My father has a 454 in his 67 camaro with a high rise manifold, long tube headers, quadrajet, mild cam (218/218 duration at .050"), 3.36 non posi rear and a TH350 with a shift kit, rebuilt motor with 10:1 slugs and I think he said truck heads. He blows my doors off now, but with a set of vortecs on my car will it be less embarrassing? LAst time I foooled around, I was revving through to redline and he comes up along side me and backs off like nothing. Then he says I was moving pretty quick. I tell him I was revving the crap out of the motor, and he says he was only revving to like 3500 rpm. But anyways, say I got a small blower and ported my heads, would I be able to give him a run? To tell the truth, Im trying to be able to beat him to motivate him to buy a nice set of aluminum heads and really unleash the beast.

 

It sounds like he is running a pretty much stock 454. Lord knows what you'll need, because the stock 454's varied in hp, and can really haul in certain cars. 218/218, sounds almost like a truck cam. Did the 454 come out of a truck? Anyways, without posi, his launch will suck, and his powerband is gonna be pretty low, if he was revving at like 3500 rpm thats probably almost top of his powerband. Put some nice heads, and not vortec's, nice heads like AFR's or Pro Actions, and you should take him.

When it comes to Vortec's, you get what you pay for. Not much.

 

Get a pair of AFR heads, drop in a cam around a 501 lift @.50 and you should smoke him! That basicly what I want to do to my car but with a 3000rpm stall converter

 

that is the most ignorant comment i have ever heard. vortecs are a great flowing head and cost nearly nothing.

 

Sorry, but it's the truth. Anything from the General costs an arm and a leg. Now to buy performance heads, straight from the General and they being cheap, should have been a dead giveaway.

Instead of wasting your money on Vortec heads, and an intake to fit. You might as well spend it on porting the heads you have now, or build a set of heads from bare castings. A set of bare Pro Actions, the cheapest i have found were around 650-700Can. and about $100 to put in valves, and then re-use or buy springs and you have a knockout head that can perform with any combination.

Even the old school GM iron race heads, have alot more performance potential than Vortec's.

 

its obvious you are pretty ignorant yourself! AFR heads are one of the best flowing heads on the market!

 

im new to this board but not to performance engines. the gm vortec heads are a great head for 450 bucks. 239cfm @.500 lift for the vortecs is alot better than the 462 double humps 218cfm @.500 lift. they arent set up for high rpms or big cams, so past .500 lift you just lose flow, but that doesnt make them crappy. they are made for producing torque, and they do that very well. getting back to the original question, i think a set of pro action 200cc heads would really give you an edge if you get a camshaft to go with it. i would say that a comp xe274h with a set of 1.6 rockers would match nice with those heads. to take all of the hard work (looking for a decent price) out of it for you, just go to www.enginekits.com and look at there price. 675 bucks for a brand new assembled pair of the 200s with 2.08/1.60 valves. with that size intake valve they flow around 255-260 cfm @.500 lift which is capable of supporting roughly 540 horsepower natually aspirated. with that cam youll want more gear and about a 2500-3000 stall. dont be suprised if you really give him a run for his money or even beat him because that cam limits him to making power above 4800 rpms. in the quarter mile with those mods you should get him if everything is tuned. good luck

 

WOW!! Wish we all had the money you do!

And most ignorant comment goes to.................******* Bill!!

NEVER reuse valve springs!! Your obviously lacking in the knowledge department and have no right giving advice like that. This isn't a flame just the truth. People here depend on this information and that is just plain stupidity.

Ignorant!! he never said they weren't. Quit getting so defensive. Yeah maybe they are. But so are brodix heads, trick flow makes a nice pair also. Fact is that for the money the performance of vortecs are hard to beat.

 

Hey No4NJunk I didn;t mean to get so defensive about the AFR thing, in fact I noticed after I posted that unkown wasn't even talking to me. So unkown I am sorry for calling you ignorant but I might add that mybe instead of calling another person ignorant you might want to say something a little more diplomatic.

 

I was planning on Vortecs, but those pro actions are very tempting and would probably be cheaper. They are based on the old design (I wouldnt needa new manifold basically). Are they assembled? Are they good to go out of the box? I dont know If Id change the cam yet, I still have to pass emmisions one more time.
It also says they are angle plug. Ive heard a lot of horror stories about headers and angle plug heads with spark plug access and installation.

My main motivation to beat him, to get him to stop saying its fast enough. He has the potential with a posi unit, a bigger cam and some heads to have even more of a beast. The thing hauls now, and would easily whoop any of the LT1's Ive ridden in. I just want it to live up to what it could be.

 

oh really i didnt know that ::cough::
AFR 190's are THE best street heads on the market. they are also 1200 dollars to get into, and are a big step up from the 400-500 vortecs cost

 

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you shouldnt be allowed to talk in public.

 

and just to let you know, here are a few vortec head buildups:

350 block
Vortec Heads 1.94/1.5 valves
10:1 compression
750 Carb
Small Tube Headers
Comp Extreme Roller 282 camshaft
With Single Plane Manifold:
471 Horsepower @ 6000 rpm, 457 ft lbs torque@4500 rpm
With Dual Plane:
442 horsepower @6000 rpm, 444 ft lbs torque @4500 rpm

350 block
Vortec Heads 1.94/1.5 valves
10:1 compression
750 carb
small tube headers
Comp Extreme Energy 284 camshaft
With Single Plane Manifold:
425 Horsepower @ 6000 rpm, 414 ft lbs torque@4500 rpm
With Dual Plane Manifold:
399 horsepower @ 6000 rpm, 404 ft lbs torque @4500 rpm

the important thing is these are very streetable motors with good lump idles but that dont make their max power at 7000+ rpm. any aftermarket head is good, i wish you the best of luck in chosing, i just wanted to show you that vortecs can do a lot more than people think for a lot less money.

 

yes the pro actions are assembled. the valvesprings are a little too tight for a mild flat tappet so those will also have to be changed. i was also weary about using angle plug heads but i have been told by a few people in the chevytalk forum that it is actually easier to install plugs with angle plug heads if the headers clear. the pro actions are one of the smoothest casted heads you will find when it comes straight out of the box. they have smooth transitions in the intake and exhaust ports so no real porting is needed unless you really plan to unleash more of that engines potential with a nice sized hydraulic roller, then you wouldnt have to change springs. they flow so much air in stock form that youll be happy with no porting. good luck.

 

i'm running a vortec headed motor. the vortecs are an easy 400hp head with the right cam.

 

Try using a shoulder fired rocket launcher...

 

This is an easy answer. A 502.

 

i think u should just get a new engine not just heads. get a sbc400 or something or go get 502 den go whoop his *** and u wont have to worry about it.

 

Yes. However, those aren't stock Vortec heads. The stock vortec heads can only handle .450 lift. Those heads are specially manufactured to handle .550" lift. Which means you're gonna be dumping more money into the heads to get them to handle a cam that'll put up those numbers. Also, they are kind of restricting for intake manifold selection. However, as far as budget builds go, they are definitely great heads that can put out good horsepower numbers too.

 

comp makes a tool to do the machining yourself, it is usually about $150 more with better springs and all, that is still around 600-650 dollars for awesome heads.

 

Here's even a better answer.....

PRAY!!!!

 

nah, pray and spray, a nice 300 shot might work, for one run that is.