Hi everyone, I have an 88 IROC 6spd with a 3.42 10bolt rear. My new engine combo is going to be a forged 355 bottom end with a 220/224 452/465 cam. I believe the lsa is between 112 and 114. Anyways, I also have a superram setup. I am only missing the heads and was wondering what you guys thought about a stock pair of vortec heads. The cam lift is within they're spring range and it seems to me like it would fit my combo nicely. I have the accel intake but I can sell that and use the money to buy the vortec intake. Any ideas as to how much power this combo should net with 1 5/8 dynomax headers? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

is your budget only allowing you go get vortec heads. If money isnt a big concern then how about AFR 195s.

 

As much as I'd love to end up with AFRs, I unfortunately do not have that kind of money. I'm on a very tight budget and the only other heads I can see myself possibly affording might be trickflows. So basically the question turns into which heads would be better for my combo, trickflows or stock vortec heads? I'm looking for about 400hp/tq at the flywheel. Thanks for any help.

 

The vortes heads should make you come close to your 400hp goal. maybe over. what is your compression ratio

 

Well with the vortecs I should be somewhere close to 9.5 to 1 if its any higher I can just use a different head gasket to compensate for the high compression.

 

The Vortec heads will require an SDPC lower intake which costs about $400. The TPI intake will not bolt to the Vortec heads.

 

Yup I know that I have an accel base that I would just sell to afford the vortec base.

 

The stock Vortecs with the superram will be capable of over 400hp but your cam will limit you to just over 300hp, I ran your setup in DD2000 with some stock pistons.

 

Well I am looking for around 400 crank hp/tq range. What do you think is the limiting factor of that cam? As far as I could see the duration was close to the lpe 219 cam and I thought vortecs liked the low lift? Is the difference in lift going to net that much more power? I've seen people with the lpe219 cam run 12s, that's probably in the 450hp range I'd assume. With my forged 355, 9.5 :1 comp, vortec heads, superram, 1 5/8 headers with a cutout right after the ypipe, I'd be expecting 400hp but I guess if the cam is holding me back then I can swap it out, any suggestions? Thanks again for all help.

 

If i were you i'd just save up a little harder for some conventional heads. You'll probably only get $200 or so for the accell intake you have, so you're going to be kicking in extra money to buy the vortec base anyway. And i know you're talking about a low lift cam, but nonetheless the stock springs in the vortec heads are not designed for performance use and will probably float before you get everything out of that engine you could. So figure on top of the heads you'll want springs too. So even though out of the box the vortecs are cheap, you're still probably going to need to kick a couple hundred more in to make it work. And on top of that i see you live in MA, where a smart emmisions inspector may notice the vortec bolt pattern and know you aren't emmisions legal.
JMO though

 

Ok first of all emissions is not an issue. Assuming I get $200 for the intake that means I'd be in around $750 for the heads, intake, and machining for larger springs ( I have lt4 springs already). So the question turns back to the begining, which is...am I better off going with trickflows? I've heard mixed opinions about these heads so I am a little unsure of what I should do. What if I can find a set of cleaned up and machined vortec heads with better springs for less, would that be better than trickflows? Also, what are the thoughts on the cam, should I stay with it or go larger for my 400hp/good gas mileage goal. Thanks

 

You are going to need lift in the .5 to .525 range with an LSA of 110 to 112 to get to the 400hp level. Something along the lines of the LT4 hot cam. The heads required to get there are not an issue. Your stock heads will probably support it with a little clean up, but that won't take too much work. The Vortec heads will support 400 hp stock easily with the right springs and guide work.

 

Ok so your saying that I should go with either trickflows or vortec, but my bottleneck right now is the cam? I have the induction, the exhaust and the bottom end only 2 things left are the heads and cam I need 400 hp under 1k someone give me a setup Thanks

 

Do you have any heads at all?

 

Well the heads on the car now are World Products heads but I hear that they are really horrible which is why I considered new heads for my build up. I also have a spare set of L98 heads laying around. I called around for prices on port work and I got quotes upwards of $650. Why bother when I can get a new pair of heads just over that. Maybe I should stick with the WP heads and do minor home porting...but will those heads get me into my400hp goal? Any suggestions? Thanks

BTW with the stock cam, WP heads, no tuning for the Superram, I went 15.1 @ 100 with a 2.6 60'. Yes it was my first time

 

Hell yea, the WP heads will do 400hp easy enough. Use the dough you just saved and buy a decent cam and some roller rockers and put the rest of the cash in your pocket.

 

Well the issue I face now is that I really want to port my own heads, but I can't find any writeups about it. I've pretty much done everything on a thirdgen except port heads. It seems like something that could be done at home, or should I just save it for a shop? Anyone know of any writeups that I could check out? So you think I should just stick with the WP heads and maybe port/polish, get new springs and valves? I guess once I decide what i want to do I will come back for cam sugessions. Thanks again.

 

As a general rule of thumb, 1 cfm of intake flow will produce 2 hp given that the exhaust can keep up. You WP heads should be more than enough as they are. There are a few articles about porting but nothing that will teach you how to do it. Tonight I will try to post up some articles and links that you can read. You can clean up your head ports yourself easily.

 

Have you ever considdered the aluminum fastburn heads? They come complete with springs rated at .520" lift w/ 62 cc chambers. they also have either vortec bolt style or conventional bolt style. I don't think they have an exhaust gas crossover, but you say that emissions is not an issue, so thats ok. I don't know if there are any people that have any problems with these heads, and i've never heard anything. They have 210cc intake w/ 2" valves, so i think they are high velocity, but not sure (I'm no engineer...
yet)

they're fairly cheap for aluminums too, but if you can't afford them yet, i'm sure you'll be able to sell your others after a good clean-up for a bit of $.

just an idea

 

I considered the fast burns, but if I was to go that high, I would just get a pair of trickflows, plus I guess the general decision is that my WP heads can handle the hp I am looking for, which means I have money left over to make a good cam choice and get some roller rockers. Swapmaster, I look forward to checking out those articles and hopefully I will get a more specific understanding of what is involved in head porting, even though they are cast iron which could be fun to port Anway since I am going with my WP heads, what do you think about an Lt4 hot cam or a cc306 cam? The most important worry I have is that I want to stay at around 15mpg in the city, because this is a daily driver. I've heard of many lt1 owners putting down close to 400rwhp with the cc306 cam, but the lt4 seems like a good grind also. Plus since I am going with the SR I'd like a cam with good low/mid range tq, so I guess technically I shouldn't have a hp range, but a tq range I'm looking for, which is around 450 or higher. Thanks again for all the help guys.

 

Do you know the runner volume and flow numbers for your WP heads? And what pistons are you going to run? Dish cc's / dome height?

 

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.htm

Here is a link that is posted everywhere. It gives you the basics but not specific to any one head. You can do things on some heads that will hurt flow on others so be carefull.

Try to find as much info on your heads as you can. You may even ask WP what can and can not be done with them.

 

Ever consider a ZZ3 cam? Heres a link to roller cams....

http://www.malcams.com/legacy/misc/CamData.htm