I have a 350 trans am bored .030. Not a whole lot of specials except headers new intake and maybe some valve train mods. Now a friend has offered me some 194 heads that have been ported and polished with a 3-angle valve job, and a .560 lobe cam, for $300. I understand that this is a tremendous deal because the cam is new and the heads have about 300 miles on them. But, would I be better to buy this deal now or wait for some other heads.

He says they flow to match 202 heads and I would be running 400hp. But I don't have a stall and I want to be able to run air conditioning. He said I can't have air conditioning because of the lope of the cam. I also want to keep above 10 mpg. Should I keep my cam and only get the heads, or try to sell the cam for one I need, or something else. I can get the cash real quick but is it worth it. I have jumped on "deals" before to later realize I should have waited. Is the sacrifice of having to buy a stall and not running a/c along with worse gas mileage too much to cancel out the benefits of a moster car??

Any ideas?

 

I guess that all depends on what heads they really are.

There are an enormous variety of SBC heads that came with 1.94" valves; LT-1 350s to smog junk in the 70s and 80s, and everything in between. That number is totally meaningless by itself. The thing that counts is the casting number.

It's virtually impossible to get a set of heads with 1.94" intake valves to outflow a set of real 2.02"-equipped heads. The castings that came with the bigger valves are just better, period. Of course anybody can graunch a set of 2.02" valves into any castings; but then, the flow is still limited usually by the ports, not the valves. Just jamming the bigger valves in doesn't necessarily make any improvement.

Factory heads come with a 3-angle valve job. That's nothing special, it is the minimum requirement for a proper replacement.

What is the cam, actually? Lots of cams have .560" lift, some might be a whole lot better than ithers for whatever the rest of your setup might be.

It sounds to me like you should do some more research into the specifics before you bite.

 

If I post the casting number, can you guys tell me if the heads are any good.

 

yup...post the number.