My car has had worn valve springs for a while, and I was prepping the motor to change them. Well I take off a valve cover and there is a round chunk of metal about 1/4" sitting in there. I look at it, and show my uncle. Immediately he's like, yeah thats a piece of a valve. Apparantly the top part of it broke off. I guess that explains the really loose rocker about 6 months ago. Ive been driving the car for a while like this, oh well, I have to pull the heads.

But with me I will not pull the heads unless better are going on. I now have 76cc 487's, and desperately want to boost my 8.5:1 compression. Is a set of remanufactured cylinder heads w/64cc chambers a good idea with 2.02/1.60 valves in it a good idea? They have a 3 angle valve job, machined for screw in studs, and have the pockets ported. They are 475 bucks shipped. Are all 64cc castings good? Or should I just spring for really nice heads. I really dont have the money for better, but I cant justify wasting 400 dollars or so only to have to upgrade later. I just wish I didnt just get new tires, a shift kit and a new intake manifold. Now I have to get a job ASAP instead of living off of saved money until summer when school is over.

 

Price of the heads vs. performance is something you need to look at, based on your engine and goal/aim in mind.

But I'd be more concerned about the other end of the valve...if you have the top of it in your hand, that would mean the other end is in the cylinder going up and down with the piston.

 

How well do you trust what the people who are selling the heads porting skills? Are they claiming any flow numbers? If they show you some flow numbers near 200 cfm at .400 inch lift and near 225 cfm at .500 inch lift then that seams like a pretty good deal for that amount of money. Since you already bought a new intake getting the vortecs would add a few hundred bucks to the price and put you up near the price of Sportsman IIs or Pro-Toplines or whatever they are called.

 

Kind of ironic I invest in an intake before this happens isnt it, otherwise vortecs wouldve been an option. I paid 100 bucks for a ZZ4 take off. I think my heads now flow like 200 at .400" and like 205 at .500" of lift. I think I am gonna shell it out and get really nice heads. Its not worth having to do it over. The deal on heads was in a magazine. Of course I dont want to end up with smog castings. The company is called performance chevy i beleive and there ad is on page 124 of super chevy magazine. I may call and ask for the heck of it. 800 will severly kill my bank account, and 500 will only destroy about half of it.

Only the top 1/4" of the valve broke off. The rest of it is still in there. I think I drove it for a while like that though, and its good I caught it when I did. It has not yet dropped into the motor, and I was going to change springs for fear of dropping a valve. Turns out dropping a valve was a good possibility anyways. Considering all the 5500 rpm shift I was pulling, Im lucky it didnt drop...