My L98 motor on my 87 is blown to ****................................(me being stupid). I was reading jegs and saw the 350 GM performance crate motor with the vortec heads without the intake manifold, its pretty bare for me to do as I please with it. I don't know much about racing with vortec heads because I don't know anyone with them, but I do know how they work, so............ I want to keep the L98 look so I wanted get the Edelbrock vortec intake manifold for the L98. I need general suggestions. Someone help me!

 

for what you are going to pay for that motor, you can do your own short block and make it a 383. in the process of doing your own engine, you can also upgrage to scoggin dickey vortech heads that are already set up to handle lifts over .550. the crate engine that you are talking about will only handle cams under .520 lift and if you wanted to upgrade cams you would have to pull the heads and have the springs seats machined to accept the stronger springs. the vortech heads are great for low end torque motors, tpi style motors. remember too that the heads will be iron and they are going to add about 60 pounds to the nose of the car.

if the extra weight is a concern and you want a vortech style head in aluminum, get the vortech style edelbrock e tech 170 cc heads.

do you do your own wrenching? is that why you want the crate engine?

If you still want the vortech headed crate engine, you should strongly cosider the tpi vortech engine made by scogging dickey. it comes with a pretty stout cam, vortech base and heads, with the proper springs already in the heads. I have done a couple of vortech headed engines.
best bang for the buck.

The previous engine in my vet was a 383, e tech ehads, scoggin dickey base, and a generic flat tappet crane compucam,
my car went 13's at 103-4 with a 2.59 rear end.

let me know if you have more specific vortech head questions, maybe I could help

 

Yes I do my own work, it's just I've never worked on a car that so, how can I put this.......................tight? I just wanted to do something different. This 87 was to be my daily, and the 69 my racer, but I kinda switched that idea. I guess it's the thought the 87 would be harder to work on(I like cars that give me a hard time for some reason) and I took on my own challenge to race it. I was planning on changing the cam to something above a .520 lift so I guess I'll take up the suggestion I just don't know much about scoggin dickey......................... I'd like it a lot if you could give me more advise on my motor. thanx

also what about the L98 vortec intake manifold?

 

Scoggin dickey is a good 383 motor to start with and build up from the short block. The Vortec Heads will require a special vortec intake manifold. Fortuantely they now make them for a TPI set up. Consider getting the air into your bigger better block first, then consider the long tube headers and high flow exhaust and CAT to get the air out. I went with the SuperRam as many others have, there are also the mini-ram and thing that looks like a toaster ontop of your engine that some are making on the forum. I wanted to go with a 383 build up, but my machine shop would not clearance my stock block becasue he said the walls were too thin and would need concrete in the bottom, so I decided to just build a 355, that is still waiting to be installed. Good luck. keep us updated on your search and progress.

 

If emmissions equipment is important, I understand the vortecheads/intake do not use the stock stuff. But S-D sells some kind of accessories for that.