Drac0nic

If you know someone that can fab and mod the base/heads for you, more power to you on using the Vortecs. My opinion on this is why pay $400 for the price of a base and then the price of the Vortecs however? It would make more sense to get a set of aluminum heads which would flow better weigh less and only cost slightly more. By the time you get done modifying the heads, buying the heads and buying the base you'll be about 2/3rds the way to the cost of these.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/60899/10002/-1

ZZ3Astro

True the cost approaches aluminum heads, but it's still considerably more. Those heads from Jegs are not centerbolt.. it costs about $300/pr more to get those specs in a centerbolt head. That's basically $1400 and I can get AFR 180 Eliminators for that. However you make a good point, as the cheapest brand new Vortec heads I can find are $600/pr assembled, then you add the intake and you're at $1000. The AFR makes a lot more sense in that light. Guess I need to add another $500+ to my budget

Drac0nic

Don't forget the lift restrictions on the vortecs and the coin to modify them to deal with that.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

something else to consider are the summit heads, they're reboxed Brodix IK series

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-162109/

ZZ3Astro

I don't plan on running a very aggressive cam so that wouldn't be an issue. Those heads look good but those too are perimeter bolt like the other link. I don't see a centerbolt version of those.

Got the car running happy again - the problem did end up being what I suspected. Oil fouling on #7 sparkplug. It's been a problem on this car since I got it so nothing new. Can't wait to get inside this engine and see what is leaking where though. I use coolant as well as oil :-)

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

that's nasty stuff! that thing is going to be a new animal with 8 healthy holes

ZZ3Astro

As bad as this looks, the other 7 aren't that bad. Only one other cylinder has been an oil fouler and a couple others make other deposits - coolant maybe. None as much as this one does, but probably bad enough to need changing. Anyway I ran 7.8's on this plug and have only driven about 60 miles since. It has between 1500 and 2000 miles on it total.

I'm sitting here reading that plug and it seems to be indicating "boost too low". Perhaps a 16 psi tune is in order for the evening?!

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

of course!!!!!!!!!


enough boost and the oil can't make it to the cylinder lmao

Doom86

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-162108/

same head but center bolt.

I really do not like 2.02 1.6 valves in a 170cc head though. But with turbo it may not matter that the port speed at the valve is low. Don't know how turbo would handle that my self, I would personally go with bigger runners or smaller valves.

EQ and RHS also have comparable offerings check them out too.

It's good to know that those summit heads are stamped and reboxed IK's. But to be honest if I have to look at a summit advertisement every time I pop my hood they are going to have to drop the price considerably.

ZZ3Astro

Thanks Doom... those look quite tempting except for the advertisement on the end, but since I'm running full accessories and lots of plumbing most people wouldn't even notice they were aluminum. I wonder how the exhaust flow is on these. They have fairly large exhaust volume for 170cc intakes. That is a good thing in my case though.

Drove the car to dinner tonight, didn't miss a beat. I didn't put the boost up though... too much fun just driving it after not touching it for a couple of weeks.

ZZ3Astro

SUM-162108 Cylinder Heads, Aluminum, Assembled, 62cc Chamber, 170cc Intake Runner, Chevy 1987-95, 5.7L, Pair $995.95


Complimentary Discount $149.39
Delivery and Handling Charge $12.95

Order Subtotal $859.51


Gotta love that early december discount.

62cc combustion chambers would put me at 8.9:1 with my planned build. I was thinking about shooting for 8.5 to 9.0, so this would be on the higher side of that range. This works out good because I can run a thicker head gasket if I need to get it down.

Discount expires later this week, so I need to make a decision soon!

ZZ3Astro

Uhgggg the nightmare of finding the right parts that will work together! So I'm down to this:

I have to use straight plug heads, or I'll have to build an exhaust manifold for the driver side. I'm also not sure yet if I can make angle plugs clear the crossover tube that drops down out of the passenger side manifold. I know they won't clear the driver side drop down. Since I have an 87, the middle bolts of the intake are 72 degrees. I can't remember if the 85/86 bases have standard and if they do I'm not sure if they are interchangeable with the 87 runners of not.

If not, theoretically this just added $400 for an aftermarket base or possibly more if I have to fab up new manifold(s).

I really want to make TPI work, but $1400 for heads and another $400 intake, another $2500 into the bottom end and I could have a LQ4/LQ9 and a new turbo, a lot more go and a ton of money left over. This is probably the reason most go that direction. At some point I have to cut my losses. Hopefully I can make a stock base work with the non-angle heads.

NufNuffZ28

iTrader: (10)

The runners will work with any base...

And, my Iroc had centerbolt straight angle heads, with a stock 87 base...

They were Edelbrock Performers.

Keep the TPI ALIVE!

ZZ3Astro

Yeah I have been researching tonight.. looks like the straight plugs will be on order tomorrow. I was going to 180's but might go for the 195's for future potential

hairysox33

iTrader: (4)

Just tossing this option out there... In case you had not known about these Patriot's

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PAR-2169/

Honestly seems like a good deal.

Doom86

If you are considering 195's the best "deal" I know of are the Profiler's for a $1000 from one of our sponsors.

They could eat anything that TPI could feed and then some. Really awesome heads for the money.

junkcltr

iTrader: (1)

Yes, if you are going to start going with expensive aftermarket parts then I would just stick in the newer GM equivalent that is much cheaper.
It comes down to how much HP do you want. Just using a basic Gen 1 with a hand ported set of steel generic heads and small cam with make 300+ BHP. Add 15 PSI to it and you are up around 550HP or better.
If you want 800+ BHP numbers then I would use the LSx series and get it over with. You can put a crank wheel on it and run your MS-x ECM. I think the later ones are able to use the stock trigger wheels.

ZZ3Astro

I looked at the profiler and it seems they only offer 210cc heads. The photos on their site only shows them with perimeter valve cover bolts as well. Also they are angle plug and that's another no-no with my setup for now.

The Patriot heads are perimeter bolt only and about 30 cfm down from the AFR's, but a good price indeed. I just checked all listed version at Summit and they don't list any with center bolt.

With the 15% discount at Summit right now the AFR's end up at $1244 and I get centerbolt, a better match on port size and straight plugs. Not to mention about 30 cfm per side more than the Patriots. Unfortunately my Duramax seems to have gotten severe fuel contamination today and it looks like it might get expensive. I'm running out of time to use the discount, but I'm hesitating on spending money for heads that will be sitting around collecting dust while I'm paying for fixing the truck. Oh well.

Doom86

These guys at Profiler would do so much business if they just got their information organized.

They do for sure have 195's and I see why you would think they don't searching on google. The first hit barely mentions the 195's. But the flow data for the 195's is right on the front page of their homepage.

Chad Speier has R&D this head to death and has solid info on his page; http://www.speierracingheads.com/profiler.htm

It makes no mention of the intake bolt patterns but says either center or perimeter covers. You are right on it does only mention angle plugs. I would call and clear that up because these heads are a steal at a grand even.

Drac0nic

Did you pull the trigger? I have one other thought on this as well. Build a decent bottom end, then just bowl blend the heads, get a 3 angle valve job and back cut the valves. Probably get you near 200 on the intake and a lot better than stock on the exhaust. No it's not a set of Vortecs or anything but say you have 300 into the heads at that point. Combine that with a ported base, a decent cam and go from there. Heads are fairly simple to upgrade compared to a short block. Just my take on it. Not only that but you'll keep with the "stockish" ideal that you have for this build.

ZZ3Astro

No I haven't bought yet. Unfortunately my Duramax got a bad case of fuel contamination and I held off to see what that was going to cost me. When the estimate climbed over $2000 I talked to my insurance and they are covering it. Good thing I did, because $2000 didn't fix it and now we're at $7500.

Knowing I'm only out the deductible, I finally decided to go ahead with the AFR head order this week. Well as my bad luck would have it, the discount code no longer works. So now there is no hurry on ordering the heads.

I've read about cleaning up the stock iron heads and such. Maybe for someone who's got plenty of time to burn up it's a good deal. For me, my back bothers me if I sit for hours doing something like porting. I'd rather just spend the extra on aftermarket heads and bolt them on.

HF_monster

I don know if you have bought heads already but look into the EQ 350E iron heads you can get them off of ebay for 99 a piece bare vortec chambers 12 bolt intake 1.94/1.50 valves center bolt 170cc runners 64cc chambers they are 906 based heads just some food for thought.

NufNuffZ28

iTrader: (10)

Hate to bust into your thread with a queston, but I have been following it and figured you could help me with my megasquirt setup as thirdgen is not being very helpful for me

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/dfi-...side-c207.html

ClearwaterBlue

any updates on this build?

34blazer

Yeah look up a couple of threads