Heads

Hey I have a question for those guys out there with Gen I motors. Do you know what to expect from modded Camel Hump heads #462? They have already gone through a rebuild but I had them retain the 1.94" intake and 1.50" exhaust valves. So I have already made the mistake of dumping money into 38 year old heads. I was just curious since I have already spent the money would intalling screw in studs, guidplates, big valves, porting the combustion chamber, and maybe even a total port and polish be real numbers or should I just sell the old camel humps and opt for some new aluminum heads? All I have done to the heads is a rebuild and upgraded springs to hold the cam I purchased from crane cams. Thanks for any advice.

Well, this is just my personal opinion. But when i see unmodified original parts like that, i think they should be saved and used in numbers matching restorations and such. Its kinda like finding one of the two 1969 Corvettes with the ZL1, and then pro stocking them out boring out the block, putting a roots style blower on it and running it till all the original parts explode. Kinda makes me sick just thinkin about it. What i would say is find a person doing a restoration that is wiling to pay top dollar for unmodifed camel hump heads, and then go buy a set of vortecs off a junkyard heap, and use the money left over to fully race prep them with larger valves, port and polish job, and all that fun stuff. The only benifit of aluminum heads is they tend to fight off detonation and dissipate heat faster as well as shed weight off the front end. The modified vortecs will be quite a nice step up from the heads you have now performance wise. and wont cost all that much to have setup proporly. Realisticly how much power are you looking to make with the new heads? because the vortecs without porting and polishing and all that have been proven to make over 400hp with relatively mild setups, so with a full workover and a matching setup, 500hp is quite possible.

I am looking into going well into the 400hp range. I was thinking about vortecs but my friend had the camel humps just lying in the back yard and still were totally original. The problem with vortecs is that you end up spending so much money on them. When you get vortecs you have to machine the valve guides down, put new springs in, replace the crappy iron valve guides, pocket port the combustion chamber in order to put the larger valves in, put the larger valves in, replace the press in studs with screw in studs, buy the expensive self aligning rocker arms, centerbolt valve covers, and the expensive vortec intake manifolds. I wanted vortec heads but they were a long ways from where I want them to be.

Yeah vortecs are quite the heads. I have read Chevy High Performance's articles on Vortec heads. Those heads are awesome. AFRs still kills them though in flow and power even with less compression. AFRs, though, require deep pockets.

Oh yeah what do you think of those Edelbrock Etec heads? Would a 200cc runner be too big for a 350 with deep gears in the rear?

Power = $$$, so you can put the money in the vortecs or in the camel backs, your choice. IMO, you'd be farther ahead putting the money into the vortecs from a performance standpoint. And plus the mention of aluminium heads could make one think money is an issue for you, there isn't that many advantages to Al except what 89iroc said.