IMO you'd be better off fixing the iron heads.

Use Sofa's Magic Patented Copyrighted 2-Step Auto Parts Alchemy Transmutation Method:

1. Sell the valuable thing you can't use, thereby turning it into cash
2. Turn the cash into something you CAN use

In this case that would be, sell the motor with the aluminum heads (which people easily distracted by "V" things will pay dearly for), and use the money to fix the iron heads up RIGHT. Not a corner parts store job. Get a shop that does race work to do them for you.

 

The only real difference between the heads, other than aluminum, is the center intake bolt angles, and the way the EGR system is plumbed. On the Vette heads there's no EGR port, so the Vette intake has an inlet port near the back by the distributor that is plumbed into the #8 exhaust port on the header/manifold. You can plumb the Corvette intake into the exhaust on your Firebird and it'll work the same as in the Corvette, and it'd only cause a few issues like you'd have to relocate the divorced ignition coil. Now whether that's acceptable to CA smog? Who knows.

You might talk to your local machine shop and find out approx what they'll charge you to clean, magnaflux, and rebuild your old heads. Just bouncing numbers around in my head, it's probably not much more expensive to go with a pair of aftermarket heads. By the time you finish cutting or replacing valves and seats, milling, new valve guides, and whatever else - you might find yourself close to what a new set would cost. But then I view rebuilding virtually any SBC as a waste of time, since GM will sell you a crate engine for the same money or not much more, than the local machine shop that maybe does your job right, or maybe they lose parts, and throw whatever garbage in there, or otherwise do a **** job of rebuilding your engine...

 

 

The block of that other motor isn't the "valuable" part; the heads are.

Sell whatever is good to raise cash. Throw the rest away.

 

The corvette stuff isnt legal in a third gen in Cali. Yes it will pass the sniffer with it but once the tech sees the egr tube plumbed to the exhaust you will fail.

 

I have it on mine and it passes.

 

 

Incorrect. Had that setup on my GTA for the last fifteen years without it ever being an issue with SMOG techs.

 

Point it out at your next test and ask them. Or better yet give a ref a call and ask. Just because a tech doesn't see the hidden tube on the passenger side doesn't mean it is legal. Are you going to be responsible for the OP's smog if he takes your advice that he will pass and then fails visual? I bet not. The fact is it is not LEGAL according to CARB just because a few have not been caught is irrelevant.
So take it at your own risk. These days the techs have been questioning everything. It was a Pain last time for me to get slp headers to pass even when they are legal but with only a sticker under the hood and not a stamped EO number on the header.

 

 

Two forum members enter... One forum member leaves... Two forum members enter... One forum member leaves...

 

Good idea. Maybe I should do that! Then if it passes the sniffer maybe I should ask them to run it again just to make sure. Oh, and if I get pulled over I'll be sure to tell the policeman that I don't have a front plate either.

The tube isn't exactly hidden. Its pretty obvious. I've had a couple techs look right at it and acknowledge that it is an EGR passage. They have not ever given me the slightest trepidation about passing the visual because of it. Probably because it is the same setup that is on the Corvettes of that age. As long as it doesn't look out of place, they won't give you any issues. Headers, such as your SLP headers, are not stock nor do they look anything close to stock. Same as the headers on my car. Hence, questions about them. I have had to produce E.O. numbers for some of the parts on my car on different occasions, but not one single time has my runners ever been questioned. Why? Because they are the AS&M runners that look exactly like the stock runners to the average person. If it looks stock, they'll leave it alone.

As far as assuming liability, that is absurd. All of the advice given on these boards is "use at your own risk." We all know that.

 

I have passed several sniffer tests with the Corvette EGR tube over the last fifteen years that I've had it installed. Don't know if it matters, but I also have the Vortec heads and Scoggin-Dickey TPI intake.

 

 

Use the Firebird exhaust and fuel rail.