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First-Yes they will fit, but here's the caveat, depending on how much they have been shaved, you may have to have your intake shaved too! :cry Second, were'nt the 86 cast Iron and 87 and later cast aluminum
The head is shaved only a small amount but Iam not sure what you mean when you say the 88 heads breath better? The 86 are aluminum and only have about 3000 miles on them. My guides and seals need to be redone and I thought this would save me some money and time.
I'm looking for advise and also, can the heads be swapped with the engine in the car?
The stock '88 heads are the #113 D-port Al that flow about 10chp more than even the '87 Al heads. The #113s have 1.94"/1.50" valves.
You would be much better off having new guides pressed into your stock heads (and ground to size), get a 5-angle valve job (15/30/45/70/90), and install new springs & oil seals.
If you would like to gain a little hp you could even have 2.00"/1.54" valves installed and the seats ground to fit.
The head is shaved only a small amount but Iam not sure what you mean when you say the 88 heads breath better? The 86 are aluminum and only have about 3000 miles on them. My guides and seals need to be redone and I thought this would save me some money and time.
I'm looking for advise and also, can the heads be swapped with the engine in the car?
Yes, you can install the heads without pulling the engine. I had mine off my 86 a couple of weeks ago.
I posted a response a couple of days ago answering a similar question on what has to be unbolted.
When I bought my 86E, I decided, right away, to rebuild the engine.
While I had the iron heads off, I had them angle milled to the maximum they could be cut in order to increase the compression ratio.
I had asked the shop for them to be cut .100, but could only get .080 because any more would have cut into the coolant ports on the spark plug side.
The heads bolted right up with no mods to the stock intake manifold, which is the major advantage in having the heads angle milled as opposed to flat cut.