How to choose (poll)

[PlayingWithTBI]

Those heads say up to .480" lift but I asked if I can go to .484" on mine and they said yes, you can go higher. I had plenty of spring left before it would bind so, I left it there and am happy with it. I'm not real happy with their lifters though

FYI - I just read their Q&A on these heads and saw where Summit Racing said they were going to change the maximum lift to .520". Their "Overview" tab now reflects that. Keep in mind these springs won't work well at 6,000+ RPM, the valves will start floating.

 

[JasonG]

That's up to you. Personally I like Lunati VooDoo cams. Those heads say up to .480" lift but I asked if I can go to .484" on mine and they said yes, you can go higher. I had plenty of spring left before it would bind so, I left it there and am happy with it. I'm not real happy with their lifters though.

https://www.summitracing.com/search?SortBy=BestKeywordMatch&SortOrder=Ascending&keyword=10120700

Not looking for 400 hp more like 280-300 to the crank I would be more then happy, anything more then that is a bonus. However i dont want to be at a light lobbing like i have a dead cylinder. was thing somthing in the 450-460 lift range

 

[JasonG]

Ask yourself, "Am I looking for ultimate power or just a good clean running engine"? What is your budget? What are future plans for this engine?

It sounds to me like you could be leaning to just a stock head swap. If you spend a few hours on the stock heads cleaning up all the square sharp edges in the ports and remove all the flashing and unshroud the intake valves they will do about anything you want for a daily driver. (MY opinion.) I spent 4 or 5 hours on mine. My butt dyno can't tell a difference but it seems to get slightly better mileage, maybe 1 or 2 MPG better.

Ken

Not ultimate but more power is good since I have to rip everything apart anyway, between 2-3k i think is reasonable, Future plans for this engine hope it holds together.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Not looking for 400 hp more like 280-300 to the crank I would be more then happy, anything more then that is a bonus. However i dont want to be at a light lobbing like i have a dead cylinder. was thing somthing in the 450-460 lift range

OK, the 10120700 or 701 will idle smooth for you and maybe give you that or a little more HP with other mods including, headers, high flow cat, straight through muffler, bored out throttle body with higher fuel pressure, and a tune. You won't get all that for only $2 - 3K.

 

[JasonG]

OK, the 10120700 or 701 will idle smooth for you and maybe give you that or a little more HP with other mods including, headers, high flow cat, straight through muffler, bored out throttle body with higher fuel pressure, and a tune. You won't get all that for only $2 - 3K.

Cant see putting more then that into the tbi motor. So Guess ill stick with a stock set of reman heads and some gaskets to keep it on the road and finish working the original plan to save for the 5.3 / 6.0 swap later on down the road

Any idea where to get oem heads?

 

[454cid]

Cant see putting more then that into the tbi motor. So Guess ill stick with a stock set of reman heads and some gaskets to keep it on the road and finish working the original plan to save for the 5.3 / 6.0 swap later on down the road

Any idea where to get oem heads?

Check FB Marketplace and Craigslist, and then take them to your local rebuilder.... that's what I'd do. Maybe Ebay too, for local-ish acutions/BIN. Ebay is where I got my extra heads for my 454. I drove to Flint to get them, which was several hours round trip, but the price was right.

 

[JasonG]

10-4

 

[df2x4]

Any idea where to get oem heads?

In addition to the other suggestions, I'd check car-part.com. They index salvage yard inventories all over the country.

 

[Erik the Awful]

One of my TBI heads was cracked, so I picked one up at Pull-A-Part for $30. If you go that route, take a wire brush and inspect carefully! I practiced porting on the cracked head and ported both good heads. I tossed a $50 EngineTech ES179R flat-tappet cam in it - it's a duplicate of the L79 327 cam. It should be easy on the springs with a mild bump in performance, but should run out of steam at 5,000 rpm. I put $16 worth of factory-style Melling springs under the rockers. I topped it off with a vintage C3BX intake and 650 Carter. The motor's still on the stand, so no telling if it's a dog yet. I plan on putting it in a different chassis, so I put some ram horn manifolds on it.

If I hadn't needed to bore the engine and put new pistons in, I'd be under $500.
View media item 32667

 

[Schurkey]

That cam loves compression. Low compression ratio = soggy performance.

When I ran that cam, (about a thousand years ago) I got way better than 5K rpm out of it--but it wasn't matched to swirl-port heads.