Corbrastang

I started my father's 66 427/390hp today and it blew a heavy amount of smoke out of the pipes upon start up and continued to smoke for about a minute. Everytime i revved it up a little smoke came out of the pipes and under hard acceleration it heaves out a good plume. It has been getting progressively worse for the last year. The car has 78,000 original miles and from what i can tell it does not appear that the engine has ever been pulled or rebuilt. It has a very thick casing of oil on everything but the oil pan. The car has a long list of records in a 3" binder that is about 5" thick with paper and there is no mention of cylinder head or engine work.
My thoughts are that the engine will need to be rebuilt sometime in the next year, maybe sooner. Its consuming about a 1/2 quart of oil ever 50 mile now. Now, before i go further, this is a driver quality car. The only thing nice about the undercarriage is where i rebuilt the front suspension and replaced the gas tank. It has a one piece front end and will never be a show car.
Anyway, i would like to purchase a set of aluminum heads and a nice aluminum intake for him as a surprise. He has helped me out in countless ways over the years and has been a great friend and father. I know he would really like for the car to run its best and have great performance, not to mention be a little lighter up front. My budget will be around 2200-2400.00 for the heads and intake.
Thoughts?
-Does the Edelbrock performer intake clear the stock big block hood? Other suggestions for intakes that will have the water fittings and choke mount in the stock locations?
-Which aluminum heads does everyone like? I love AFR cylinder heads, but at 2400.00, they are a little too pricey. I see that Edelbrock sells some assembled heads for around 900.00 a piece

Thanks in advance!

LB66383

Edelbrock makes good heads. I just put a set of Patriot heads on my 383 and am happy with how it runs. Much stronger than before.

But what concerns me is the age of your engine. Putting new heads on an old block can be a waste of money. If the rings and bearings are worn out, you're not gaining anything, and putting more stress on worn parts. You might be better off to put your budget toward a stock rebuild.

1snake

I'm a big fan of Edelbrock Performer RPM heads. All the bolt holes have Heli-coils and the hardware is made in the U.S.A. AFR's flow a little better but their hardware is junk and prone to failure and should be replaced.

Jim

Corbrastang

My bad for not stating the plan more clearly. The engine will be fully rebuilt. Im just going to surprise him by adding the components while it is at the shop.


I used the Edelbrock performer heads on a small block and thought they were great, but i have not heard any feedback on the Big Block heads yet.

bdhulderman

Maybe you should talk to the shop guy and see what he recommends, since he's doing the work.

aworks

I think Edelbrock is the only one that makes a closed chamber oval port head. If you rebuilding the whole thing you can get rid of the closed chamber pistons. Then you have many choices. The Edelbrock performers are an excellent head for a mild street engine.

Mossy66

Why does he want it to be lighter in the front end? Does he drive it fast and is looking for performance, or does the car lack power steering?

If it's because of the lack of power steering, I would get the Borgeson kit and do a good rebuild on the motor. With a fresh rebuild it should run noticeably better, and I guarantee he'll like the power steering. Also, if you lighten up the engine that much you may have the front end sitting higher than you like.

Good luck!
Gerry

6T7L71CPE

Geez, this close to Christmas I hate to sound ugly, but with your rotten luck with rebuilds, you might be better off to get your Dad a VORTECPRO. You'll have pert near half the cost just in the AL heads. $0.02

Corbrastang

They do the machine work, i usually put together the components. But yes, i will ask for their .02 as well.

Corbrastang

-It never hurts to take weight off the front. The cast intake appears to weigh at least 30 pds and the heads are 60??? pounds a piece. total of 150 pounds. I figure by switching to aluminum you are taking about 75 pounds off.
The car does not have power steering and it is a bit of a pain to turn in the driveway.
Those are good ideas though. we would enjoy power steering and i had not thought of the spring issue. I put grand touring springs on the front end, so i am not sure if it would rise up like the stock springs. However, my mostport 427 66 is sitting very high right now just with the heads and intake removed.

Corbrastang

The only rotten luck i have had, besides the oiling issue with the 427, was purely due to bad machine shops.

Look, im just asking for opinions on cylinder head brands and i would appreciate it if we kept it that way. This is a build that will happen in the future when the engine goes and from the looks of it, that will be in about 6 months if he continues to drive it weekly.

63Corvette

The pistons and heads from the hydraulic lifter engines are not interchangable with those of the HiPo engines. That is, the lower compression, oval port heads must be used with the lower compression pistons of the 390/400hp engine, and the higer compression pistons of the 425/435hp engine must be used with the rectaangular port heads. The MATERIAL doesn't matter. Aluminum heads are fine if you can afford them.
Now the low performance engines had cast pistons which FAIL when subjected to high rpms. I suspect that your piston rings have broken and are getting worse, and/or one or more pistons are cracked in the land area. If your block is unusable or needs boring, you might as well buy the HiPerformance short block with forged crank and pistons and four bolt main caps. I am only pointing out that if you choose to do this, then you must buy the appropriate (aluminum or iron) heads to match. Aluminum heads will likely cost MORE than whatever short block you buy, so in your case, since you state that your car is only a "driver" it would probably make the best economic sense to buy a complete "crate" engine from Gene Culley or someone and get one which comes with the aluminum heads that you want. It would come with a warranty, rather than paying a shop to build you an engine.

69ttop502

I believe the Edelbrocks and GM's which are the same head, are the only big block head with the exhaust port in the stock location. All the others have it raised to some degree which could interfere with the fitting of exhaust components. I have the AFR's on my 502 powered 69and I had to extensively modify my Hooker sidemounts to work. Great heads though.

Bill

Steve439

I have the GMPP version of the heads on a '66 390HP shortblock and I like them a lot.
I bought them about ten years ago so things may have changed since then, but here are my observations:

Supposedly the Edelbrock valve springs are on the weak side.
I haven't measured mine but I don't think GM used the same springs so it doesn't really matter...
Off the top of my head I'm thinking people say the springs are installed with a little too much height.
Again, this may be old information...

I used the 110cc version. I didn't CC mine but from what I've read they are usually about 112cc.
At .060 over, zero deck, an .039 gasket, and TRW 390HP pistons I'm about 9.5 compression.

I used the GM intake that is CNC matched to the roval ports.
The match is pretty much perfect.
From what I understand it's an Edelbrock RPM intake.
It just fits under my '67 big block hood with a stock drop base air cleaner and 3" filter.
I'm not positive it would clear a '66 big block hood.
I think the '67 has slightly more room.

Edelbrock has those new E-Street heads which are cheaper, but I don't know anything about them.
If they downgraded the equipment I don't think I'd get 'em just to save a hundred bucks...

amtronic1

My approach would be different. Pull the original engine and seal it up as-is. Stick in a 454-502 crate engine. You will then always have the option of reinstalling the original engine for an unrestored/untouched car. The crate engine would cost a little bit more than doing a rebuild, but the advantage is the car would be available almost immediately instead of down for however many weeks the rebuild would take.

Steve439

Bill, the Brodix Racerites (sp?) have the exhaust in the stock location.
They're supposed to be nice heads, but they cost about $300 more than the Edelbrocks.

kellsdad

This thread inspired mine:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c1-a...-question.html

amtronic1

Buy the cheapest you can find. Since you want to put them on a tired 78,000 mi. engine, when it blows at least you won't loose an expensive set of heads.
Use some cardboard head gaskets and cheap store brand oil, don't want to waste good money on a bad decision.

narlee

In post #4 he states they will be installed when the engine is rebuilt.

amtronic1

That info was lost in the chaff. Then, nevermind. I still would go outside the box and do a crate engine. But really, any of the aluminum heads available would be a good choice. Look for a deal on a set that already have all the parts installed.