Hi guys,

I need some help trying to figure out which heads I want to run. To make a long story short, my 305's bottom end took a dive on Monday so a 350 will be built for now in order to get a good engine in there and have it on the road again. My short term goal is just to get the car driving again. The long term goal is to make a lot of power because I'll have a much larger budget!

My friend is giving me a set of stock L98 heads off of his 89 IROC (late model intake bolts). They need new valve seals, but what else is new? They are complete and untouched. I'm picking those up on this Friday(4/30/04), regardless of what I use.

The other option is to buy a set of 186 double hump heads from a co-workers roommate's brother(fwew). Very nice guy. He's got the budget so that he only builds big blocks now, even has a 454 in his 67 Camaro. That's why he's selling these heads. I went and looked at them tonight. They have the accessory holes in them, and they have the 2.02/1.60 valves. He also magnafluxed and hot tanked them to check them first. He put in 7/16th screw in studs, guide plates, original valves, roller rockers (forgot to ask ratio and/or brand), and new springs (said hold up to .676 lift). He'd sell me these for $400 complete.

I am just trying to figure out which heads I'm going to want to run for now. I have an 85 Z28 TPI and will put the TPI on the 350 until I can afford a Holley Super Ram.

I did some searching and found that the 186 heads are decent, but I just couldn't find out how they compared to the L98s. I will put aftermarket heads on later, I just don't have the budget right now.

I know that I'd have to drill out the intake base, but that's not supposed to be a big deal.

Any comments or suggestions might help. As of right now, I do not have any parts for the 350, not even a block. The co-worker that told me about the heads has a bunch of 350 blocks though.

Thanks,
Jesse

 

Well, it appears another friend of mine has an extra set of heads laying around!

He has a set of 'vette alum L98 heads with 58 cc chambers.

He said the following: "I have gasket matched one but no port work"

"supposedily the guy I bought them from bought them new from GM like 2 years ago then upgraded valve springs"

"supposed to have only 25K miles"

He's missing one of the valves too, and I can get a free set of stock center bolt valve covers, I just need to get the bolts.

He also said that he'd let these go for $350.

I think I'll just go with these.

Let me know!

Thanks,
Jesse

PS- moderators, can you please change the poll to reflect "stock L98" and add "'vette alum L98"?

 

think i'd go with the al. l98s. the double humps are very old heads and unless you know for sure there lot of things that could be wrong with them.

 

did he say why the one head is missing a valve ??????? thats suspicious too i would look into replacing the seals and having a little work done to the stockers you got for free they would probably be the most bang for the buck as they say when you figure you dont have a dime in em to start with for the 350 bucks your gonna spend on the aluminum ones you could build a really good set of heads ....

 

186s are the old Z/28 302 heads from '68 and '69.

I'd get those, put them on Ebay, and then get some REALLY good heads (or work over the Al. L98 heads) with the money you'd make.

 

Keep in mind, I will eventually get a REALLY good set of heads, probably AFRs or Darts or something, but in the future. Right now I'm just putting the engine together so I can have one in there.

I'm probably going to build a strong bottom end now, so that when I get the money for heads, I can replace those without pulling the engine.

Yeah, my buddy lost a vavle and he just can't find it. I can always take one out of the stock L98s and put it in the aluminum if the aluminums are going to be worth the extra $350.

Air-Adam, do you think I could get more than $400 for the 186's on ebay? If so, I'll just buy them and make some money from them.

One more thing to keep in mind is that I'm building this as money comes in, so if I don't need to buy heads now, I can get a block or part of the rotating assembly, or valvetrain parts, or an oil pan, or something like that. Right now all I have for this is what is on the 305 TPI in the car now.

Chances are I'm just going to run the stock L98s to save money, and save on EGR complications. I'm not lookin for HP #'s just yet, just trying to get on the road.

Thanks,
Jesse

 

If they are the 2.02/1.60 valve heads, then yea, you probably could very easily. If they are the smaller valve heads (1.94/1.60) then you might get a little less, but should still pass $400 if they are in pretty good shape.

Why not take a look at Ebay? Just look for "Z28 heads" and there are bound to be at least a few sets of those to come up.

 

if you are on a budget i would just rebuild the stock heads you got and go from there maybe do a little home gasket matching or try your luck at some porting ....