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I've done a lot of reading on this sight and I think I know what I need. I want better than average performance without spending a lot and I don't think I want a real hot rod. I do want torque and on demand horsepower but I'm still at the beginning of my project so I'm considering this more research.
My car is a matching numbers '78 with an L-48 and a 4-speed. I know from reading here that the intake and carb are more than adequate.
I just got a real dual exhaust that I'm installing it this weekend.
What I believe I need are better breathing heads. Probably 2.02 and 1.94's I'm guessing. Maybe 64cc to increase compression. But I want leaded pump gas.
I want sort of a stock looking car. I'm keeping my blue valve covers and black air cleaner. No headers no flash. I'll probably upgrade my wheels but that's another conversation.
So my question is this, I don't want to spend $1,000 on aluminum heads unless that's my only choice. I am looking to find out what used heads I should be searching for. I'm in no hurry. If it takes a year to find the right heads at the right price, I'm fine with that.
What I want are hands that give me the breathing and horsepower that I'm looking for that are direct bolt on using all the brackets and vacuum lines and all the other stock parts that I have.
You are going in the right direction with bigger valves, smaller chambers. But you are also choking those heads with exhaust manifolds, stock intake / carb. The bigger valves would also be limited by a low lift cam. Everything has to match and work in unison, hence the reason for "top end kits" (cam-heads-intake). Purchasing heads for performance are usually the last thing done by hot rodders, after cam, headers, etc.
As far as used heads, by the time you have new guides, springs, retainers, seals and sometimes valves plus labor, well, you could purchase new for less. I question wether spending $1,000-$1800 for aluminum heads is a good investment just for street cruising from traffic light to traffic light. But thats just me.
Aluminum heads had a bad reputation years ago with warping, coolant seepage, bad valve guides, etc. Today the machining quality is much better as are the alloys. If you have access to YouTube check out some videos on ProMaxx heads being cross-cut in half to show the inside. Pretty cool stuff.
Last edited by HeadsU.P.; Aug 22, 2017 at 01:39 PM.
For a budget street cruiser i would do a new cam, the alum 113 heads and 2.5 in ram horn manifolds. The 113s have 58 cc chamber but the alum. allows you to run more combustion. they are cheap and you can try painting them same color as engine. Ram horns will flow better than stock manifolds and look stock ish. Cam guessing 210/218 clost ot .500 as you can find
I know from reading here that the intake and carb are more than adequate.
The carb (assuming it's the quadrajet that came on your car) is adequate. Plenty of people using them on engines in the 400+hp range so perfect for you.
The intake is NOT adequate in my opinion. Not only is it heavy (iron) it doesn't flow as well as a modern intake. Pick up a Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake with the spreadbore (Qjet) bolt pattern for $100 on craigslist or ebay. It will give you a little more horsepower and torque and remove some weight from the front end.
Originally Posted by Norcoastal
What I believe I need are better breathing heads. Probably 2.02 and 1.94's I'm guessing. Maybe 64cc to increase compression. But I want leaded pump gas.
YES! Better breathing heads are key. The two best cheap options would either be the iron vortec heads or the 113 aluminum heads. Both have their own pros and cons (a quick search will help you decide what works better for you). But new heads will make the single biggest difference in your engine build.
I would also recommend getting some headers, the stock manifolds will be your next big restriction.
And finally a modern cam grind to tie it all together. I would recommend the Lunati 262, but their are a couple options that would work well.
All of that together should cost you somewhere around $1000-$1500 depending how good you are at finding deals, and your motor will be putting out somewhere over 300 hp easily. It will be night and day over your current setup.
For reference, I put Brodix Aluminum heads, Performer RPM intake, Lunati 268 Cam in my stock motor and it is a completely different animal. No more getting outrun by some bone stock sedan at the lights!
113's may flow a little better than L46 heads but not much.
Make the jump to Vortecs with and Edlebrock Performer RPM intake and some type of block hugger/shorty headers like McJacks. You'll need to modify your exhaust down pipe for any type of 2.5" manifold.
id ony use 113s if they were super cheap and you needed a replacement head. as said they arent that great at all. Just a hair not sure its anything youd feel.
The intake is NOT adequate in my opinion. Not only is it heavy (iron) it doesn't flow as well as a modern intake. Pick up a Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake with the spreadbore (Qjet) bolt pattern for $100 on craigslist or ebay. It will give you a little more horsepower and torque and remove some weight from the front end.
This is also my very first (baby) step in a new build.
Edelbrock Performer 2101 (that's the spreadbore version) on Ebay for $100 clams. Keeping the Quadrajet.
-W
What about an Edlebrock 7104 spread bore Performer RPM?
The performer RPM is definitely preferred if you can find one cheap! They aren't as common as the standard Performer, but they are definitely superior. Keep in mind, you need to use a drop base air cleaner to use the Performer RPM!
For what you're looking to do on a budget, I would be ok with the standard performer if you can't find the RPM for cheap. But the RPM would give you a couple more HP
The Performer will not show any increase in power but you will save some weight versus the cast iron intake. The Performer RPM will net you maybe 5-6 HP in the upper RPM range but you will probably not notice any power difference with an intake change alone. The heads, cam, exhaust and compression ratio are where the real power is...........
Last edited by jb78L-82; Aug 22, 2017 at 05:29 PM.
Guys hes looking for just a street cruiser and on a budget. The 113s will easily support the 300-350 hp target I think he wants, are cheap and dont need a ton of work. Vortec flow more yes but also cost about $600 total for machine work, 113s arent common to crack and flow descent for what he wants.
I am familiar with most of this work. My question is what order do I make these changes. My limited knowledge tells me headers, cam, intake and yes, it's the stock Quadrajet then heads?
I've heard a lot about vortech heads but I'm not familiar with them. My last build was a '68 Camaro and double hump heads were the easy choice. With a '78, I'm a little less familiar.
Can anyone confirm that my order is correct and tell me a little more about vortech heads. Are there different ones?
Last edited by Norcoastal; Aug 22, 2017 at 07:22 PM.
The carb (assuming it's the quadrajet that came on your car) is adequate. Plenty of people using them on engines in the 400+hp range so perfect for you.
The intake is NOT adequate in my opinion. Not only is it heavy (iron) it doesn't flow as well as a modern intake. Pick up a Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake with the spreadbore (Qjet) bolt pattern for $100 on craigslist or ebay. It will give you a little more horsepower and torque and remove some weight from the front end.
YES! Better breathing heads are key. The two best cheap options would either be the iron vortec heads or the 113 aluminum heads. Both have their own pros and cons (a quick search will help you decide what works better for you). But new heads will make the single biggest difference in your engine build.
I would also recommend getting some headers, the stock manifolds will be your next big restriction.
And finally a modern cam grind to tie it all together. I would recommend the Lunati 262, but their are a couple options that would work well.
All of that together should cost you somewhere around $1000-$1500 depending how good you are at finding deals, and your motor will be putting out somewhere over 300 hp easily. It will be night and day over your current setup.
For reference, I put Brodix Aluminum heads, Performer RPM intake, Lunati 268 Cam in my stock motor and it is a completely different animal. No more getting outrun by some bone stock sedan at the lights!
For a budget street cruiser i would do a new cam, the alum 113 heads and 2.5 in ram horn manifolds. The 113s have 58 cc chamber but the alum. allows you to run more combustion. they are cheap and you can try painting them same color as engine. Ram horns will flow better than stock manifolds and look stock ish. Cam guessing 210/218 clost ot .500 as you can find
Not familiar with ram heads. Will they work with a stock (new stainless real dual with no cats) exhaust?
Last edited by Norcoastal; Aug 22, 2017 at 07:40 PM.
I am familiar with most of this work. My question is what order do I make these changes. My limited knowledge tells me headers, cam, intake and yes, it's the stock Quadrajet then heads?
I've heard a lot about vortech heads but I'm not familiar with them. My last build was a '68 Camaro and double hump heads were the easy choice. With a '78, I'm a little less familiar.
Can anyone confirm that my order is correct and tell me a little more about vortech heads. Are there different ones?
You'll get varying opinions on the order but nothing you do up stream will work if it cant move down stream..
I think most people do exhaust and intake first because they're easiest. A cam is no good if the heads cant flow it. Besides I think the big boy cam guys make cams to match the heads versus buying heads to match a cam
So that all being said, Exhaust, intake, heads, cam. Q-jet is just fine.
Vortec have revised runners postions. There are different ones but 062 and 906's are the 'off the shelf' ones to get.
I am familiar with most of this work. My question is what order do I make these changes. My limited knowledge tells me headers, cam, intake and yes, it's the stock Quadrajet then heads?
I've heard a lot about vortech heads but I'm not familiar with them. My last build was a '68 Camaro and double hump heads were the easy choice. With a '78, I'm a little less familiar.
Can anyone confirm that my order is correct and tell me a little more about vortech heads. Are there different ones?
I would start with true dual exhaust (with headers) and the performer intake. Both of those are fairly easy and will net you some decent gains. MAKE SURE TO RECURVE YOUR DISTRIBUTOR! Do a search on here, there are a few how-to guides. It's pretty easy and will give you a significant increase in throttle response.
I would do the heads and cam together, you want your cam to match the rest of your build. The vortec heads have a different bolt pattern for the intake than other heads, so make sure you get an intake that is drilled for Vortec heads (should say in the description on any good parts site like Jegs or Summit). You CAN get Vortec heads from a junkyard for cheap, but you would have to have them checked by a good machine shop, so your best bet is to just find one of the places online that sells reconditioned heads. Most of them will even change the valve springs for you to match the cam you want to use. You can usually find them for about $600 for a set of heads if you search.
I have a set of phase II bowtie heads I'll sell for cheap. They could use a valve job and an extraction of two of the valve cover bolts that broke off. Good 64cc cast heads for a street cruiser. I ran them on my '79 and they made good power up to 7k rpm with an old isky 292 cam.
PM me if interested, I'm in Vegas. Shipping might be a killer depending on where you are.
Headers and exhaust first followed by the distributor recurve. Forget the intake..there is little to no power gain there and not worth the effort.....
Disagree. He has an L48 with the stock iron intake. Even a cheap performer dual plane will outperform it by a few horsepower AND take 20 pounds ish off the nose of the car. That is well worth the under $100 price tag, especially if he is planning to do heads/cam upgrade later on. That stock intake is going to become a big bottle neck fast with better flowing exhaust, heads, and a cam.
Another head question.
