Thread: Heads for the summer!

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I've found out my cylinder head's valve guides are leaking oil .. and i've decided that If i'm going to have to pull the heads, I may as well go ahead and get some more performance out of this puppy while i have the chance..

Any suggestions? I don't want to spend a whole lot, I'm looking for something that would match my cam profile nicely and possibly get some more horses.

I've got a Advertised 268 int/268 exh (218/218 @ .050 in.) , Stock Lift High Energy Comp Cam in a 355 Chevy , 600cfm carb on a idle-5500 intake, non-vortec heads.

I'm currently running stock heads and I want a stock exhaust port setup as I'm not going to change my headers or anything.

Some SR torquers would work well in your combo. They are decently priced also.

SR? who makes them

World products makes the S/R Torquers, around $800 for the set from Jeg's.

Would I want to get big intake runners and small chambers or large chambers? I don't know anything about how it would work. would a smaller chamber increase compression and give more horses? I'm using a sbc 355.

What would YOU do to get the most power? big intake valve and big chamber?

bump plz kthx?

well smaller chamber more compression, works great... if your motor still has solid compression with minimal ring seapage than go for it...... bigger valves, ehh they have ups and downs... they allow more fuel to flow by but they add weight to the valve train, which means it will wind up a little slower.... bigger runners is cool though, but you might have to rejet your carb a little bit with bigger runners.... because they'll want more CFMs...... i'd say go with medium size intake runners if you aren't too great with tuning and dont want to fiddle with the carb too much....

motor's only got like 7000 miles on it. I'll go for a bigger intake runner and.. i guess a smaller chamber?

I'm really leaning towards a set of these:
S/R Torquer Heads

I ran S/R Torquers with 170cc runners and 67cc chambers on a 355 in my previous street rod. Good heads. But they have the older chamber design while Dart Iron Eagles have the newer fast burn chambers. You might want to check the Dart website and compare. A lot of guys highly recommend Iron Eagles.

Here is a site to compare combinations with different parts. Look through it and decide for yourself what heads you should use. Don't get carried away with high horsepower figures for a street motor, instead concentrate on high torque figures down low in the rpm band.
http://www.ryanscarpage.50megs.com/combos1.html

I think I've decided which heads i want.
I found some Summit Racing heads that are similar to the World Product S/R Torquer heads except only 5cc less on the runners and the max lift is less by 0.04 in. but the price tag is cut by almost 100$ for each head.

Summit Heads
Differences from World Products Head (That I don't understand.):
Retainer Material: Steel
Valve Stem Type Seal: Umbrella
Valve Guide Material: Bronze
Valve Seat Material: Ductile iron

World Products S/R Torquer Heads.
Retainer Material: Chromemoly steel
Valve Stem Type Seal: Ring and Band
Valve Guide Material: Cast Iron
Valve Seat Material: Steel

Now looking at the differences in price tells me something is definately wrong here. Is the Summit Head's durability going to be EXTREMELY shorter than the World Products head? I don't want to buy a shoddy head when I'm trying to fix the damned thing. What would you guys do? Spend the extra cash and go for the World Products? Because I'm leaning that way >_>

Sorry for all the forum hogging in the past few days on this subject but I'm just damn stupid when it comes to picking out things I've never dealt with.

Here's for comparison:

What I would do is get some vortec heads with the 192 intakes and be very happy. The 202's are worthless on the street unless you got your foot in it all the time. I cant beleive how many guys have the 202's and dont have any bottom and dont have a clue as to why.

Personally, I'd save until I could afford the aluminum AFR's. I think anything else is just a waste of money. Check the dyno results.

Don't tell me you can't afford them. If you don't have the money now, don't buy anything at all. That's my best advice.