I came across a good deal on some used 862 Vortec heads, would it be worth picking them up to use on my 76 L-48? or should i just save my money for a set of aluminum heads later down the road. will they do anything for me, increase in hp or torque? more trouble then they're worth? anyone use these before, my engine is pretty stock, hooker sidepipe header, edelbrom performer intake, msd dizzy. I'm looking to do a cam swap down the road as well.

 

LS heads? They wont work on a SBC

 

862 are aluminum but for LS but won't work on sbc

maybe what you want are 062 ... those are iron from L31 sbc Vortec

 

thanks guys, when it comes to looking at the heads, i've just started doing my research, and without dropping big dollars for AFR, i wanted to look around for something used that can help wake up my old Goodwrench 350. Any reccomendations?

 

What Jackson said above is what your looking for. The 062 or the 906 casting is what you want. A lot of people say the 906 casting is no good , but I did a side by side comparison of each of them and could find no difference. There was supposed to be a different exhaust seat in the 906 but mine were exactly the same.....I have a set to sell to you but I'm way too far away to make that affordable.
Check out the local machine shops or have a look at the local car recyclers, or craigslist.... you might find a decent set there.

 

a good used / rebuildable pair of GM aluminum L98 aka ZZ4 heads ... they bolt up to your intake manifold ...
... their small 58cc chambers are good match for Goodwrench 350 dish pistons. ... they're no longer in production and've become scarce.

 

vortecs are better bought new. they can have cracking issues. all used heads have seat, guide, etc issues. you can spend several hundred on a head getting it back to good cond.

 

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...tec-build.html

 

thanks for the tips guys, I'm going to keep looking around and see if i can come across some ZZ4 heads, or just save up for a while and go for some AFR's

 

The ZZ4s are an improvement over stock but not worth it unless you are running some kind of stock racing class, The vortecs will cost you $600 after buying them and having a machine shop check them and do a valve job. Then you need a new intake manifold and hopefully it will work with your accessory brackets. Or you just go directly to aftermarket and reuse whatever parts you want.

 

I just did a vortec cylinder head upgrade on my 1972 L48 with 906 castings; they are the same as 062, but came on later model vehicles.
My intention was to do this as cheap as possible, and most of the performance benefit of the aftermarket aluminum heads comes at high rpm where I don't intend to spend much time anyway. They are still much better than stock at high rpm.
Being the cheap guy I am, I also bought a valve guide cutter to cut down guides so I could use a higher lift camshaft, as well as a rocker stud remover, and tap. I wanted the experience of doing this stuff myself, but it came back to bite me in the *** when I tried removing the rocker studs because I cracked the head in the process. The rocker stud goes into the water jacket so my hypothesis is the normal rusting that occurs with iron heads didn't allow the rockers to be pulled out and is the reason that caused the cracking. I later spoke to a machine shop, and he said those studs are stronger than people give them credit for, and he doesn't guarantee this work when he removes press in studs for his customers. For once a benefit of a little rust. Ha
Since I had to source another set of vortec heads, this made my "budget" upgrade now about equal to the costs of aluminum heads. I ended up finding some from a salvage yard for really cheap, only $150 for the pair.
Even when everything goes to plan, you still have to factor in the vortec intake manifold (i wanted a little higher perfomance intake anyway, so I didn't see this as a hinderance) AND that you will need to get a carburetor with a difference choke setup it ends up being more $ than most anticipate. Much more time.
Since you have a 1977 with hot air choke, you can modify yours to use electric choke, or if you are keeping your exhaust manifolds then the same as stock.

Looking back, I have no regrets because I like the idea of the engine keeping GM parts, and I like the experience of learning this stuff and figuring it out. If you are more about "just get it done," then I would just get these; they are better is almost every way, but again, benefits will be seen form 4500 to 5500rpm:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pmx-2169

 

I'll agree with this. ZZ4 heads in the right hands have a lot of potential. But good ZZ4 heads are getting expensive, after machine work and new parts your better off buying aftermarket heads. About a month ago I sold a pair for $700.

Lots of better flowing options out there for a few hundred more.

 

OP
I know you stated USED ... but if you can't find rebuildable L98/ZZ4 heads for under $200/pr ... maybe look at this ... these are NEW, complete and $818 delivered.
They are EQ Vortecs ... Better than GM ... and these "hybrids" fit your intake and come with headbolts & screw-in rocker studs and springs already setup for +0.500" lift.

EQ-CH350HA x2 + SIS350 x 2 + HB350N ...country of origin New Zealand
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-3...oAAOSw7ThUkH4f

 

Are you shitting me? I sold mine with 5k miles on them since valve job,seals, springs, minor port work for $350 with an intake and 1.6 roller tipped rockers.

 

My bad....$599, no rockers. eBay completed listings suggest $600-700 as the going rate for good used 113/ZZ4 heads.

$700 shipped
Less than $700 but more than $600
$600 shipped