So as I found out yesterday, one of my 461 heads is cracked under the seat. These heads are over 50 years old and the intake is a single plane Edelbrock Torker from the 70s. I'm looking to upgrade to new heads and intake as well as put the front of the engine back to semi-stock with stock water pump, alternator mounting and power steering pump. I have all of my 82 Trans Am original brackets and the original power steering pump. I'm guessing modern aluminum heads will have the provisions I need to mount these back unlike the camel hump heads which had no bolt holes.

The machine shop has told me they can get me a set of Patriot aluminum heads with 2.02 valves ready to bolt on the engine and go for about $875 a set that includes everything. I'd also like to run an Edelbrock dual plane air gap intake but I'm not sure it will clear the hood. Looking for some advise. This is a small journal 327 with 10:1 flat top pistons and a 325 hp cam. I currently run a 2200 stall torque converter and have a 3:42 posi rear. I'm not looking to make a horsepower monster or spend a ton of money on heads because realistically, the car is only driven to shows and back and the occasional cruise. The camel humps worked fine for this, but now one is cracked, so the whole top end has to go. I'm also going to lose my streamlined valve cover setup and have to re-route my heater hose configuration.

Here is how the engine looked and even with this taller intake and some slight modification, I'm able to run the stock air cleaner and the cowl induction unit and it clears.



Here is what it looks like now sadly:


I'm pulling the other head tomorrow.

 

Bryan this is Marc give me a call. I may be able to help. I just left you a voice mail.

 

I have patriot heads they are decent but they had some issues. If you get them go bare and have machine shop assemble.

 

Intakes are fairly cheap and you will find plenty used on Craigslist and in swapmeets. Myself I really really like the Performer air gap on my C3 Corvette. I didn't need the Performer RPM and the regular Performer is a bit lower.

Problem with cheap heads is quality control. So buying them through a machine shop should help but don't trust a plain repair shop as they will just bolt them on as is and give you the bill while dodging any problems with excuses it's another problem with your car/motor.

Good luck.

 

I used a set of 041 GM heads on my 350 powered 82 Z28 back in the day. It ran great for old school flat tappet engine.K1105 Summit cam ,TH350, 2400 stall converter and it turned 13.20s mild enough to daily drive to work every day. It would destroy 5.0s and Corvettes back then it was lots of fun. Great old school heads if you could find them they are 64cc.