I recently sent an e-mail out to Dart, asking if they were planning on making a cylinder head for the lt1's. Since Edelbrock and Trickflow have jumped into the lt1 market that was pretty much held by AFR. Here is my e-mail message to them, and then their reply back..

Hi I was wondering since Edelbrock, and Trickflow have came out with a
head for LT1's. Is Dart going to release a head for the lt1's? If not,
I suggest it. If you take a look at many of the camaro and firebird
forums on the internet, there is a large population of lt1 owners that
are looking for a lt1 head with more grunt. Somthing that would
outflow the trickflow and edelbrock heads for people with stroker
motors or somthing more wild.

I was just wondering. Thanks for your time and help.

Mike

Dart's reply back.....

There are a lot of LT1 based engines out there, I do agree. Is there enough
for yet another company to make heads for those engines?? What's amazing is
in the NHRA Super Stock series guys are using the stock GM heads that have
been ported by companies such as Lingenfelter, and CFE and they are running
in the low low 9's and they have factory cranks, rods, pistons, and blocks.
The thing that kills it for us to offer heads for that engine platform are
the lack of production of that GM had on that engine (quantity of years). At
this time we are going to be debuting our new LS1 head at the upcoming PRI
and SEMA shows. We do appreciate the your wanting us to make them, and who
knows this may be something we do if the interest in them grows. Thanks

They bring up a good point. But I dont think they understand that there are alot of us out here who want somthing that is more extreme than what these companies want to offer. For instance Dart has made some awsome chevy small block and big block heads, that what some would call cutting edge. I think thats what many of us are looking for. And aftermarket LT1 head, that we can slap on head without porting it, and it will be built for race applications. Not somthing that is made more for the street. A head that would require a pretty agressive cam grind. You know, something that is compareable to Darts top of the line small block heads.

Hell I know I would be willing to fork the money for them. How about you guys? I dunno how we would be able to get their attention and get them to invest into this lt1 head market.

Just my .02,
Mike

 

Well... buy a standard 23* Dart head and have it converted for reverse cooling. If you really want to make some silly amounts of NA power, look into a set of 15* GM heads.

 

From a business stand point, I'd have to agree with him. There really isn't much to work with when it comes to us LT1 folk. LS1's otoh...

 

That is the problem. To me if 500 people wanted to build these "extreme" setups, that would be a lot. To a large company, 500 pairs of cylinder heads is not "a lot". I think you would be hard pressed to find even 500 people that have the time, money and desire to build an extreme lt1. There are much better platforms to build an extreme engine than the lt1.

Also, as mentioned above, if you really need a wild lt1 you can convert some 18* (or better) heads. Of course if you are going to do that you probably are spinning it past 7000 rpm so you can't use the stock pcm (even if you stay under 7000 rpms an aftermarket injection setup would be better). Since you can't use the stock pcm, it seems foolish to keep the optispark. Now what you have is a converted lt1 block that uses no lt1 parts. It would have been cheaper and easier to do a SBC and not convert the heads. I think this it the reason that truely extreme lt1's are few and far between.

Dustin

 

Maybe you guys missed the low 9s part of his reponse, that tells me that many of you are FAR to quick to think you need aftermarket heads when porting what you have will do just fine. Remember the LT1 heads flow better than any production gen1 head, even better than the bowties and that is just as cast. Really look at his whole reply to me it says really how stout the whole LT1 is people are really far to eager to throw away the rotating assembly too.

 

Yea I just wondered what some of you guys would think. You guys have some very good points. And I do agree with most of them. But I still think it would be great idea for them to do somthing like that. Especially since the price of LT1 cars coming down more and more. And now there are different alternitives to the opti, somthing that scares many people from getting into these motors. I think that were going to see more and more folks buying up lt1 vettes, impalas, and fbodys, with the idea of turning them into something more then just street cars etc etc.

Just for the hell of it, how much does it cost to have a small block head modified for a LT1?

Mike

 

Yes you and I may think that, but they as a company don't. Supply and Demand. If there is not enough demand there will be no supply. And i am sure there is not enough demand for them to spend the time or money on making and mass producing a new casting, when there are more lucrative things to get into.


A couple hundered dollars usually.

 

Thats what I was going to say...

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by aintno6

Just for the hell of it, how much does it cost to have a small block head modified for a LT1?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmook

A couple hundered dollars usually.

First thing that ran through my mind was; "I wonder if I could convert a set of those Little Chief heads...?"

Second thought was; "Didn't I recently see something about a 3-valve chevy head?"
I think that was for the LSx engines...

If anyone remembers the details, could you please remind me?


Anyhow...
Maybe it's just me, but...

If there is a 3-valve head out there... not some exotic "piece-made" item like the Dominion heads, but something that's more of a regular production item, then why would anyone whose main goal is POWER (as opposed to nostalgia) mess with two-valve heads, and their corresponding blocks; ever again?