I'm wondering which one has the advantage over the other in terms of flow numbers.

 

I am not 100% sure on this, but I do believe the vortec heads have better flow. If you use a big cam you will have to make the spring seats larger and use bigger springs. I think they are the best flowing stock heads for a 350.

 

Vortecs flow better. No need to cut the spring seats, just budget for a set of "beehive" springs.

 

so then with I have 2 engines to assemble; one a 305 the other a 350. I'll be putting the l98 heads on the 305. Thanks for the input

 

Ok been looking into getting vortec heads for my 355 but really want some aluminum heads. Did gm make factory aluminum vortec heads?

 

No, but GMPP sold them over the counter.

 

Fastburns
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-12464298/
http://www.superchevy.com/technical/...s/viewall.html

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56505

 

Ok well that pretty much summed that up. I really like the vortecs and the fast burns are really expensive. Would it be worth it to spend the extra money to get the aluminum instead of iron.

 

I've got an L98 TPI 350 and plan to get a set of Procomp aluminium heads from Skip White. Skip take the Procomp castings and replaces the springs and valves.

Apparently the Procomp heads are Chinese knockoffs of the Edelbrock heads.

From what I've heard it's a good combination and less than half the price mentioned in the links above.

 

there are more trustworthy cheap heads than those pro comps.

Summit aluminum heads are most likely Brodix. Jegs aluminum heads are Pro-filers. Then there's Patriot aluminum heads, which I say are better than Pro Comp definitely.

 

Weight savings wise the vette heads win obviously, flow number wise, the vortecs spank the vette heads.

 

They also sell a gmpp bowtie vortec in 185cc and 215cc i believe. "large port" "small port" lol but for the price id run something else in aluminum. Unless you neeeed an iron head

 

please, do yourself a favor and spend the money and get a quality head not that Chinese crap.
Cheap is never good

Would really suck if you got everything buttoned up went to put your rockers on only to find out they wont line up with the valves, one of many horror stories out there. Stuff costs more for a reason!

Keep saving and wait

 

I bought a set of used AFR 190's for $900. Having them freshened up at the machine shop cost about another $400, then had them milled down to bump up compression, about another $150. So altogether, about $1450. Do I regret it? No way! The heads perform awesome! The only thing I kinda learned the hard way is that for a few hundred more, I could've just ordered brand new 195 Eliminators straight from AFR! But like Cuisinart said, there's definitely a reason why you pay more money. It's a real crapshoot when you're looking at buying a "cheap" set of Chinese crap heads! Also, some of the money you may save by going with Vortec heads, you just turn around and spend on an expensive intake manifold that'll work between your injection setup and the unique Vortec style ports. Besides, I don't care what anyone says, aluminum heads are just plain sexy!

 

Only real good import head is from dr j and chad speier. They use a casting that is done overseas but its high quality. Then a cnc profile is cut into it and assembled with quality components. Problem is they are larger heads for more radical builds, but i thought there was a 195cc version somewhere.

But like said there are sub 1100 dollar aluminums by jegs and summit and pro-filer and dart shp. All usa casted i believe and should be better quality than chinese castings but as said above there are some good castings done over there.

 

The blueprint engines aluminum heads arent bad. Imported castings, machined and assembled stateside, published flow numbers for them show that they're decent but not great.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MLL-H8002K/

You can get the Jegs/Summit/Profilers for about the same price, though, and they're all made by more established brands.

 

Keep forgeting about blueprint. They do seem like good products just havent seen them used

 

Patriots are made offshore and milled stateside, my engine builder was very impressed with their quality. No issues so far, but no flow-testing or dyno figures. Mfr says they are basically an aluminum Vortec design with ports configured for standard SBC, bolts up to a standard or TPI intake.