Say I,m at the junkyard....acres of wrecked cars....I'm looking for a set of heads for a 355 build. What cars (model) could I find the l98 heads? Might be a "Dumb" question, but so be it.
Im helping a friend with a swap and he is on a pretty tight budget.....we have found a set of the "416" 305 heads, wich I understand can be made to flow pretty good with some work...butt as I said, we are on a budget.
Any info would be greatly appreciated......this head delima is driving me nuts..

GM sure made alot of different castings..there Mould makers must have been very buisy..

Just 3rd gens and Corvettes of the 80s, I believe.

Thanks Sitting Bull, We are having a heck of a time finding any. Are there any other stock heads that would perform decent. We also have the D/H without Acc. holes. I know these are a pain from personal experience. More suggestions , Please..

you ought to add up all the extra cost with the used heads, you might ber head to buy a set of vortec heads or other aftermarket heads

Look for 083 and 217 castings off a 350 and 081 castings off a 305.
These are centerbolt type heads and look to have the same or better potential as the 416 old style castings once ported up.
They look to me to have a better combustion chamber and plug placement. Don't worry about if they happen to have angled
center manifold bolt holes. You can modify a manifold for this.

Avoid the swirl port type heads. 191, 810, 188, 187 castings

86 Convertible Vettes and 87-91 (all vettes) got the aluminum angle plugged L98 heads with centerbolt valve covers. 85 Vettes have the iron L98 head with perimeter valve covers. 87-92 F-Bodies 350's will have the straight plug iron L98 heads with centerbolt valve covers.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I agree, aftermarket heads would be the best and probably the most economical (in the long run), but..its not my money. The young man I'm helping is a 16yo. this is his first build/swap and he is extremely anxious to get it going. Thanks again .

How much you looking to spend? I just took a set off my GTA. They are l98 heads, 21,000 miles on them. You can have the rocker arms and push rods too. I am re-using the valve covers.

Funny you should ask..I just sent him an e-mail to see how much exactly he could spend....Ill get back to ya on that. I am for sure interested..I'll e-mail you as soon as I hear from him. thanks for the reply and the offer.

Shipping could get expensive to IA. I'll work with you.

thanks alot! I'll be in touch as soon as I hear from him.

PS
They would be shipped to Florida..not much better I would guess.

I'm sure someone has them for sale on the classified board.

(<---- Hint, Hint)

Send me an email and we can work something out.


That is if things ddon't work out with the other guys

Jim

you guys are great i'll be in touch..

You have mail.

I have a set of the 86-87 alum. vette heads on a 305 [.030] and would like to know if these heads are an alum. version of the cast iron L98's? These alum. heads are not the same as the 88 up heads,don't have d shaped exh. ports.

You both have mail...

camaroguy99
Ill get back to ya about your generous offer....

I agree with F-BIRD, for a street car I dought if you could even tell the differance. The 083 castings were also used on a lot of police crusiers and state cars with the 5.7, at least here in IL.

If I remember correctly there was an early version of the
common corvette alumium L-98 that had a normal shaped exhaust port. Pull the valve cover off and check the casting #
Most of the ones you are bound to run into are the "Second Design" with the D shaped ports.

Thanks for the suggestion....we found a dead cop car and are using the LT1 heads.
Thanks again for the offers and suggestions.

LT1 heads are reverse flow cooled. They would be really hard to make work with a normal flow cooled system.

Uh oH..a little more info would be helpful....whats a reverse flow system?

On a LT-1 type motor the water flows through the
block differently than a normal small block.
It cools the heads first.

The water passages in the heads don't line up with the passages in a normal block.
That includes those cast iron Impala/ RoadMaster motors.
Even though they are alot like vortecs heads, they're not, ya can't use them. sorry. Unless you get the whole motor.

well back to the drawing board Thanks again guys.