Hey this is my first rebuild on my first car, I'm 18 and in college at the moment. I have a 1983 Camaro z28 with a 1978 truck 350. The motor has a forged crank, Pink rods, and .030 forged pistons that have been balanced. It also has 1.5 roller rockers, flowtech shorty headers and ypipe, and full flowmaster exhaust.

The reason I tore the motor down was that a rocker stud had broken off. A year ago a rocker stud pulled out. I have been wanting to change heads instead of keeping the 882 anchors. I have considered buying vortec heads from a junkyard for 50 bucks and rebuilding them with LS springs, and comp retainer and lock along with a cam and lifter set. I also wanted an air gap intake.

Another option is a set of aluminum heads locally that are ALL PRO aluminum heads, Professional ported 62cc chambers 2.08in/1.6ex valves, Edelbrock Victor Jr. aluminum intake, Crane Gold rockers, stud girdles, Crane pushrods, ARP headstuds and extras. This seems like a much easier option because I don't have all the extra work to use the vortec heads. I was planning on using close to a 268 summit cam.

Would these heads and cam be too much for the street, is there a better cam matched with those heads, and i'm not that worried about gas mileage, but what could I expect? A victor jr isn't the best intake for the street I don't believe so I might use my weiand Stealth intake. And I will reuse my Holley 600, MSD distributor, 8.5mm wires, and exhaust.

 

I dropped my crankshaft off at a machine shop so they could turn it. It was .010, and will now be .020. I am looking for main and rod bearings, both .020

Also, I looked up my torque converter and it's only a 1400 stall or something I guess from the truck. I heard you can use newer s10 v6 4.3 converters and they are 2200 stall. Is this correct, or even a good idea to use? I want a cheap converter, but may just get one later on. Along with 3.73 gears and rear end.

 

I talked to the guy that has the heads and they are All Pro 220 heads, 62cc, 2.08in/1.6ex.
From what I have read a 220 will be fine as long as I run a street cam with them. Which cam i'm not sure yet.

 

Don't try to "crutch" too big a head with a cam. You're way better off matching the heads and cam to work together. For a mild cam like that 268 you're considering something the 180-190cc head would be a much better match.

Go with an aftermarket converter (matched to the RPM range of your cam). A V6 converter might stall higher but it also wasn't really built to take the higher torque of a strong running V8.

 

Use a 180cc head, and keep your dual-plane intake.

Then, your cam choice and your 2.73 gears will be fine.
Put the money into a good quality locking converter.

 

I really haven't picked a cam out yet. I do want some cam. This motor is built to make the power, but I also want it streetable. This seems like a steal for these heads that need valves resurfaced.

I'm thinking about just putting my 882's back on and searching for a good set of aftermarket heads. I'm ordering the tool to pull and tap for screw in studs, and want to pull out the dremel to either do some small porting, or to polish them up.