ok guys, like some of you might know, i'm getting a little engine oil im my radiator, i talked to a mechanic about it and he said that i need to get new head gaskets, and he started telling me that he needed to send the heads to the machine shop to corect and get a valve job done to them and all this was going to cost me $2,000. so then i thought that maybe it would be faster and cheaper to get new ones and if so, i wanted to ask you guys if i could get some 350 or like 305 vortec heads that could bolt right up out of the box, and can i find these at a chevy dealer? please help, this is my first V8thanks

 

It's really hard to give you advice without knowing anything about your car eh?
That's what the personal info side bar is for. So we know what year car, what engine, etc etc.

Yea, the labor is what makes up most of that bill, it takes many hours to tear down to the heads and pull them, and at $100hr, that's it.

Vortec heads won't bolt up to your engine without a new intake manifold, and maybe other things as well, again, goes right back to what engine do you have, what year car, etc.

You can always get some entry level aftermarket heads that'd bolt right up, but you're still going to have to pay labor to have them tear it down and take off the heads, and put on the new heads. Shaving your heads only costs ~$60, out of the $2000. So if you get $700 heads instead of the $60 milling.... Well, you get the idea, it'd still run you $2500 or so.

Unless you don't mind getting your hands dirty and doing it yourself. Do you have a garage to do the work in?

 

ok, the car is a 86 camaro Z28 LB9 305 TPI

 

'86, TPI 305? That stock? I thought that motor combo was extremely rare...? Maybe that's the 350 in '86.

Yea, you could get SR torquers or something, but that's barely an upgrade, for the price. You could port the stock heads, but if you aren't inclined to even remove them yourself, then it's probably not a job for you.

 

yeah, thats the stock motor set up i have, and it is a 305 .

 

It should have "416"casting heads on it and you can have those worked pretty good. There's a thread some-where on here on how to do a pocket port to them.

$2000 to have some-one do gaskets and valve seals to my car would make me cringe, sounds like an excuse to learn more about your V8 and save some of that money.