im looking for a decent pair of heads for around $500. nothing crazy, nothing too mild. preferrably with as little required valvetrain upgrades too...id like to get a new roller cam that matches the new heads to suppliment the new chambers and get some more power out of the upgrade. and maybe a little muscle car sounding exhaust .

right now i have a carbed L98, everything is stock. what do you guys suggest?

 

GM L31 Vortec's. $519 + a matcing intake manifold $150.

or you could go for the Vortec's with upgraded vavle springs, and the proper machining for higher lift cams (up to .550) $739

either will make a proven 40 more horsepower.

since you already run a carburator, it should be pretty straight foreward.

 

40fwhp or 40rwhp?

and do i need to upgrade any of the valvetrain? or should i upgrade anything? what cam shafts go good with those heads?

 

Uhhh, what do you have for exhaust now???

 

well i was talkin about that muscle car pop pop rumble kinda sound from the long exhaust lift ( maybe not )...but i have stock headers, cat and hooker cat back. im getting hedman headers and y pipe though, and no cat.

 

I had the original heads (083s) redone for $400.
That included milling off .005", new larger (2.02 and 1.6) valves, screw in studs, guide plates, large dia dual springs, bowl hogged and ported, and necessary machining for a .575 lift cam (using 1.6 rockers).

IMHO, the 083 heads have some real potential.

 

do you have any numbers to back it up? dynos of your car or someone else whos done the same?

 

Wish I had some flow-bench data, but I don't. My 1/4 mile times would not help much either since I did all my mods at the same time.
There's a couple of guys on this site that have documented their results working with stock heads. You'll have to do a search.