Cascade Crew

[STEEL]

I didn't realize that the heads were sold individually. I thought that was for both... I feel REALLY silly.

So, I need to go to some vortecs, or to get some decent 350 heads and have Bud machine it for bigger valves and all.

e-bay

why are vortec's so cheap?

[alloy]

Well the heads you linked to are most likely cheap offshore knock off's. I'd stay away from them at all cost. The patriot heads from skip white performance seem to have a good rep. Mike and I discussed this, and I wasn't willing to gamble on an untried product. And I wanted the smaller intake ports for low end grunt.

The GM heads are cheap because they are mass produced by GM. They are on millions of stock vehicles. In their stock totally unmodified form they will support up to 400 horses. Not a bad deal really. Just have to mod them if you want more than about .450 lift.

[STEEL]

I will be running a .488 lift on a 383, whats a good head for me to use where I can get a PAIR for under $500?

EDIT: $500 after machine work and what ever else it needs.

[blue89]

What fuel system will you use? Running vortecs limit you to carborated or TPI (with an expensive edelbrock lower manifold).

[rjmcgee]

[91RSVert]

[Twilightoptics]

Pair for under $500? None.

[STEEL]

I will be going carbed, but my head problems are solved! I have been given the opportunity to tear into the engine bay of a mid 80s camaro over at Lakewood Transmission for $300. It supposedly has a 383 in it, and its got a fancy intake and all that jazz. The dude skipped the bill, so they re-possessed his new tranny and clutch, and now the car is going to auction. My grand father talked to the man in charge, and he said I can pull anything out of the engine bay as long as I can take it with me in one trip.

I am thinking if I pull the engine and steal the crank and rods, buy some pistons, and use my 4 bolt main block, then I can have a good engine + all the frills like headers, a distributor, an intake, ect. If this goes well, I will have spent MUCH less money, and have a hell of an engine.

Any one got an engine puller I can barrow for one day?

[rjmcgee]

Danked

[Schultzy89GTA]

[blue89]

Did someone say "danked" ?

Can you just offer them some money and drive the car home? How much do they want for it? Might be easier to do that then pull everything out on the lot.

[Raiden]

STEEL,

I'm sure you already know this, but most power can be found in the heads. You should calculate what the cost of the cam, changes to make a 383 and headwork is going to cost you. A 350 with a mild cam and AFR heads can easily push 450hp. I have the old AFR 190's. Trick flow heads are OK and you can get a set for under a grand. Just make sure not to get the twisted wedge style.....they perform great, but are plagued with problems! Trust me, I had a set Seriously, for the cost of the 383 and head work, you could easily afford a well built 350 and some hi performance heads. You can get a TON of power out of a 350 with the right cam/head combo, check out AFR’s website.

Are you using Buds Machine shop in Lakewood? If so, he's really good with engine and heads! I had all my internals balanced by him. His son is pretty darn good with engine building and head porting too!

Good luck!

[dlp]

[Raiden]

I had the TWS heads on my Vett. Long story short, I was told I had the G2 TWS heads with bronze valve guides....NOT! I used the correct push rod length and my guides wore out in less than 7K miles. I used a push rod tool to measure the proper angle and length, however, the instructions never did mention anything about this. Good thing I'm kind of anal about my stuff or they would have wore out sooner! I replaced my valve guides with bronze ones and sold the car a year later. Don't get me wrong, I had EXCELLENT performance from the TWS heads, almost as good as my AFR's! However, I had heard horror stories about the TWS heads and after that experience, I vowed NEVER to purchase any of their products again! I also had pretty shi!!y customer service to top it all off. AFR customer service also sucks, guess the cylinder head business is full of jerks:D. From my expereince with trick flow, if I"m going to spend 1000$ on a set of Trick flow heads, I'll spend the extra $300 bucks to get a product I can trust such as AFR or Brodix. On the brighter side, I have heard the newer trickflows..not the tws heads are a decent head. Even at that, the only thing I would ever use trick flows for is a door stop. I know this may sound harsh, but if I purchased AFR's and had similar problems......I would feel the same way toards them. Good thing they have a good product...cuz their customer service sucks as Trick flows sucks too

I see you live in Bothell, my mother and father inlaw live up there. they are pastons in that area.-

[Twilightoptics]

Gm/Holley/Brodix all the way!

[Raiden]

I'm sure STEEL would be fine with the new Trick flow heads. A lot of guys on TGO have had good luck with them. But for only a few hundred more, I hear the new AFR heads are simply AWESOME. I have not heard much about the Holley's?

dlp, I hope you don't think I was cappin on your stuff. I just had a really bad experience with trickflow. I forgot to add, another problem not communicated to me by trickflow was that I had to grind the stems on one side of my center bolt valve covers so my rocker arms would have clearance.

[dlp]

Thanks for the clarification. When I was assembling my engine I noticed the rocker tips didnt stay near the center of the valve when rotating the assembly. I called TF and they told me what lenght push rod to use. I was almost in the same boat as you were.
The information that came with the heads didnt mention what length pushrod to use. I paid 750.00 for mine, wish I would have stepped up and got the AFR,s . Havent had any problems with the TF's other than the valve springs are toast.

[Raiden]

dlp,

It's been over 10 years since I owned my Vett. I completely forgot about the valve springs. Mine were junk and I ended up spending more cash on better valve springs too. consequenlty, I did that with my AFR's too. I also had casting flaws on the holes that mate with the block to hold the head in place on my TWS heads. I had to use a die grinder to enable my heads to seat propelry on the block!

Yea, that is funny as the twisted wedge heads are shaped so different that one would think they would mention something about needing a different length pushrod? Yet they neglect to include that information in the directions which can and does lead to premature failure of the head. Trickflow knows that you need a different length push rod and yet there is absoultely NOTHING in the directions about the need for a longer lengthed pushrod....unless you ask! Make sure to get the push rod lenght checker tool. I think Trickflow requires you to use a certain brand push rod length checker...yes they neglected to tell me that too! I used a comp cams tool...and they said it was the wrong tool.........go figure.
As far as performance, the TWS heads work great! You got a great deal on your heads, hard to pass up those heads for that price! What car are you using the TWS heads on? I hope their customer service has improved from my experience and I pray you get all the correct little details they left out when I had to deal with them! such as valve guides, springs, push rod lenght and the proper brand of push rod lenght tool for the corect geometry.

Good luck, hope all goes well!

C

[STEEL]

It will be a while before I am ready to purchase a set of heads. I am just going to get some stockers (Not my nasty boat anchors, but some decent stockers, possibly off this Z28) and get them fixed up by Bud at the machine shop.

Once the engine is in and running, I will focus on a decent sound system (I did acquire a Bazooka style sub and a single channel amp I will be installing soon.) and then move onto getting a N2O set up, then at this point I will be ready to move into more high dollar parts.

Stockers for the win?

[Raiden]

Hmm, I"m putting my Z up for sale in a few months...asking 12,500 obo.