just a casting number plz? somebody said 186s were good, idk....do they make after market heads that work with stock tpi intakes?

 

On a 350, the stock 083s are better then the old 186s.

 

aftermarket heads do work on the tpi. just check which style manifold you have(angle of the middle bolts) and then look at the head specs many companies make them work with older and newer intakes.

 

ive got a new 350 short block and a blowed up trans am......i havent looked at the heads on the t/a......just tryin to get and idea of what heads are decent on a 305, as the 305s top end is goin on my 350 short block

 

World Products S/R Torquers would be the best "stock-style" iron heads. If you're replacing the heads though, you'll want to buy an aftermarket TPI intake too, to take advantage of the better breathing heads.

The best aluminum heads would be the new AFR Eliminator 195's, followed by the Trick Flow 195's.

 

AFR or TFS 195s are good heads, but wouldn't heads that big be a little overkill for a TPI engine? TPI doesn't flow well, so all that volume in the ports would not really feed more mixture in, as the intake is the bottle neck - the big ports would just kill off all the air velocity, which is about all a TPI setup has to offer.

Best set of heads for a stockish 5.7 TPI would be a set of Vortecs, but the req'd special intake base is like $450 or something silly like that, so it probably isn't worth it in the end.

My suggestion, if going aftermarket, would be a set of 180cc Dart Iron Eagles. They are a very good head, and actually very reasonably priced too - cheaper than most aluminum heads.

 

I've never seen anyone use Trick Flow or AFR heads on a TPI and do bad with them.

As long as you upgrade the intake and use a decent camshaft at the same time, they're fine. Good heads and a small cam are better than bad heads and a big cam.

 

I'll won't argue that 195s will be a bad choice, my point was just that the 180cc heads might be a better choice for a TPI motor, as they would be a better 'match' to the characteristics of the TPI system. The AFR 180s actually flow an almost negligible bit less than the 195s - at least, that was true with the last generation heads, I'm not sure if thats still true. But either the 180 or 195 would be fine - I'd just use a 180cc head with TPI before a 195cc, but that could just be me.

And a good point about the cam/heads combo too. Its exactly right. Spend your money on heads first, then match the cam to the heads you get.