I have my motor out of my car and on the engine stand for a once over, so far it has been bored .30 over with speed pro flat top pistons, a speed pro 179r cam in it (not really sue the specs on this came with the car) just picked up a performer rpm intake and am going to do a set of hooker competition headers platinum color ceramic coated, I had to send the stock heads to the machine shop to get looked at from what I can see they are stock for now, what should be my next mod to this motor? I don't have a big budget to work with since I just got the car and have a lot of body work to do still I just need to know where I should put more money into if any to make it a good performer/ driver car, I was thinking of doing a quick fuel 680 cfm carb in it but that's not for sure I have a perfect qjet sitting on the bench right now. Do I do roller rockers and change to screw in studs in my heads or leave them stock and fix the leaky valves,

 

I wouldn't sink any money into those old stock heads. For a few hundred more, you can get a nice set of aluminum heads.

Scott

 

Looks like a fairly good street cam. Copy of an old Chevy L79 street cam. You have got to change the cylinder heads though. Even a good set of aftermarket cast iron heads would be an improvement over the stock heads. Are you sure that the Performer RPM intake will give you adequate hood clearance? If you have a good Q-jet I'd put that on and save yourself some money. Just my .02.

 

Is your Performer RPM a square bore or spread bore?

Check out these heads:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Flo-Te...lug,25118.html

Car Craft did a test including these heads, they made comparable power to vortec heads:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...t/viewall.html

Scott

 

The intake was the performer rpm 71013 dual plane, square bore in black

 

In that case, I'd stick with a square bore carb. I'm a cheapskate, so I'd probably scare up a re-buildable Holley 3310 or 1850.

Scott

 

what heads do you have now ? what size valves?

 

From what I can tell they are the stock single hump heads like a 194 I think not sure on valve size

 

Sell them off put together a few bux and get some aftermarkets
If you want to spend in the right place for power the heads are the jackpot

 

i agree the power is in the heads, and no doubt that is your best option, but if money is really tight get a porting kit from summit or somebody. watch some stuff on you tube and have at it. it worked before all this after market stuff came along , and it will work now too.will it be as good? depends on a lot of factors, but the sense of accomplishment is great. you can always upgrade later.

 

I agree with sense of DIY but most those vids on youtube are guys that dont have a clue about porting imo. Better to pay a pro

 

With the quality and price of aluminum heads that are available today, it's just not worth putting the time and effort or money into an old set of iron heads. People used to do it in olden times because there was really no alternative, but today there is. You can get decent aluminum heads for less than 750 bucks, really good ones for less than a grand, and great heads for less than 1500 smackers.

Scott

 

Check out Whiteperformance1 Ebay store.They have some nice budget heads.

 

there are some people that 250 dollars is a lot of money.and in "olden " times we had small blocks running tens and lower with home ported heads. i was just pointing out an option, does not mean it is the best just an option. i have much more respect for someone who does it themselves than someone who writes a check.

 

As another member has PM me about buying some take off parts from his vette, I do agree with doing aluminum heads but don't think that now is the right time for that when I have some big money to put into body and paint still, I would like to try and get the car back on the road this summer if I can and don't have an unlimited budget to work with. Remember who sent me a message told me he would send me the following parts for 600 bucks which I'm not sure if its a good deal or not and it is over my budget I was wanting to spend on this section right now in the car and i do have a set of working heads that would only cost about 150 to get back done correctly. Here is the list what do you think


* Comp Cams XE268 high energy cam - Coated by HPC coatings with a dry film lube to increase lifetime
* Comp Cams hydraulic lifters purchased with the cam (I have tagged these when they were removed to ensure you install them back in the same position as lifters will 'mate' with their lobe of the cam and you shouldn't move them)
* Chevy 041 casting cylinder heads with
* 62cc combustion chamber
* chamber has been clearanced to unshroud the larger intake valve
* 2.05 Ferrea 5000 series intake valves
* 1.60 Ferrea 5000 series Exhaust valves
* Comp Cams spring to match cam (bought with the cam as a set) - These have been coated by HPC with a dry film coating to help oil flow over them and increase useful life
* Moroso pushrod guide plates
* ARP 3/8 inch screw in rocker studs
* The heads have been ported by a previous owner
* all the work I had done on the heads was performed by Boyettes Racing shop in Raleigh. Before I installed them they made sure everything was good and installed the new valves (3600 miles ago)
* Accessory bolt holes have been drilled in the front of the heads to allow for the alternator mount (atleast on my 78, what year was your car?)
* I have the set of ARP head bolts that were used to bolt them in on my old motor. I bought new but will throw these in if you want them (probably still better than stock bolts)
* Comp Cams 1.52 ratio roller tip rockers
* Comp Cams double roller timing chain set with cam timing adjuster (I dialed in the cam when first installed and verified that it was ground correctly, so you should just have to install it.

 

Performance and low budget are two words that don't do well together in the same sentence. From a been there done that perspective, my .02 would be to keep the Q-jet, find an intake it'll fit if you don't already have one, and get it back in the car for cheap. The cam you have isn't all that big, so if you're leaving anything on the table power wise,..it aint much. When the time comes that you can afford it,....revisit this.

The reason I post this is based on my own experience. Once the horsepower bug hits,...you'll need to upgrade fuel delivery, cooling system,exhaust,...driveline,.....tires,. ...all expensive. I did three transmissions before I ended up with one that held up to my 540 horse 406.

The 350 you have should get 17-20 mpg and last 120,000 miles,..I built one like it, and drove it six years daily, year round. The 406 I have now gets 11 mpg, and I hardly drive it at all now.

 

Full disclosure, I am the other member and these have been freshly pulled from my car, so if there are any questions about them, I'm happy to answer.

These 041 heads were my personal journey down the path of trying not to spend $2K on great aluminum heads. In the end, I spent almost that much on these getting them worked and redone. Lesson learned (and a new set of AFR 195 eliminators are taking their place ). So like many of you, I have now spent WAY too much on heads for the vette.

That said, I'm working with KuhnDar to compute his static and dynamic compression ratios to see if the parts are even a good fit for his bottom end. Nobody has any interest in another member bolting up stuff that's just not going to be happy together.

Also, these parts came out of a 4-speed car with a 3.70 rear. KuhnDar, is your car an auto or a 4-speed and do you know the rear end ratio?

Having been down this path before with building an engine, you should be aware that you will most likely also have to buy pushrods (if the length required is different for the new combo) and I am sure that there will be other expenses as well.

As stated above, these types of upgrades can be addictive (my motor was built only 3600 miles ago and I am tearing it apart again to get more power). It's a fun journey, but it ain't cheap

If your budget is the overriding factor, I would agree that the best route may be to simply refinish what you have, re-assemble the car and enjoy the heck out of it.