Unfortunately the help i need is not for a buick 350 it is for a chevy 350... christmas is right around the corner and my dad has always talked about getting aluminum heads for his 1965 chevy el camino. So i decided now that my project is safely undercontrol, i would buy him a set of aluminum heads for that 350 this year for christmas to help him with his car, as he is the reason i bought my 72 buick as my first car. I would like to know what i would need to know before i buy the heads?
Will either of you install them? If not, perhaps a gift certificate for the cost of the from the installer? So much to know and understand as their are a plethora of cylinder head choices for the SBC. At a minimum you'd need to know the current build: compression ratio, camshaft, intake and exhaust... and pistons, to make sure the new valves don't come in contact with the old pistons.
As Dave said, there is so many SBC choices it'd make your head spin. I'd bet there's over 1000 completely different sets of aluminum heads available just for them. That said, I've got Promaxx heads on my F100, and they're great. The company is small and located in Alabama and are very easy to deal with. A set of their Maxx series for your Dad's sweet Elky would probably fit the bill well. Give them (or any other head manufacturer of your choice) a call and let them help you out with your choice. https://promaxxperformance.com/maxx-series/
Okay, we would more than likely be putting them on ourselves. He wants to go back through the motor and freshen it up a bit while my car is away. the motor has been in the car since the 90s i believe. To my understanding from what he has told me the motor is punched .030, and is somewhere in the 10:1 range, whether or not flat top pistons were put in im not 100% sure. The cam he doesnt remember the specs and i dont believe he still has the cam card (which will make this more difficult lol) he has always said its nothing too big, its just a step above stock. it sounds like there is a huge cam in there, but he says its just one step above stock. The intake and exhaust valve sizes on the heads i have zero clue about. It wouldnt imagine that they would be anything too much bigger than the stock size. They look like stock rockers but i could definitely be wrong. Thats all i know about the motor right now i might be able to do some digging and report back
Are the current iron heads power pack (1.94 intakes)or double hump(2.020).? Look at the front end of heads.
I have a set of trick-flow camel humps on my nova, nice head, looks old-skool, paint them chevy orange and no one will know
What kind of performance is he looking for? Hi rpm power or just cruising and stoplight-stoplight fun? How much highway use and what are the rear gears? Is he running headers (what size) and what intake and carb is on it? It would help to know the piston cr so the proper chamber size can be selected. Valve and port size should be chosen for the desired rpm range. Camshaft and head gaskets can be optimized for the combo but pistons are more work to replace!
These are all reasons I suggested picking a head manufacturer and giving them a call. They'll be able to steer him to which of their heads is right for his set-up and his Dad's ambitions. EDIT: Here you go, and this is only assembled aluminum heads from Summit. Pick one of the 435 varieties available....... https://www.summitracing.com/search...ial:aluminum&SortBy=Default&SortOrder=Default
I took pictures of the engine bay/ front of the heads rather than me try to explain lol the block i believe is a '74 350 if that may help some. The kind of performance he wants is something to cruise around with stoplight-stoplight fun and be able to take it on the highway as well because he loves to drive the El camino everywhere. The rear end gears are taller gears for highway use, because he had them put in to drive the car farther distances to big shows. he always says how compared to my buick. The camino is slow out of the hole compared to my buick. Thats why i think there are taller gears in the rear. Yes he is running longtube headers with a 3in collector right now. The carb is an edelbrock 4bbl with an electric choke, the cfm im unsure of but i wouldnt imagine it wouldnt be more than 750 for a mild small block 350, with around 350hp
Edelbrock..........can't beat their service or prices/quality/ ease of installation for a general HP gain for a daily driver.
Heck, I'd pull the old heads off, get some measurements for CR and the existing Camshaft, then get some heads from Summit - looks like they've got a retail store an hour west of you in Tallmadge OH, I'll bet they'd ship them next day or you could go pick them up.
Get these heads; https://www.ebay.com/itm/ProMaxx-CN...536211?hash=item1c93401ad3:g:2WAAAOSwrOtZzUzR And this roller cam; https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cca-12-464-8/overview/make/Chevrolet I wrote the review for the above cam. And these rockers; https://www.ebay.com/itm/Roller-Roc...3-8-Aluminum-Rockers-305-350-400/222851192768 Would be a good idea to get stud girdles for the rockers studs with over .600" lift because the rockers are 1.8:1 ratio. Its the cam that will make loads of low end torque with the above parts, especially with how good the above heads flow! 10:1 would be just right with aluminum heads with the above cam but would need at least mid grade fuel at a minimum.
Dad talked about just some edelbrock performer rpm heads. In which i think he has the performer rpm aluminum manifold now. he says that he feels the power band is set a little high to be driving around town with the manifold? I dont know if thats true thats just what he thinks. I looked into that promaxx performance website before i went to work tonight and it seems pretty good i will get a little bit more info on the engine details, before i call anywhere. Ill look at the summit link as well. Im glad i asked because there are an absolute ton of options out there
https://www.airflowresearch.com These are about the best you can get.. Idelbroke heads well they got a old name. Made with old warn out tools. Before you bolt them down they NEED to be rebuilt. Dont matter what in the fast pace SBC world. parts mainly your heads should be taken to a Great machinist. With a very good rep. before install I have seen many NEW Never Ever Worked EB heads flunk a vacuum test. guides way to tight strait out of the box. Side note I saw a good set off shore bare castings brought into my friends machine shop. He set the guides. valves springs ETC with parts and labor they left his better than most assembly line after market heads. dollar wise
This is the best advice you could possibly receive. AFR are without a doubt the best heads on the market. I have Trick Flow heads on mine and they're great but in retrospect I wish I'd spent a little extra money and got the AFR heads. Just as valuable here is the advice of taking them to a reputable machine shop before installing them. I know of several people who have bought aluminum heads and installed them right out of the box only to have the valves seize in the guides and other malfunctions. Of course, it goes without saying that removing them and having to take them to a shop anyway only adds more time and expense to the job.
One more step up from that, the Performer RPM Air Gap is probably the best dual plane manifold on the market. Don't worry about power band guesses, it'll work perfectly on the street. I've had mine for 15 years now and wouldn't even consider anything else.
With the combo I posted above, your dad's little sbc 350 will have close to if not more than 500 ft lbs of torque with around the same HP with right off of idle performance! Will make even an LS swap look like a punk. Just one look at the flow numbers posted for those Promaxx heads will show their potential; Flow Specs @ 28" w/2.08"/1.60" w/30° Backcut valves .200" .300" .400" .500" .600" .700" .800" Intake 141 206 257 284 300 305 305 Exhaust 111 144 171 189 202 211 216 The above combined with the cam I posted would be a great performance truck engine combo that would work well with steep gears.(your dad might take you of the line with the combo I listed?) The Dart equivalent to these heads would cost the same for 1 bare Dart head as it would cost for the assembled set in the link! If you wanted to go with a non-import then your best bang for the buck would be Profiler heads.
AFR's are great. So are Brodix, World, TFS, Edelbrock, Promaxx, Dart, etc. From the OP's first post and looking at his Dad's car and his Dad's statements, sounds like he wants a good street engine. ANY of the companies making aluminum heads are going to be able to fit the bill just fine. Also, I see the OP is 20 years old, so I'm ASSUMING he's going to want something affordable. Pick your budget and go from there.....And OP, no reason to change that intake. Is an Air Gap "better". Heck yeah it is for a performance build, it'd probably get you another 2-10 hp peak. But a regular Performer RPM is a great manifold and more than capable of doing what you and your Dad want to do. Don't go wasting money on that.
