How much difference will Vortec heads make on my 350 currently headed with factory 487 heads with 1.94/1.50 valves. Would they be worth the money to upgrade on my motor? Currently I have 8.5:1 compression on my motor, and I beleive that I will end up with approx 10:! with Vortecs, which could be a bit much. I dont mind running high test, but I do not want to run race mix. How much of a seat of the pants difference and 1/4 time will this make for me? If I do Vortecs, I cannot get a blower, which I was looking for way down the road on this current shortblock. Of course that gives me a good excuse to get a 383 or 406, rebuild it, throw the vortecs on it and throw a blower on it.

 

Well without going into it (just got home from Graveyard shift)

A HUGE DIFFERENCE

 

Yeah it's gonna make a huge difference. There's just so many efficient designs that have been worked into Vortecs that they will outperform most factory castings with 2.02/1.60 valves even through the stock 1.94/1.5 on the Vortecs.

 

Oh yeah! Night and day difference. I love mine.

Brad...

 

I'd say more than 50HP if your 487 heads aren't ported, the difference really is pretty huge. I remember the day I first swapped vortecs onto my stock 350, lets just say that before the heads I couldn't even beat stock 5.0's, and with the heads I was beating LT1's easy.

 

i belive vortecs design is not too good for high compression with pump gas because of there design, herd the design of the water passages or somthing like that makes the combustion chamber a little hotter and more **** to detonation. i think the vortecs are great heads over all and are very cheep and efficent. i love mine

 

the vortec heads are great for higher compression as long as you use them as designed. vortec heads are designed to not require alot of timing so i would keep the timing less than 32 degrees total and you'd be fine. as for how much, that varies per car, but they are nice although rather expensive once you factor in the valve spring issue and intake issue.