I keep having problems with my 383 that the previous owner built, so im about to go deeper before spending any money and check out the condition of the pistons and valves etc. Ive never removed a head before, but i guess this will at least be a good learning experience if nothing else. I can tell that ill have to remove everything down to the oil valley, will the altenator need to be removed? What else will need to be removed?

Ive been having so many problems with the engine and im thinking about sellign the intake, distributor, and the carb and finally switch the car back to fuel injection (it came from the factory EFI). The guy suposedly used reusable head gaskets, should i reuse them? Also what about the headbolts, should i reuse them? The engine only has a little over 1k miles on it so im hoping i can. I will post pics of the condition of the pistons and the valves and get some advice from there. Ive never done this before, but im ready! Plus one good thing is i can finally make ABSOLUTELY sure where TDC is.

One last thing, what all should i check while im down that deep into the engine? And these are the heads that are on the car:

PBM Aluminum Heads, 220cc runners 2.02 and 1.60 valves 58cc chambers

Are they any good? I also pbm roller rockers, is it worthwhile to swap them out for a more reputable brand?



Thanks for the help sorry for so many questions

 

a 220 head on a 383 is about as dumb as a 200 head on a 350, the port can't really start working until around 2500 rpm. But since you already have them, best to just tune around them.
Once you get the head off, take it to a local machine shop and have them vacuum-test the ports to check how well the valves are seating.

 

How much will they charge to do this?

 

depends on the shop, but this is a $10 type of thing. Well worth it.

 

I see, ill definitely do this. Is there anything else i should check out while im down there?