Head kinda question
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 915
Likes: 0
From: salinas ca
Head kinda question
Hey guys i have a question for you all. I just purchased a 1989 vette with just under a 100k miles for 1k dollars. But my question is i have two complete chevy 350's laying around and a set of vortec heads, here comes the question. I was wondering if i deleted the cat and put on new flowmaster mufflers and put the vortec heads and a 500 lift cam, also i would make it a carb and not FI. How drastically would i improve over the aluminum stock heads? I cant find any stock specs besides 235 hp and 315 tq. Also it has a 700r4.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 915
Likes: 0
From: salinas ca
well money is no object, i was just curious if anyone put vortec heads on their vette. I just love Chevy v8's nothing better made. I'm hoping next year to get this thing around 350-400 rwhp and run it at the silver state challenge if anyone knows what that is.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 936
Likes: 2
From: Tyrone PA
Hey guys i have a question for you all. I just purchased a 1989 vette with just under a 100k miles for 1k dollars. But my question is i have two complete chevy 350's laying around and a set of vortec heads, here comes the question. I was wondering if i deleted the cat and put on new flowmaster mufflers and put the vortec heads and a 500 lift cam, also i would make it a carb and not FI. How drastically would i improve over the aluminum stock heads? I cant find any stock specs besides 235 hp and 315 tq. Also it has a 700r4.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 915
Likes: 0
From: salinas ca
Dan thank you very much sir. While yeah I could go and buy some aluminum high $ heads, for the past few months i've been researching the vortec heads. And from what i've read they flow VERY well and make awesome power for their price. The problem is my goal is to road race this car, and with this comes a heavy price, someone very close to me has wrecked 4 cars and was able to salvage nothing from them. So I would not like to invest 8-9k in the motor and run one race and its done. And I have an RPM Air gap vortec intake. Will these components clear the hood is another question?
Team Owner
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 81,241
Likes: 3,063
From: altered state
St. Jude Donor '05
Not sure if the Vortec heads are compatible with the intake, there is either a bolt hole issue (just oblong yours) or the overall angle, I dont keep up on this. Check into it.
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Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 915
Likes: 0
From: salinas ca
You are correct, normal intakes are 12 vortec intakes are 8 4 on each head. They are also center bolt valve covers but i believe the l98 heads are as well. I originally started the thread to find out if anyone had done this before. Put vortec heads on their vette.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,050
Likes: 147
From: Phoenix AZ
2021 C4 of the Year - Modified Finalist
vortec heads
the problem with the vortecs is the bolt pattern and the compression ratio..
just to adapt vortec heads to a TPI it costs $350 just for the manifold to adapt the heads. Then theres the compression issue.
89 engines have dished pistons. vortec engines don't. the vortec heads have to be milled substantially to compensate for the 16cc dish. you will possibly have a intake manifold bolt alignment issue if you take that much material off the heads come time to bolt them back on.
What you can do, is redrill the heads to match the existing manifold after you mill the heads, and see if the manifold angles still line up.
The vortec heads like less timing, so you have to retard the distributor to get the desired timing.
after all that, you should be able to get it done.
just to adapt vortec heads to a TPI it costs $350 just for the manifold to adapt the heads. Then theres the compression issue.
89 engines have dished pistons. vortec engines don't. the vortec heads have to be milled substantially to compensate for the 16cc dish. you will possibly have a intake manifold bolt alignment issue if you take that much material off the heads come time to bolt them back on.
What you can do, is redrill the heads to match the existing manifold after you mill the heads, and see if the manifold angles still line up.
The vortec heads like less timing, so you have to retard the distributor to get the desired timing.
after all that, you should be able to get it done.