I have a friend who wrecked his 98 suburban and is selling a couple of parts. I was wondering whether the Vortec heads would give a performance upgrade to a 350 TPI (1990) ? Anyone know?

 

if you get the vortec tpi base they are good heads

 

It's a good upgrade, but like Aaron91RS said your stock TPI base won't work with those heads due to a different bolt pattern and the raised ports on a Vortec head. Price: $399.95
Part # 12498060 at Soggin-Dickey http://www.sdpc2000.com

 

What if I use an LT1 intake instead of the TPI, off of a 94 Z28. ??????????

 

I could be wrong about this, but I think that the vortecs have a different bolt pattern than pretty much every other type of head.

I know that there is a way to do the lt1 intake on SBC heads, i'm sure that with some modyfying it could work.... that is if you already have the intake

check out http://www.lt1intake.com

 

You can make any manifold fit any head if you do enough work to it. Making a SBC or LT1 intkae fit a Vortec head involves adding material along both sides of the intake and then redesigning the ports on the manifold. In other words, you can't really do it. If you can get the heads for next to nothing I'd say go for it, and spend the money on the Vortec TPI base. They really are great heads, but you'll have to have the valve pockets machined if you have any kind of decent cam, and you're very limited as to what induction system you can run.

 

Scoggin Dickey claims like 50+ hp for just adding the Vortec heads and their TPI baseplate on a L98... And they would obviously love some exhaust mods and a bigger cam too so you can make some good power with those heads...