Many of you may have read my thread on this engine I bought and am currently trying to run on pump gas.https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ht-engine.html Thanks to you guys I am well on my way.

Now i am selling my 56cc chamber iron heads for 76cc aluminum heads to reduce compression ratio for pump gas. The current heads are dart iorn eagle, ported and polished with a cam runing .690 lift. I am going to purchase afr 195 aluminum assembled heads and get a new cam for the setup. It is a solid roller.

My question is: In order to do this with as little nessicary extra expense as possible, what should I keep from my current heads and what should I sell with them? Can I keep the rocker arms? How do I tell exactly what size they are and if they will fit my application? Can I keep the lifters, or should I get new ones? The current heads have that bar installed that runs through all of the rocker arms... I forget exactly what its called (please forgive me for my ignorance!)

Thanks in advance for the help,
Some guy thats in over his head

 

i'm guessing that bar is for your shaft rockers. Not sure about that, but it's worth a big chunk of change.

I don't know if you need to modify your heads to run it. Should be able to keep your lifters, you have solids, and you're getting a new (milder right?) solid cam.

 

yes, I am going milder. And thanks, "shaft rockers" are the words I was looking for.

How Do you tell if you have to modify a head to run shaft rockers? I should keep these right? And the lifters and rockers also?

 

Most shaft rockers don't all sit on one shaft that goes all the way through all of them; usually they're on individual shafts. What you may have, is a stud girdle; which is a big clamp thing that grabs onto the rocker nuts and holds the studs from bending so much.

If you really do have shaft-mount rockers, you need to find out what kind they are. They're VERY EXPENSIVE, and you can sell them on the various racing parts classifieds sites like Racing Xchange or Racing Classifieds - Free Classifieds Powered By Racingjunk.com and turn the money into something you can put to better use. You can't really use them on other heads without a certain amount of machine work.

If it's a stud girdle, you could continue to use that on other heads, subject to finding valve covers that will fit them.

Post a pic of what you've got. Sounds like the first step would be to correctly identify your parts. Pretty hard to make an intelligent decision about what to do when you don't know what they are.

 

sofakingdom, I will try to get pics up tonight. By the way, Your sig is hilarious!

 

That signature is a quote from all of my Darwin Award auditions....

 

Yeah, and the description of your car under your user name is funny too.

Anyway here are the pics... I was wrong, they are stud girdles.

And they are comp cams 1.5 rockers. I had a better pic of the whole head but the program told me that it was too large to post here and I don't know how to compress it. Anyone?

 

That would be a stud girdle.

 

I should keep those right? I already have valve covers to fit them. Would they be concidered an upgrade on te street engine?

 

If this was a race motor that was hitting like 7k+ rpms I would.... if not it is extra crap that gets in the way.

 

It may see 7k, but not often. Going to be mainly a street car. I'll probably sell them with the heads then. I've got enough extra junk anyway.

The 1.5 rockers should transfer to the new heads though, right?

 

you identify the stud size yet?

 

My
I would sell the heads, cam, lifters, pushrods, and intake all as a package. Someone who is going from a street setup to a strip setup would need all of those parts. Together those parts are more than $3500 new. If you had some time slips it would be even better (ebay). Trying to reuse the rockers & lifters would take more than the cost of "normal" parts away from the value of the setup. Your total expense to convert this setup to "street" could easily be $0.

 

I'd be inclined to agree; that whole setup, as a package, would be pretty attractive to somebody wanting to drop a bunch of coin on a race motor. It's all WAY overkill for most street applications.

Sell it all. Turn it back into cash. Then use that cash to buy stuff that's appropriate to YOUR goals, rather than creating potential problems with mismatched stuff, things that don't fit together, etc.

 

Thanks guys. I am happy to say that there has been a fortunate change of events for me.

A guy that just started at work this week has a third gen that he runs at the strip and his son is buying a s-10 without an engine. He has a set of vortec aluminum vette heads that are ported and polished and are the exact size that I need. If I give him the lo3 and all the other stuff from my racecar that I'm using, he'll do all of the work, by himself to swap the engine. I talked to him and saw his car and shop today. This guy really knows his stuff and has already done to his car all of the stuff I need done.

I already want to be his best friend!!!!

 

There's no such thing as "Vortec aluminum Vette heads". There's too many buzzwords all mixed up in there. They could be Vortec, or they could be aluminum, or they could be "Vette"; conceivably even 2 of those things; but not all 3.

If they're Vortec heads, they're cast iron and 64cc; and your CR will be too high for pump gas.

If they're aluminum Vette heads, they'll have 58cc chambers, and your CR will be right about the same as it is now. Also obviously unsuitable.

If they're older Vette heads, 882s or 624s, they're crap; I've thrown away quite a number of sets of those over the decades I've been in this hobby.

Get the casting numbers first. Those tell all there is to know about head castings. Then see if they're something you can use.

Don't get all starry-eyed over a bunch of buzzwords, and lose track of what it is you're trying to accomplish.

A set of the aluminum Vette heads (113 casting) goes for anywhere from $300 to $800, depending on what's been done to them. You have between $2000 and $3000 worth of stuff in those pics. I don't smell a very good deal there.

 

dont do it you would be crazy...

 

ok, were there any vortec heads that were aluminum and could be machined to 76cc? He didn't say that they were stock vette heads, just that they were used on an engine that was once in a vette.

I was just on te phone with my mechanic and he said that he would ive me $800 for the heads and cam that I have now. Is this too little an offer?

 

just stick them on ebay and get double that.

 

are you serious? What would I do without you guys!

By the way nelapse, I read your thread about your engine problems. That sucks dude, but if it makes you feel any better, it makes me feel slightly better about my situation.

 

No. No GM Vortec heads have ever been made from aluminum; although you could sort of say that the Fastburn heads, which have the vortec intake port layout, could be that. They're 62cc as-cast though. It's easy to make the chambers smaller, by milling; but more difficult to make them significantly large, which has to be done by grinding out the combustion chambers. In any case there's not 12cc of metal that you could remove, maybe 5 or 6 but that's about it.

If they're merely some jink heads from somewhere that happen to have been enveloped in a fiberglass body for a part of their lifetime, they're not "Vette" heads; and therefore the fact that they happen to be "from a Vette" is useless. It identifies nothing, and doesn't even deserve to be repeated. The guy is looking for a sucker to swallow the "from a Vette" line, basically somebody that doesn't know (a) that Vette heads are no different from any other heads in most years and (b) how to identify the ones that really are different.

That's way too little for what you've got. The rockers and stud girdles alone are over $500.

Have you looked at the 2 sites I posted up there, and seen what similar heads are going for; or checked around on eBay?

Sounds to me like you've got a bunch of vultures all circling over your head, trying to score as good a deal as the one you got.

 

Alright, I should have never said the "v" word. The only reason I did was because we were looking at pictures of cars that he and his friend run at the track. The only reason I said vette is because the picture of that beautiful stingray is still in my head. He did not try to sell them to me with the catchword "vette" inserted for "the greatest **** in the world." He was just telling me about the engine he ran in that car at the time.

That being said, this is the only person I have talked to about this swap that I really feel knows his stuff. He races a third gen and is willing to do the swap for parts that I don't need, like a tired old lo3. He's going to tear the engine completely apart for me at no cost just to verify what I have internally.

I'm going to get some better pics of the heads and put them for sale on the boards here for a week or two and then on ebay.

 

I have decided that the heads will be for sale complete with the cam, stud girdle, intake and maybe the carb (holly 750 double pumper). If anyone reading would be interested pm me or check the sale boards here.

I should get the heads off by thursday and have pics and more specs on them. I think for the whole setup maybe $1500? Fair?

 

no it doesn't make me feel better in the slightest. Worry about your investment since between you and I, you actually have something worth value. so do not sale your self short.

 

I sense a hint of bitterness. I didn't in any way mean to offend. Sorry if I did.

I really do appreciate your help though.

 

At $1500, it ought to sell QUICK. Although at this time of year, end of race season, maybe not quite as quick as it would in around March.

You've got a bunch of stuff worth a bunch of money there. I don't know how big of a hurry you're in; but a little patience in finding the right buyer will pay off BIG TIME.

You need to just look up the price of each of the parts you can identify on Summit or Jeg's; and add it all up. THEN you'll have a clearer idea of what it's worth. Obviously you're not going to get the full "retail" price for it, being used; but if you use ½ price as a rough estimate of its value, you'll at least be in the right ballpark.

 

thanks guys. Once again I will take your advice.

 

well.... this is my situation now. I am selling the shortblock. This guy will rebuild a 350 that he has in his shop for me. I will use my heads, starter and carb. He's going to swap intakes with me and rebuild my 700r tranny, throw in a set of free 3.73 gears for the rear and some curry aftermarket axles. He's going to dyno the engine and it will make 400+ hp. He is also going to put the engine in my car, get it running and give me some jet coated hooker 2055's. Good deal?????

 

hmm, i'd say so...
The parts you have are high dollar parts, but in exchange for all the services you're getting, I think you're doing alright there.

 

yeah...this dude knows his stuff. And after all, a brand new engine and tranny in exchange for an engine that needs serious work to become marginally streetable, and I can help him and learn about building engines.... I'm going for it!!!