SexualChocolate69

As of this moment im swapping my 882 heads for vortec heads and am wondering what intake I should go with. I have a 70' with the base hood, I had before a performer 2101 intake along with a 1406 Edelbrock and it barely cleared the hood. as for the heads I have .550 max lift and was wondering what cam I should throw in there. I want to stick to hydraulic flat tappets and also want to stay away from lunati and comp cams. I can't afford to have one go bad and have seen too many bad apples to want to go with either of them. I have been looking at a couple of howards cam's anyone have luck with them? Also just for reference I am rocking dish pistons and plan to use a steel shim head gasket. I dont want to mill the heads though to bring up compression as im afraid of the vortecs cracking.

7t9l82

I'm not impressed with vortec heads for various. Reasons. I also agree on your. Thoughts on cam grinders.most of those off the shelf grinds are done by outsoucerd grinders.
My flat tappet cam was done by Jim Dowel at Racer Brown cams in Baltimore. He's. A one man shop. He can spec you a cam and he's the guy that makes it.
Never heard of them? From the 60's to the 80's the designed and made a majority of Chryslers performance cams. Jim doesn't answer phones till 2 p.m because till then he's getting his equipment set up and grinding cams one at a time.

Crimson Thunder

Do you have the early 70 open air cleaner with the drop base or the later 70 twin snorkel air cleaner? I can run a Performer RPM with the early open air cleaner with my 70 flat hood so you should no problem running a Performer Vortec (not the RPM) on your car.

SexualChocolate69

Crimson Thunder -Do you have the early 70 open air cleaner with the drop base or the later 70 twin snorkel air cleaner? I can run a Performer RPM with the early open air cleaner with my 70 flat hood so you should no problem running a Performer Vortec (not the RPM) on your car.

I have the open air cleaner, and it fits however I went to install a poly spacer about 1/2 thick to keep my carb cooler and there was no more room it hit the hood.

SexualChocolate69

I'm not impressed with vortec heads for various. Reasons. I also agree on your. Thoughts on cam grinders.most of those off the shelf grinds are done by outsoucerd grinders.
My flat tappet cam was done by Jim Dowel at Racer Brown cams in Baltimore. He's. A one man shop. He can spec you a cam and he's the guy that makes it.
Never heard of them? From the 60's to the 80's the designed and made a majority of Chryslers performance cams. Jim doesn't answer phones till 2 p.m because till then he's getting his equipment set up and grinding cams one at a time.

That's quite the contrarian opinion on vortec heads do you mind elaborating on why you dont think theyre so special? Everyone seems to adore them, I actually havent heard any downsides about them besides the possibility of cracking. And as for Jim I will definitely give him a call.

HeadsU.P.

No. I for one do not adore Vortec heads.
For one thing, you can not use a std bolt pattern Intake. Has to be Vortec Intake.
To me Vortec heads today are what Camel hump heads were in the past. Everyone wanted double hump heads. Bigger ports, more flow, higher compression, bigger valves, gobs of power.
Meh! Not so much anymore.

There are much better head options than Vortec now. And you pretty much have several options for the Intake you really want.

Don't get all hyped up about bad cams from Lunati or Comp. That was some time ago.
The reason for higher failures because both of them outsold others ten to one. When you sell a billzillion cams, you are going to have a few bad ones. Its Murphys Law. If you buy a bad Ford F150 does that mean the other millions are also bad? Or how about one bad steak from Texas Roadhouse? Are all of them the same?
Of course not.

There is an excellent video on YouTube that explains most of the flat tappet cam failures. Besides poor installation, (because people pitch the instructions) new research has shown that the quality of the lifters are in question. And there are not many factories making lifters. One manufacturer could supply four or five cam companies. And by the way, Comps camshafts are machined right here in the good ol' US of A.

So, in closing, there are lots of bull chit stories out there on the net about certain cams. Take it with a grain of salt.
You can not be a multi billion dollar business and number one seller of cams by selling junk. Be realistic.

Crimson Thunder

I have the open air cleaner with the drop base.

johns_vette

I have an 81, that I put a 383 with vortec heads and run a efi with a Holley 4150 Single Plane intake. I wish i could help on your question more precise. However, with a drop base it fits fine. All the vortec intakes are now expensive. I am not recommending this, but just saying the e-force 82028 was another intake I used, before i added the holley intake. I attached a pic of intake, but unsure if the 81 hood is just enough different. I also had a performer on the stock motor with a drop base. Both no problem.

I am running a very mile comp cam. Its the xr270hr in the 383. the lift is smaller than what you wanting to do at 550. The reason i kept the 495/502 is I was concerned about buying self aligning rockers. I wanted to keep the cost down on this car as its just a daily driver. So, that may be something to investigate if you have not already looked into.

augiedoggy

I run that same cam in my 355. I actually have 2 of that same retro roller cam as I just bought a 406 thats never been run but has that cam installed.
Im pulling it for a larger cam since it will feel even smaller in my 406 than it does now in my 355. I also run 1.6 rockers so slightly more lift. the cam was an improvement on my 355 vs the voodoo 262/268 cam I had previously.
I will be selling the second xr270hr cam. I also have a vortec 2116 intake that cam in it as it came with etec 170 heads. I may bolt the heads and intake on my 355 once I transfer the larger ported heads to the 406 which ill be running with an air gap style intake I ported.

I used the steel shim head gaskets myself on my 355 to boost compression and help with quench.

Richard Daugird

If you don't already have the heads, spend the money on some aluminum heads. Other guys can recommend which ones. That's what I wish I'd have done. Mine were free, and I still wish I'd gone aluminum.

Red 69

I put Patriot aluminum vortec heads on my factory L-82 engine with an Edelbrock air gap vortec intake and made 425 dyno measured HP. I have in the classified section the same intake I had used in like new unused condition. I decided to us a polished version of the same intake instead. This is a link to my classified ad if interested.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-manifold.html

If you are looking for heads, don't overlook ProMax heads for great flow at a reasonable price.

HeadsU.P.

^^^^^^ This ^^^^.

Not to be confused with Proccomp, Profiler, Protech, Proform. ProMaxx is the top-quality head in budget-minded category.
ProMaxx bought out the former Patriot Head Freedom Series company.

They are well machined, have a couple of choices in CFM runners and two choices in chamber size.
The valve pockets are machined to accept different diameter springs depending on your needs. I believe the smallest spring is good for 550 lift.
Guide Plates, threaded Rocker Studs, nice valve cover ledge.

Like most aluminum heads, they will require ARP head bolts, long reach sparkplugs, longer pushrods and head gaskets compatible for aluminum / cast iron mating.

0311 jarhead

Do you have Vortech heads on your car? and an Edelbrock intake?

Crimson Thunder

No, I have AFR195's with an Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake.