Not really -- i just pulled my (well maintained) '89 motor a few weeks ago and the stock roller cam (which is forged by the way) had groves in the cam bearing surfaces. The groves on the front were the worst....almost 1/16" of an inch deep....the cam bearings needed replacing as well - which is not a job for the average do it yourselfer. The oil travels from the cam bearing area then to crank mains (crank is stock cast). Though the crank/ crank main bearings had "normal" super high mileage (250K) ware on them...there is no way these main bearings would have lasted too much longer with activity a hotter cam would throw in...and the cylinder bores were pretty much shot to hell from ring wear. The timing chain was also pretty much a joke as it was super loose to where the cam was probably running about 4-6 degrees of retard from the slop. I had no oil pressure problems/issues and the bottom end "sounded fine" before the tear down. I doubt your bottom end would look much different from mine upon closer inspection comparison....very few parts were reuseable/salvageable with out machine work. Even for a "budget" rebuild of the top and bottom end components you'd be lucky to get through the project for under $1,700 with all the associated cost included....even if you did most of the work yourself.

When you get into any car with a cam/head upgrade one thing always leads to another which means more $ than what you thought.

If I was in your shoes I'd leave the car the way it is for reliable college transportation purposes --the chicks will still dig the vette (and the one behind the wheel too) even if it is a couple HP less than what it could be.....but it is your car

Good luck!

 

The main problem is the fact that it isnt reliable and it burns oil all of the time because the valve seals leak or atleast thats what it seems like its doing. Thats the main reaon why i want to get the heads rebuilt because thats the only problem im haveing with the car. Plus it misfires du to bad compression. I am probably just goin to rebuild the heads and be done with it for now!

 

Before you do anything, perform both a compression test and a cylinder leakage (leak down) test to find out the overall "health" of the engine.. saves a bunch of time, heartache and money over just ripping into things and assuming.

It would suck immensely to spend the time and money refurbishing the heads only to find the rings aren't sealing.

Test first.. then repair the problem.

 

Thank yall for all of your input this has really helped me in my decision! I am sure that it will all turn out fine!

 

I have 275,000 on the odometer on my 92 suburban, still has the original motor and I've never done anything to the heads. It gets just as good of gas mileage as ever and doesn't consume but maybe one qt of oil every 2 months. All I did was a lot of oil changes, plus gap plugs and change the usual trinkets, pcv valve plugs every 75k. I towed a boat with it a while but was always nice to it.

If it were me, I'd be patient and try to get some decent $ 100 - 200 heads that need rebuilding and pick up the seals, springs off ebay or craiglist - there's lots of good parts cheap out there if you have time and patience. A regrind on the valve faces is cheap and if you get heads from a low mileage motor the valve seats may not need to be cut, only lapped. But don't be tempted to buy heads that need extra work, you'll need to get a little lucky maybe, but I did lots of times when I was patient. A couple hundred for the heads, $ 70 for springs and seals and $ 30 for valve face cuts, a few cans of gumout, maybe a carbide grinder to blend the bowls and you're well below $ 500 but the trick will be finding low mileage heads, but they're out there. I'd pull an intake valve or two out before I bought them and check the stem to guide clearance and not get them if its 0.004 or more. New guide inserts about $ 125 more plus seat cuts, about another $ 250 if that's the case. 4 thous is out of service spec but I bet the guides on my old suburban have got to be 7-8 thousandths out by now. Maybe find a guy who needs a bottom end and locate a motor and you buy the heads and he gets the rest.

Once you get your heads built, then one day just do the swap, then sell your old ones and recover $ 100 - 200.

Good luck.