grygst76

Look for a set of pro lightning, World Products sportsman, or Dart with a decent size runner but once you go better heads, that cam is going to suck!! best bet would be to see if you can get a cam there as well, and matching lifters. 400 will not be obtained with that cam you have unless you add nitrous. If you want 400 horses you will need a cam with more lift, approximately 507-550, a set of heads with 190cc runners or better, and you can keep the 750 but you will need a single plane intake and you can get away with an offenhauser dual, or go with a weiand accelerator or edelbrock torker, they tend to still give you low end as well as more, they top out at 6500RPm's so match the cam to the RPM range.

silvertripper

Ah man! I was hoping to keep my cam.... well I can change it later when I get mo $$$$$. I'll look for these heads you mentions as well as the intake's. Thanks for the help!

Capn Pete

What's the LIFT of your cam? Just curious.

Also, I don't quite agree with "grygst76" saying you need a single plane intake..........if you're only looking to make ~400 HP, you can easily achieve that with a dual plane, and the dual plane will produce way more low end torque which is a must for a street driven car.

I have a magazine around somewhere that compared different styles of intakes on the SAME engine: dual and single plane intakes, one of each that was a "mild" performance intake, and one which was a high performance model, ported/polished. The engine that they were testing made just over ~400 HP with the low end intakes, and around ~430 HP with both the dual plane and single plane "performance" intakes. While the single plane "peaked" a little higher HP, the dual plane was only short by a couple HP, but it made a lot more torque than the single plane, and at a lower RPM as well. IMO, it's the way to go.

silvertripper

278/288 advertised, & full lift is 427/447... so i was told by the shop.

also, I'm on a budget but I'd like to get some resonable heads..... but the ones listed are kinda out of reach right now.

grygst76

Even at a swap meet you will not find a set of good heads for under 500.00. Even if you do they will need to be cleaned, magnafluxed, valve work, new springs, e.t.c and that will put you right at or over 500.00 plus the cost of the used heads. This hobby of speed is not cheap my friend, especially if you want more power and reliability. Yes, you can make good power with a dual plane, even 400 horses, I said gopt with a low profile single plane and get the best of both worlds, edelbrok torker 2, weiand accelerator to name 2.

Capn Pete

.427"/.447" lift is pretty low. And you said duration was 218/224 @ .50"? Yeah, I guess that is a mild cam. IMHO, if you're on a budget, you can still get away with using the 882 heads you've got, and put more cam into the engine. I know that it might not be "optimum", but I know that I had a set of 882 heads on the 383 in my old '81, and my dad currently is running them on his '73 355, and they don't seem to work that bad! The cam that I ran in my '81 was a .480"/.480" lift cam (I forget the duration #'s) but even it was still mild. However, it seemed to work pretty darn good. Granted the engine had a lot of stroke to make up for torque, but that car was good for low 13's / high 12's the way it was (I did run it at the track once, but had fuel problems which kept me in the low 14's ). My dad's car has a .471"/.488" lift, 308/312 duration solid cam, and it's run a best of 13.6 @ 104 so far, but it spins like crazy all the way through 1st and 2nd gear, so I KNOW that it's got the potential to be running mid 12's if we could actually put the power to the ground!! (which I estimate is probably approaching ~400 HP - flywheel).

Freak

if you are getting a seat of heads also, Id look into the vortec heads. they are about 500 bucks a pair, and flow well.

youll need to get the intake (which you are already gonna) ,valve covers, and rockers too.

only problem with the vortecs is the max lift is .480. i belive pace sells them for a bit more modified for higher lift cams

silvertripper

Alright thanks. How about double hump heads with bolt holes drilled for my alternator and a/c bracket? My brother had double humps on his 69 and was running low 12's. I think they were 462's? Are these heads worth sinking money into?

NeverGonnaRun

The camel humps are definitely a step up, but would still require a little pocket porting to flow the numbers of some Vortecs. Yes, Vortecs require different intakes, but you're looking for a different intake anyway, so that's not a problem.

Scoggin Dickey sells NEW Vortec heads with machined spring seats and hi-po springs that accept up to .550" lift for $550 plus shipping. Figure if you get some camel-humps for $250, it'd take another $200 to get them cleaned, magnafluxed, and get a good valve job. Then you'd have to port them to flow with the Vortecs (another $300 for a MINOR job), plus, there's always the risk that they're cracked and unusable, so you just wasted $250 buying them.

Stay away from single planes, especially with that cam. When you're making 450 hp or so, 20-30 fewer lb/ft of torque down low isn't really going to kill you anyway, and you'll probably make 10 extra hp up top, so that would be the way to go for drag racing. But if this is your daily driver, you probably won't make that much hp, and you definitely want that 30 extra lb/ft of torque.

You can EASILY make 400 hp and 420 lb/ft of torque with a 286 cam, Performer RPM air-gap, and Vortec heads. If you save a little money, you can always port the heads and pick up another 15 hp or so.

Dirt Reynolds

NeverGonnaRun is pretty much bang on about the Vortec heads.

Out of the box, these heads are simply incredible for the price. They have about 480HP potential unported, and well into the 500+HP range fully worked, depending on the cam type and profile used. Even without porting, these heads make some great power. I read about a circle track guy on the web somewhere who ran unported Vortecs with the addition of 2.02/1.60 valves and a 259/264 solid-lifter cam, and his engine made 519HP on the dyno.

Stock Vortecs are good only to .460" lift safely. The Scoggin-Dickey Vortec upgrade heads are a great deal. The budget way to get around the .460" max lift issue is to simply grind 1/8" off the bottoms of all the retainers, which will give you clearance to run approx. .540" lift. Mine done this way were good to to about .550" (coil bind at .580").

To give some idea of what these heads can do, my 0.060"- over 400 small block makes right about 495HP at the flywheel with an under .500" lift hydraulic cam, stock GM stamped-steel rockers, stock 1.94/1.50 valves in Vortec heads ported by me. The rest of the combo is 11.1:1 compression, Performer RPM intake, 3310 vac secondary 750 Holley with the air horn machined off (#31 squirter, stock #72 jets in the front, #80's in the back with the Holley metering block kit, pink pump cam on #3 position, quick change secondary spring kit with the lightest - white - spring), 1 3/4" ceramic coated Hedman headers with dual 3" exhaust and 2 chamber race Flowmaster mufflers.

The cam I'm currently running is a Crane 234/244 @ 0.050", .488"/.510" lift on a 114 degree lobe sep. angle. It is basically the Performer RPM cam. My combo really needs a bigger grind and the heads need bigger valves - like 2.05"/1.60" for my 413 cubes - but this gives an idea of what a set of Vortec heads can do for a budget engine like mine.

At 3810 lbs. race weight the car has so far run a best of 12.15/110.52, with the transmission left in 'D' and upshifting at 4900 RPM, so there is still more there. On top of that I do not have a cowl hood as of yet (but one is planned for next year), so the engine was breathing hot underhood air. This was also in the middle of summer in scorching heat.

Car Craft and Chevy High Performance ran a series of buildups over the past few years, making easily 400+HP with a typical 350 and one of the Comp XE series of hydraulic flat tappet cams. Vortec heads have essentially revolutionized the 'street small block on a budget' scene.

I would also suggest you run the RPM intake and NOT a single plane. A Vic Jr. loses a large amount of midrange torque over the RPM when using Vortec heads, yet only gains - literally - about 1 or maybe 2 HP at the top of the tach advantage. Certainly not worth the loss in mid-range and bottom end torque.

These heads give you a 170cc intake runner which is perfect for high velocity torque output, yet have one of the best short-side forms of any 23-degree head resulting in incredible flow at .500" lift and under valve lifts - which is the key to a strong street motor.

Just another vote for going with Vortecs.

Greed4Speed

If you are on a budget and want to get a cam check out the generic cams from summit. $79 for a cam and set of lifters. They're the same grinds that Crane makes, and are probably the same manufacturer.

silvertripper

Hey thanks alot.... HUGE help!! Im set for the Vortec's. I'll just have to take a little longer to do this the right way. Seems there are more pro's then con's on the V's. Thanks!!