DO2G

I’m ready to upgrade my heads. See specs below:

1978 L-82
4 Speed
3.70 Gears
Edelbrock 2101 Intake
Stock Carb
Dual Exhaust
Stock Exhaust Manifolds
Cam Lunati Spec:
Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 268/276
Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 227/233
Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .489/.504
LSA/ICL: 110/106

Budget is $1000 on the heads.

Questions:

1. Which heads do you recommend? I was looking at Edelbrock E-Street or Brodix IK180.

2. Which head gasket?

3. Can I reuse my factory rockers and push rods? If not, what would you recommend for use with factory valve covers?

4. What do you think the HP would be?

SOMFormula

I was looking at the Summit Racing Vortech heads!

I was up in Tahoe this weekend, so I drove over to Summit Racing in Sparks to do some "shopping" (I didn't want to pay the extra shipping charges on my exhaust that I wanted) and I ended up talking to one of the counter guys there.

He had a SBC350 in his El Camino. He did the cast iron Vortech heads. They have the Summit logo etched into them. He made 318rwhp and 400lbft tq on a dyno jet with those heads. NO work. just bolted them on.

They run $304ea. Thats assembled with valves and springs. All you need are head bolts and rockers for the swap. I would run hardened push rods in ANY application ($100 insurance IMO).
I would also run a budget roller tip rocker arm at only $160 for a set, you can't go wrong! Full roller's will set you back about twice that. BUT, the stock rockers will work too. But the full roller's will prolong engine oil life as well as cam life. AND give you a bit more HP with a higher RPM :-D

So, about $608 for the Heads. $260 for the pushrods and rockers. That's $868. That leaves you a little for gaskets and bolts.

I haven't looked further into the heads or anything, but for a budget build, I'd be willing to pick those up and do some home port/bowl work and go from there. Might be a good option instead of Aluminum.

zekie

hi.do2g

you should check out in the for sale site there a member name blown 346 selling use aluminum head from brodix with 500 mi around your price hope this help good luck

wiseman79

I used S/R Torquers on a mild engine in the past. They are a good mild upgrade from stock but you wouldn't end up with your stock exhaust, carb, etc bottle necking them too much like a set of street/strip heads would be. Your pushrods and rockers would transfer fine, I won't pretend to be a performance expert but from what I've read I'd think a 25 hp or so increase would be possible. The heads would respond better to headers of course unless you are going for a stock look. I can't swear that's the best choice as I'm just a hobbyist and not a pro, but I would at least add them to your list to consider, they are around your budget also.

dochorsepower

Don't forget that with Vortec's you need the Vortec manifold. But the fast burn chamber and the improved ports make the prior generation designs obsolete.

DO2G

I'm not really interested vortecs.

ZZ71S

You need to find one of those compression calculators and try to get your compression ratio at 10 to 1ish this will help with head gasket thickness.
To be safe you should measure for hardened pushrods.
If you are going to spend the money on nice heads the exhaust manifolds neeed to go.
You can find lots of examples of 400plus hp engines with 10 to 1 comp good heads headers and well matched cam.