Heckeng

Too funny Mark, maybe we're getting the "edited" version How did you do today Dave?

Yup, Mike and I planned it this way so our kids could play together, but Mike's are going to hurt coming out more--they're a lot bigger!

I'm due on Feb 10th Mike, I feel your pain. Those 325's will move some air!

HIIIIIIIIlarious!

Lots of 10 bolts out there. Don't worry, they are very strong too, especially with aftermarket axles.

Sounds like you have a great start there. It is possible your 454 has forged crank and rods too, be sure to ask your engine guy about them. You're going to like those heads too, it ought to be a torque monster.

That is awesome Dave, it sounds like your rings are sealing excellently.

Hey Mike, I think you will have a good chance of being in the 11's, more-so than me as you have that extra 50 cubic inches. I think Bill (502ci) runs 11.8's with your engine, but he does have 4.11 gears. I think you'll be real close. Have you done anything else with the 502?

Hey Joe, those are some really good castings actually. They have small valves which stinks, but their ports are about the best oval port GM has made. If you clean 'em up and put some bigger valves in there, they should be great. Make sure they are not cracked or anything before you put any time/money into them though.

Beer is on me if I do make it in the 11's! I'll have to mail ya one though!

I know it will be ok Tim, but like Davey was saying, my combo isn't optimized by any means. Steeper gear, a little more compression, and a bigger cam and the car would be a different beast. I think I'm just getting soft as I get older

I agree with what you are saying Davey, but right now I'm just shooting for a decent street cruiser that also has a little bit of oomph to go with it. The springs on the heads are only good to .6" so I would upgrade the springs if I went with a cam that was actually going to make real power. I know I'm sacrificing on the cam side of things but I like the comparatively lazy lobes on the ZZ cam as I know it was made to make the springs last a long time. When this thing is running, I generally take it on several 3-5 hour trips to shows a year in Southern MO, Kansas, or maybe Illinois this coming year so longevity is important. I did consider milling the heads further but at the price point of the heads, if I spend much money on them, I would have rather just upgraded to the 290's which are an even better head, but then again my cam wouldn't maximize their use either. On my last car (1970 Mustang) I went down the slippery slope and sacrificed driveability for quarter mile times and ended up not enjoying actually driving it other than stoplight to stoplight and sold it. With the Monte I really want to combine low maintenance, factory brakes, as much performance as I can get without killing the rest, and of course money is still tight. I have talked to Chris S. a while back and now that I finally will have heads, I may see what he would recommend to get good vacuum for the brakes, and try to take better advantage of the good port flows. I do appreciate your advice Dave, and think you are dead on in your comments. A cam change may be a little further down the road once I see how the heads do with the current one.

I hope you guys are right, what do you think this combo will do? Converter is the same ATI 3000 unit, th350 transmission, 3.55 gears with a 28" tire. Carb is a 750 might demon (DP). You know the heads, and the cam was the 224/234 .527"/.544" hydraulic roller. With my old combo which was the same but with iron rectangular port heads, I ran a 12.64. Maybe Desktop Dyno is off because I sure don't think I'll get 11's out of her. Mike, what was your combo with the 3.42's?

I wish Al, I'm planning for 12.3's or around there actually. I would love to pick up that much from the head swap but I think my cam is just too small and my gears are too high for my combo to get me into the 11's.

The Pro Comp heads are very problematic, BUT if you buy them bare and use your own quality parts, and have a good valve job done on them they can supposedly make a good head. The Edelbrocks generally have a pretty good reputation. They are not the most recent designs, and don't flow the BEST, but they flow very well and honestly you probably would not be able to feel the difference between them and a head you paid half again as much for. I would definitely consider Edelbrocks. Interesting thing I just heard about Trick Flow from the distributor who I just ordered my heads from. Summit now owns them! I would expect you might be able to find some good deals on them from Summit if that's the case. Also, we just missed a 15% discount on everything from Summit, that could save you $150 smackers on a pair of heads.

Nice pics, everything is so clean, I'm jealous. I like how the new sway bar mounts, that is cleaner than the stock style. Do those control arms have spherical end joints or something similar? I can't tell from the pics but you called them swivel links so I am guessing they have something different. Does the new steering box look like the stock one?

Awesome. There should be some fun times coming up for you with this engine!

Cam will be the same one I have currently as I want to maintain an easy valve trane life and keep the power relatively low in the rpms. It is a HR cam, 224/234 deg at 0.050", and .527/.544 lift. Spring pressures will be 170lbs on seat, and 430 at .544". They have a rate of 475lb rate which should keep the lifters and valves under control while not being too high. The Morels are a little more beefy than the stock style Comps I was using and they have a link bar as opposed to the dogbone style retainers. I don't plan on taking it above 6k though. Here are what Desktop Dyno shows for the curves, and numbers. It should hopefully be pretty torquey. By heckeng at 2010-12-31 By heckeng at 2010-12-31

Yeah, I kind of liked how the thread title turned out when it got cut off That would get me to read it! Tony, it HAS been a long time. . . I've been living vicariously through you guys and your projects for the entire 2010 year.

I am really excited and wanted to share that I just ordered some heads--finally. My car has been out of commission for 1 year now due to economy and my poor decision to sell my old heads when I did. BUT, I just sent a check to Mike Lewis (Wolfplace, or Lewis Racing Engines) for a set of AFR 265cc heads. They have a combustion chamber around 107cc which should raise my compression from 8.75 to around 9.5:1 and they flow from 6% to 30% more at various lifts while the intake port went from 325cc down to 265cc so velocity should be very high. They should also have CNC'd intake ports and valve pockets, and partially CNC'd exhaust ports. I did not opt for their CNC chambers even though they make even better flow. It was just hard for me to justify $400 for that option which would also lower my compression. Hopefully I made the right decision there. I am like a little kid waiting for Christmas--I can't wait to get these things on the engine and get it running again. I am guessing I should have them in around 3 weeks or so, AFR is closed so he couldn't order them until next week. I'll be upgrading my lifters to a set of Morels at the same time which I don't expect much performance improvement from but I do expect better reliability under the spring pressures I am using. I'll try and take pics along the way as I get them ready and check clearances etc.

Gears will be the most noticable upgrade. I would recommend 3.23s or something around there if you have 2.73s like mentioned, and I would do an eaton posi or a tru-trac. All done you'll have less than $1000 in it and it will be the biggest change you could notice for that amount of cash.

There isn't a lot to gain on the Flat tappet hydraulic to solid change without changing the actual cam like Winston said. People do it on the roller stuff because hydraulic roller lifters are so heavy and the solid rollers are so much lighter. You gain rpm capability by the swap and the cam gets a hair more aggressive without the hydraulic lifters. I wouldn't try the swap you are trying personally.

Do you just want to make the car faster? What do you do with the car, drive around town, long trips, drag strip only? A combination of all of the above?

The Jegs brand heads were Canfields, you may be able to get some of them from their stock yet.

I think most of the american heads available now are pretty decent. Edelbrock, Trick Flow, AFR, Profiler, Brodix etc. I have been reading that some Brodix heads are having machining problems getting the valve guides centered exactly right in comparison to the valve seat thus causing the guides to wear out quick. I personally believe AFR and Profiler are the two best out there too, with Trick Flow coming close. AFRs will run you around $1500. Profilers can be had for $500 a piece, but I think you are limited to 210cc intake runners which are large by huge for a 350 in my opinion. Maybe some Trick Flows like THESE ? I'm not a small block guy so I don't know if you can use straight or angled plugs or both but for some reason I think I remember angled plugs causing issues with exhaust for Montes. You should definitely check into that before you purchase.