TA Aluminum Intake OR ALuminum Heads(this is for real)

I vote for heads street and track, and intake! Does that count?????:TU:

 

I voted heads also. Heads are where it's at. The intake can come later, if it comes at all. Intakes can be fabricated but heads can't.

Good flowing aluminum heads, dual plane TA intake, headers, and a nice mild roller cam and these 350's will start getting more popular. Stock heads and cams are nice for an every day all-around cruiser to putt around in, but putting fuel injection on a well breathing 350 with a high lift roller cam will transform it into quite the beast, even with a smooth-idling N/A engine.

Imagine the weight savings one of these engines will have over everything else aside from a v6...


Gary

 

I am excited to get some alum. heads for the 350, I think it will be a HUGE step towards aftermarket parts availability!

 

The score is 56 to 9 in favor of heads so far,will this be enough for TA to decide to make them or not?

Derek

 

the question should be do 55 have the money to buy them when and if they are made. not being a pessimist, but I've seen enough crying about prices here. I've invested about 15k for my engine, not including the cars and machines for the 350 I bought over the past years, so heads prices mean little to me. somebody tell me I'm crazy for doing this...lol

 

We're all crazy for building 350 Buick engines. It's the challenge of making something more than it should be.
For what the aluminum heads will cost you can buy a Chevy crate 350 with 400HP. Where's the challenge in that?
I've been racing my 350 car in the Pure Stock races for 13-14 years. Almost every year I get paired with big block cars. 429 Torinos, 400 GTO's. They are always surprised that my car is 350 powered not 455.

 

Happy New Year Johnny!

Do 55 people have the $$ for 350 heads,I would say yes,are they all from v8buick.com,probably not.

There are a whole lot of sbb 350 owners that don't know about this site,and aren't even aware that TA performance exists.

I would imagine if TA did a marketing campaign by doing a couple of sbb 350 engine builds in various magazines showcasing the power potenial of the sbb 350,buyers would show up.(and of coarse buy some advertising space in those mags as well)

And in those articles disclosing the weight of the engine with an all aluminum top end on it a whole lot of interest would be stirred. An engine that can make over 500 reliable streetable HP that weighs under 400lbs(it would probably make the cover) would peak the interest of a whole lot of people willing to fork over the cash for a set of heads. They would sell a lot of intakes as well,and then come out with the S/P intake a lot of those people will upgrade to those.

They just need to get the word out,thats the hard part.

Derek

---------- Post added at 10:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------

Happy New Year to you to Steve!

 

Can we speculate on price? What are we talking here...$1500?

 

One thing for sure is the price will not be less than the BBB heads. Whoever ends up making these things is going to risk selling a lot less heads than the 455's over the years. I would speculate 2000.00 to 2500.00 bare ready for parts. You can buy cheap chevy heads because more than a million have been made. Ask TA, Bulldog and Edelbrock how many sets of 455 heads they have made. Now guess how many 350 Sbb heads could be sold. I would love to see the heads now. Lets see if we all can make this happen!

 

If you're looking at the heads purely from a business/profit viewpoint, it's a big risk. Everything's a risk. You just have to try your best to go with the most favorable odds. The Buick 350's popularity may take off like a rocket after the heads are made, providing there's some marketing involved...but the pricetag may keep people buying Chevy stuff, and those who already have a nice set of ported Buick 350 heads may just keep what they have.

It's a risk. No doubt about it. May not break even on it until a couple of years go by.

But we all know it's more than just profit. Sure that matters, but equally important is the engine itself and how the Buick community would benefit from this sort of attention. Problem is getting the money up to at least break even on the casting costs and engineering. If enough people put up deposits to get the ball rolling, then paid the rest when the heads were done, it would be a good start.

This affects not just the SBB community. There's a lot of people out there who went the path of the big block because of aftermarket support (not all did, of course, but some DID). I believe that with a set of good flowing aluminum heads, you'll see more than just SBB fans take interest. Maybe even those who may not have been interested in Buicks at all.

But then that will drive up the cost of 350 cores, and increase the scarcity, which isn't in my personal best interest, though I would rather see that than the Buick 350 fade into obscurity.

Same thing with the Buick 350 shorty headers. With aluminum heads, those headers will be in even more demand (if you could call it that).

It's all a risk, but something tells me everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised, particularly the one who makes the parts.

That's just my hunch. Could be wrong. Hope I'm not.

Cost wise, they'll be about the same as big block heads. Bare castings around 1700+, fully assembled 2500+. Or something along those lines.


Gary

 

Head prices can always be lowered at anytime or raised. "Supply and demand"

 

I Get the same problem when I go to the track. :spank:

 

The factory 350-4 I had in my '68 Lesabre ran so well (non-Buick) people swore it was the 'Wildcat engine' (430) lol...

---------- Post added at 02:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:59 PM ----------

This is why when Steve talks, I listen. :TU:

 

I would "hope" that if TA came out with the Aluminum Head and/ or SP Intake, that the demand for their other SBB parts would increase. ie, They'd see an increase in orders
for Cams/ Lifters, Timing Covers, Headers etc.

If so, perhaps the return on investment could be slightly quicker than we initially suspect.

It would seem to make sense that those spending the $ on a set of these parts wouldn't want to run them with a stock cam and exhaust manifolds.

 

I agree but I see constantly on this site where someone buys one thing from TA and another part that TA sell from somewhere else. I see this especially true for cams. Mike has cams that are literally a few HP apart. Except for specialty cams he has or can make anything you want. I would only hope it would increase other sales. Mike builds lots of motors and I think they go out with all his parts. This would be a great argument for a 350 aluminum block with offset bores just enough for 4" bores!

 

my best guess on ball park pricing would be
$2795.00. fully assembled and 1500 bare casting as the rover project was the most recent product they took on that relates to this topic

im sure it'll take a year min to get these out the door possibly 2
so more then enough time to save up 3k
or at least 1500 and put the remainder on CC lol

 

I agree they could be in that price range, the Buick / Rover motor has been built for over 40 years and I believe it was just dropped for a new design motor. I don't care so much about price because if they cost too much only a few will buy them. As far as time. They could be ready to bolt on in a few months. Its all about time and money. We will have a good adea just how much a new head will flow in a few weeks. If not for several 455 projects we would know by now. Sorry!

 

im not worried about price if its made i'll buy it
and good deal few months sounds badd ass

 

Happy New Year all.
I have not read every single post here but have read most. In my opinion I feel the single plane intake should be the first project. This would generate sales to help support the cylinder head. Sherri on the other hand is on most of your sides, she votes heads. And if you know Sherri its a surprise to get any vote when it comes to new projects. Enough of you must have expressed interest to her & Tim over the years. The direction I'm thinking of taking should excite most. All details have not been worked out just yet but are in process, cost, design, time line etc. If things go the way I would like, I'm going to try and get both in the works. To answer just a few questions in regards to design. As fare as rockers, I like the Buick design so I may build the head to support a bolt down rocker tower bar which would allow the use of stock Buick rockers and TA roller rockers. Remove the bar and you could install studs, guide plates and Chevy rockers. Intake leaning toward air gap SP-1 style.

 

:tu::tu: