Hey guys. I was looking for some budget heads for a '89 350tpi. I was mainly just looking for some heads I could get for $500 or less and clean up myself. There are some double hump heads for sale on my local Craigslist for $250 and I was wondering if they would be a big improvement over stock? I was planning on putting some aluminum roller rockers on them and maybe doing some light porting work myself. Also, can you put 55-87 heads on a later motor. Sorry, I couldn't find much information. Thanks!

 

Your money would probably be better spent on something other than heads. Whatever you do I wouldn't put those old style heads on there.

 

Really? I've only heard good things about them.

 

Vortecs are WAY better. Those are the old style bolt pattern and perimeter bolt valve cover. Your intake will have to be slotted to bolt in the middle. You current valve covers won't work. If your wanting to spend some money on performance, try some tuning. You'll just be disappointed if you swap for those heads. If you want to stick with TPI, put some hi flow runners on it, or switch to the HSR. At the very least go vortec if you are dead set on swapping heads.

 

Would vortecs bolt right on? And do you mean the vortecs off of the mid 90's tbi motors?

 

I mean vortecs as in 96-99 truck engines. They'll bolt straight to the block, but they do require a vortec specific lower intake manifold.