87_Z28_350

I am looking to replace my heads as part of a class project in college and wondering what a good set would be. My engine is in my sig. Im on a college student so my budget is a bit tight. Any suggestions or suggested articles would be great.

F-BIRD'88

A good effective low buck budget head upgrade is swapping on a set of ***self ported*** "305 head" castings. They will require larger 350 sized valves and lots of porting. You can pick a set of usable castings up for a song and document the porting and modifications done in the project presentation. You could have them flowtested on a flow bench before and after porting. You could test the car's acceleration performance at the local dragstrip and document the before and after performance gain.
You'll need the services of the automotive machine shop for the new valve job etc, but all the hard labour intensive work you can do your self.

I like using either the "416" or "081" 305 castings as a starting point. Once properly modifyed and ported they will increase the airflow dramaticly over the heads you have now as well as bump up the compression ratio of the motor.
Anybody can go out and buy a new set of aluminum heads and bolt them on.

Hot rodding your own set of factory heads and documenting the mods and results would be a much more interesting and grade wothery automotive project. I would budget $500-600 (US) total cost including tools. Anything left over is a $$$bonus$$$.

If you're doing this in Auto Mechanics shop and/or Machine Shop class "in school" and they have the machines to do a valve job etc,,, all the better. Will cost you much less.

For this you should be able to get new 1.94x 1.60 valves, new drop on springs, some seals and springs shims a new valve job and be able to drill and pin the rocker studs.
You'll need two or three carbide porting cutters and some porting stones and polishing rolls. Search the posts for info. its all there.
All for less than a set of bolt on aftermarket heads.

What cylinder heads are on the motor now? (Casting number, under the valve cover)

Many people have these seemingly usless 305 castings laying around on their garages etc. Should be able to get a usable set for under $100. Most people are ignorant to these 305 heads' performance potential once modifyed.
The 305's small compact combustion chamber allows for a nice compression ratio boost bolt on, on a 350ci motor.

87_Z28_350

I have 882's I would rather get the wrench time in myself but for porting heads Im not sure if I trust myself enough. I would hate to get them back together and jack something up in the engine.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

I'm in this boat myself right now. I'm porting some 993 heads as practice (actually similar to 882's), and it's not too hard...
Just do some reading on this board, and maybe a vizard book or two... (hint, enlarging the easy to get to intake port isn't going to give you much power, the power comes from the hard to get to parts, like the short side radius, and valve guides.... go figure eh?)
that reminds me, i'll have to post up a pic of the exhaust valve guide, to see if i've already ruined it... I mangled it up good...


Is this a tech school where you have a lot of machines at your disposal?

swapping on aftermarket heads as part of a college project.... yea, that kinda sounds like a joke, I coulda done that in high school in a week (not working for very long each day), and would not have received much praise.

A suggested article would be sitting bulls thread. (hard to miss...)

F-BIRD'88

Well you're a prime candidate for this budget hop up.

You're going to need diapers the first time ya punch 'er thou.

Don't be shy about portig your own heads. remember they are "305 heads" not something rare or expensive.
You're going to do all the porting before ya take them in for a valve job and finish work.
Up to that point they are just a $20 hunk of usless cast iron ya dragged out of the trash.
There are only a few key areas where you're likely to grind thru in the intake port and even if ya do its easily repairable with epoxy puddy. You can grind a lot of metal out of these heads without busting thru. it's not hard to do, just time consuming. After you get into it and gotten all covered in metal filings etc from grinding you'll gain confidence. it doen't take long.
We all have to start somewhere and learn to crawl before ya run.

Really, it's not that big a deal. Not rocket science.
Search my old posts and Sitting Bull's also. All you need to know is in these posts.

You're going to see a big improvement over stock 882's.

Russ-So Cal

305 heads are cheap enough, you could get an extra set of practice heads.