I was gona get my stock 350 TPI heads valve guide bosses milled down and get the spring seats bored to 1.46 from 1.25. My machine shop guy said i would be better off getting aftermarket heads. I told him i was thinking about Trick Flow 23 degree heads but he said world heads would work too. But im on a tight budget. Im getting a zz4 cam and have priced new springs. What do yall think? new heads are at least 700+ fully assymbled. I dont want to switch to vortec so dont mention it.

 

Well, there's a couple of options.

1.) Buy a set of Vortec Heads from Scoggin Dickey (already set up with springs for higher lift cams), but that means you need a dedicated TPI base manifold from them. That's going to run about $400 for the intake, and about $500 for the heads.

2.) Trick Flow, Edelbrock, or Canfield aluminum heads. Prices are around $1,100 for the set depending on which set you use.

3.) Pro Topline or World iron heads. Not sure about the price, but I think about $700 is right.

4.) Get your stock heads decked, new valves installed (probably 2.02/1.60s), and the valveguides replaced at the machine shop. Buy a cutter to do the spring seats at home. Elongate the pushrod slots too if you want to run 1.6 rockers (there's a reasonably price tool for this too). Do some home porting on the heads (cheap grinders are available from Harbor Freight, use double cut burs on cast iron). I've got to believe that this can all be done for around $500 or less, though the power potential is less than aftermarket heads (still a massive improvement over stock though). If you don't like what the one machine shop told you, look for another one. A lot of machine shops only want to do things one way, and if you feel that there's a confilct, or that you aren't getting sound advice talk to another shop, or two. If you hear the same thing every time then I think you can safely say you're getting sound advice, but I've rarely seen that happen. I'm not saying that these guys aren't knowledgable, or experienced, but you really need to deal with a shop you feel comfortable with, otherwise you'll most likely be disappointed with the results.