This probably won't be your average question, but what were some of the aftermarket heads and camshafts you bought, or considered buying back in the day when our cars were new, and why did you choose them over "X" brand's heads / camshafts?

 

Unless you have a radical engine, buy the Small Port Bowtie Vortec heads. Best seat of the pants bang for the buck. Virtually any cam manufacturer is OK, again unless radical engine, because you are looking for a proper grind, not necessarily the manufacturer.

 

My engine is fairly mild and I would not use those heads. For less than the cost of the small port Bowties I built a set of Assault Racing 200cc aluminum heads and had them ported by Lloyd Elliot. I have them on a 9.6:1 Vortec 350 short block in my 1997 Express van. Alot more bang for the buck. I fit 0.100" longer than stock valves and 1.7 Scropio full roller rockers with 7/16" short poly locks under stock height perimeter bolt valve covers that just squeeze under the stock vortec a/c compressor bracket with minor clearance grinding. Run a ported mercruiser marine EFI intake with the plenum opened up for a 90mm throttle body. Custom aluminum tube/silicone hose 4" intake plumbing and a catridge style MAF in the 4" pipe. Stock GM 2002 8.1 Van air cleaner assembly with a K&N filter. Thorley Tri-Y headers into the factory 3" dual exhaust piping. Dual 3" in walker dynomax bus muffler (very quiet) with a 4" outlet and tailpipe. The last dyno was 395 RWHP @ 6,200 and 405 RWTQ @ 4,500 through a 4L85E (2nd gear converter locked pull) and 10.5" 14 bolt. I run a 1 meg LS PCM and 24x CNP ignition on E85. Over 350 RWTQ @ 2,000 rpm. Cam is a 215/224 @ .050 comp cam that degrees at 218/228 with the 1.7 rocker. 110 LSA and 106 ICL. With the 1.7 rocker it is 0.578/0.578 lift. I am about to swap the cross ram L31 marine intake out for a Mercruiser dual plane EFI manifold with matching 90mm throttle body. It is for all practical purposes a performer RPM intake with fuel injector bungs added. Trying to get even more torque out of it in the low-midrange.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech-general-engine/758457-assault-racing-heads.html

 

Despite having posted this, I agree with Fast355. When I purchased the Bowtie heads in 2011, they were $500. Today $825+ (WOW), and can find much better bang for the buck today which was the premise of the original post. But note that large ported heads are only truly valuable if you have the intake and exhaust components to match as Fast355 does.

 

Agreed! I built a 10:1 180cc port Dart Iron Eagle head 355 with a LT4 Hotcam. Ported lower intake; stock runers, ported plenum, headers, full exhaust. Runs pretty good. I would stick with 170-180cc intake ports with a long runner TPI. Bigger ports are a waste.

The bigger port heads in my setup really shine at 3,500+ where the free flowing intake and exhaust systems really let them breath though. I have my shift points set at 6,200 rpm (5,500 rpm with the travel trailer behind me in Tow/Haul) to keep the stock bottem end alive. I have played with shifts as high as 6,500 rpm and it is still pulling like a freight train. Nodular iron crank (like a ZZ4 uses), PM rods and hyper pistons are holding up well. I have spun that engine with my foot on the floor at 4,500-5,000 rpm for 100 miles straight pulling that travel trailer 70-75 mph into a 30 mph head wind trying to beat a bad storm. Was 906 Vortecs with 2.02/1.60 valves and the 395' Marine cam at that time. FWIW, Stock Vortec 350 bottem end is stronger than most would ever give them credit to be and those whole GM Goodwrech crate engines are very affordible.