Best heads for a 400?

[petereggy]

and it would also be milled fully


but what are other ways to gain compression other then pistons or milling the heads?

[TorinoGT69]

that ratio is with flat top pistons, some 400s have dished.

[petereggy]

alright so then should I put a set of pistons in it too or are the stock ones fine?

[IthePeople]

no way man, replace those pistons, get the best ones u can

[petereggy]

yah i want to but the only set that i can find of after market pistons is ones that are 35 bucks a piece american

so i think thats around 500 can

which is steeeeeeeeep just for flat top forged

[IthePeople]

those are the pistons i bought for my engine, i know there expensive and the same ones for chevy are like $11 bucks its a rip off, but if u want the performance, go big or go home its the price u pay for building pontiac,
try to see if your seller will cut you a deal if u buy a rebuild kit all together

[petereggy]

thats true i should get a rebuild kit anyway

so ill get a forged set in the rebuild kit

[IthePeople]

a rebuild kit can generally save you up to $500 bucks depending on the type of kit u got it, your going to need new gaskets if u re-build so mine as well just get the whole kit, get a .480 cam, flat top pistons, felpro gaskets ect ect ect, where i work i got to customize my kit but thats because i work there so mabey if u got sum connections u can make a custom re-build kit,
for example, my kit came with stock pistons and felpro gaskets so i changed my pistons to flat tops and upgraded the cam from stock to 4.80 lift just stuff like that i saved myself just under 400 bucks by buying it as a set vs buying everything seperate
now a chevy rebuild kit u can get for like 400 bucks CAN and thats like flat tops, huge cam felpro ect...this by the way is a small block rates, ide have to check on big blocks

[petereggy]

well ive got my cam and all that other stuff picked out

and summit has a rebuild set with the flat tops for 470 usd

but that comes with everything like gaskets oil pump and so on

[petereggy]

would a cam with a duration of 231/240 @ .050 with a lift of .517/.517
be street legal

what about 230/236 @ .050 and a lift of .488/.491

im in bc canada and the emissions laws are pretty tight i dont know any states to compare them to but anyhelp is apreciated

[TorinoGT69]

What year is the car? In the Texas most cars over 25 years old are exempt. But I don't know what its like in Canada.

[IthePeople]

in ontario its 20 years your exempt from emmissions,
a .517 cam would be good HP bad on gas and it would be a hard idler, a .488 would be wild enough but still let you idle

[TorinoGT69]

I am guessing that second cam is the xtreme energy. I would stay away from that one.

[IthePeople]

the .517 lift cam is basically for high high performance muscle cars or drag cars, if you want to be able to drive this on the street without going from gas station to gas station then get the .488 or even the cran cam, .440

[FAPhoenix]

quadrajets are crap anyway, worst carburetor ever made, i cant even give mine away no one wants it

Only to those who don't have the time or knowledge to work on them. For a street application there is almost no better carb when done up right. The problem comes because they are so much more advanced then a Holley (Common choice around here). A well-built Q-jet will perform quite well. If you must have a reference to this I have included one below (Though it is out of a rag). A major benefit of the Q-jet is its small primaries allowing for a great cold start and fairly decent gas mileage as long as you feather the pedal. How many carbed 350's can you cold start in minus 20oC? I can.

http://www.carcraft.com/howto/57178/index.html

Actually most q-jets are 750cfm. some early models, some late 70s BOP cars, and truck/rv ones were 795cfm.

750cfm until 1973 (I believe) then they became 800cfm (795cfm actual).

but what are other ways to gain compression other then pistons or milling the heads?

Domed Pistons are another way; thinner head gasket can also help. Increase the displacement also helps, on a 400 stock block you can go to 0.06 overbore before needing to magnaflux the block. (413ci). For example, 80cc heads on a 400 make around 8.9CR, where on the 413 they'll make 9.1CR. Not a huge bump but one nonetheless.

now a chevy rebuild kit u can get for like 400 bucks CAN and thats like flat tops, huge cam felpro ect...this by the way is a small block rates, ide have to check on big blocks

Of topic here, but BB Chev parts are more expensive then their SB counterparts, almost the same as Pontiacs for some parts.

im in bc canada and the emissions laws are pretty tight i dont know any states to compare them to but anyhelp is apreciated

Here in Alberta they are fairly lenient, I believe no emissions if your car is older then 78. If your car is tuned properly with a well balanced combination you should have a fairly
Clean running car anyway.

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Now for the heads, I have compiled a list of the common used big valve heads and their flow values. These are un-ported unless stated.



http://www.wallaceracing.com/ultimatehead.htm is a great link for head information on Pontiacs. I would suggest reading that. Use his main page: http://www.wallaceracing.com and use his head code search to look up information based on year/code etc.

Cam Choice:
The Camshaft, now this is where it gets fun When choosing a cam remember Pontiac's respond best to a dual pattern cam. I'm building a pretty mild 400 for my 68 Bird and chose an Indian Adventures Cam. You'll want to choose a Cam that peaks between 5000-5800RPM I would think. Pontiac warrior's has a bunch of computer generated combo's. (They all use a dual intake, 750 carb, and headers I think plus the cam change). For a streetable cam you dont' want over .470 lift.

http://www.pontiacwarriors.com

They make for a nice research resource. You can also get yourself a copy of Desktop Dyno and start planning.
068 Cam is always a nice choice, or a 041 RAIV (Edlebrock I think makes a copy now). Choose the cam that best fits the rest of your drive train. The 041 will work if you have a standard, though it doesn't produce as much low-end torque as some of the OE cams.

More can be read here (Defiantly a good read):
http://www.classicfirebird.com/hand/jhand5.html

If you care about your intake here is an interesting article and I can put you in touch with a man selling a 68 stock intake:

Intake - You have 2 choices:
1967-1973 OE Intake
Edlebrock Performer

http://www.classicfirebird.com/hand/jhand14.html

I hope this helps somewhat with your car.