Thread: Heads for 350 SBC in '65 El Camino. Will these work?

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Hello Cletus and welcome to CHR!

The wonderful thing about Gen I SBC is that there are tons of reasonably priced bolt on parts that can go from mild to wild. A couple questions for you:
1. Is the short block a used part?
2. Has the cam been run and broken in properly?
3. Is this car an automatic or stick?
4. Do you know the rear end ratio?

The reason I ask is that you have a fairly aggressive flat tappet cam that is not going to perform well off idle. You're getting close to a profile that needs octane booster in the fuel and 9.5:1 as a minimum compression ratio. It needs to breathe and have a reasonably geared rear end and a 2600-3000RPM stall (for automatic). I’d want a 3:73 for an automatic and a 3:90 or lower for a stick. Anything higher will mean that around town you spend a lot of time in first and second gear and get embarrassed by the Subaru/Honda/Kia crowd between stoplights.

That said, I think the Flotek heads that you listed would be a good value for your build. Use Fel-Pro 1205 intake manifold gasket, Fel-Pro 1404 exhaust manifold gasket and Fel-Pro 1043 head gaskets – kinda pricy ($100 a pair) but the best. Aluminum heads require a hardened washer between the bolt (or stud) and the aluminum as it is softer that cast iron. The hardened washers are thicker than ordinary washers so make sure you get the correct length fastener – ARP 134-3601 should work just fine.

I don’t often recommend other than stock (1.5:1) rockers but in this build a set of Comp Cams Magnum Steel Roller Tip Rocker Arms 1417-16 would be appropriate. These are a 1.52 roller tip and will give you as close as “perfect-from-the-factory” as possible. Be sure and use a pushrod length checker to determine the exact length required. I believe you will need +.100 for these heads (stock is 7.818” x 5/16” so you would need 7.9” x 5/16” pushrods) but by all means, check as I’ve recommended a bit thinner head gasket.

Hope this helps – again welcome to CHR!

Regards,
Glenn

Originally Posted by glennsexton

Hello Cletus and welcome to CHR!

The wonderful thing about Gen I SBC is that there are tons of reasonably priced bolt on parts that can go from mild to wild. A couple questions for you:
1. Is the short block a used part?
2. Has the cam been run and broken in properly?
3. Is this car an automatic or stick?
4. Do you know the rear end ratio?

The reason I ask is that you have a fairly aggressive flat tappet cam that is not going to perform well off idle. You're getting close to a profile that needs octane booster in the fuel and 9.5:1 as a minimum compression ratio. It needs to breathe and have a reasonably geared rear end and a 2600-3000RPM stall (for automatic). I’d want a 3:73 for an automatic and a 3:90 or lower for a stick. Anything higher will mean that around town you spend a lot of time in first and second gear and get embarrassed by the Subaru/Honda/Kia crowd between stoplights.

That said, I think the Flotek heads that you listed would be a good value for your build. Use Fel-Pro 1205 intake manifold gasket, Fel-Pro 1404 exhaust manifold gasket and Fel-Pro 1043 head gaskets – kinda pricy ($100 a pair) but the best. Aluminum heads require a hardened washer between the bolt (or stud) and the aluminum as it is softer that cast iron. The hardened washers are thicker than ordinary washers so make sure you get the correct length fastener – ARP 134-3601 should work just fine.

I don’t often recommend other than stock (1.5:1) rockers but in this build a set of Comp Cams Magnum Steel Roller Tip Rocker Arms 1417-16 would be appropriate. These are a 1.52 roller tip and will give you as close as “perfect-from-the-factory” as possible. Be sure and use a pushrod length checker to determine the exact length required. I believe you will need +.100 for these heads (stock is 7.818” x 5/16” so you would need 7.9” x 5/16” pushrods) but by all means, check as I’ve recommended a bit thinner head gasket.

Hope this helps – again welcome to CHR!

Regards,
Glenn

First of all, some context. The original motor was from an '82 Corvette, which I read was a real turd for a vette, with the 624 heads that I also read are some of the worst. My late stepfather swapped out the Crossfire system and put in a Edelbrock Performer and carb, and traditional distributor. He basically only used the longblock.

1. Yes. I'm told pretty low miles, and the visual inspection looks like that's true.
2. yes and I would assume, but cannot verify.
3. yes; it has a muncie. 4 speed, I believe
4. I do not know the rear end ratio, but I think he swapped the gears since it was fun to drive and accelerated decently with that motor.