn't be able to touch them for 10 times what you're being offered if they were any good. So, you're back to the huge variety issue; without specifics, nobody here can tell you any more than you already know.

One thing you absolutely will have to watch out for though is the clearance from the intake valves to the block deck, which you can't check very easily without assembling them to the motor with checking springs on each intake valve. Somebody else posted something about .600" of lift; that doesn't apply to the issue at hand, it's only true of valve to piston clearance. The 305 bore is so small that on some head castings, the larger valves won't be over the bore any more, they will slightly overhang the block; this is a recipe for instant disaster.

Post the casting numbers. If the guy can't remember them, or won't go look and tell you, or you can't go look at them and get them yourself, then I would say they aren't worth the risk.

 

That was me. Myself and a shop teacher assembled a standard bore 305 with 2.02/1.60 valves and a 60cc chamber. We played around with a few cams and found that the estimated valve shrouding occured at .550" lift and valve deck interference roughly will occur at lifts of .600" I'm sure if you ran some aftermarket cylinder heads with better valve centerlines, you might be able to get .625" lift. Who's gonna run that much on a street 305 though?

 

well, the cam he is selling me is nowhere near that amount of lift.................its something like .455 intake he said...............so i should be ok

i asked the dude at the local speedshop about this situation and he said everything should work fine as long as i have a cam that matches the heads pretty well

he said i might need a larger carb


but he also said i might be able to jet my current carb rich enough


just take it easy on me guys......i'm only a beginner hot-rodder

 

oh yeah, i'm picking up the heads on friday

i'm paying $100 for them


can you give me a couple of examples of casting numbers that are good and some that are bad.............?

also, i'll probably need to get them shaved if i want to keep my nice compression ratio.............................will shaving them have any effect on whether or not they can be used?

 

ok now i understand what you are saying.............the valves might be so big that they might collide with the cylinder bore

 

No it's pretty hard because GM has produced so many cylinder heads since '55.

Well as long as you don't shave them past 58cc. That's the stock 305 combustion chamber size. If you run 58cc, you'll be able to run the .455" lift

 

ok, whats the maximum approx. lift i can run.......not that i am going to run it.....i just want to know how close i am to the edge of disaster


LIVIN' ON THE EDGE

 

Well we did the mock up with 60cc heads, but I guess that the max you could run is .575-.585" just a guess, never used 58cc chambers, though it won't make a huge difference.

 

Well, I don't know how much you are going to cut off of the heads but they may already be cut which could cause a misalignment of your int. manifold.

Auggie