ready to purchase Aluminum heads. will use TA but which one? 72 GS 462 motor,9:75 cr sp1 intake,ta413 cam,75odp, t400,3000 stall,msd ignition,mt headers,373gears 12bolt chevy, 3875lbs, 13:50 at 6500 ft. Denver C0. street car hits track dozen times a year. driven almost daily. please help me decide.thanks.kenny462.
Sounds like you already have an intake and headers to fit the stage 1 heads. If you get the SE stage 2 you will have another 700 plus shipping in headers. If you get the TE heads you will need another intake too at near 400 plus shipping. This will add another 1200 maybe 1300 with shipping.... You might be able to have the stage 1 heads ported and gain more than spending the money to buy box stk TE stage 2
TA stage one SE or TA stage 2 SE depends on what headers you already have price is basically the same for S1 or S2 heads if it's mostly Street driven I would purchase 800 CFM. QJ from Mark at Quadra jet power he can set it up for your combination it would also be better on fuel.
Stage1SE heads unless you want to spring for new headers. The Stage2SE is a better head and basically the same price. Spring for the entry level porting, well worth it and a no brainer. Also, are you sure about the 9.75:1 compression. The TA heads will probably have a smaller combustion chamber (64-66 cc). That is a good thing, you'll want more compression with aluminum heads. Depending on your cam, you could go as much as 11:1 and still run pump gas. I would put all your specs into a compression calculator, then decide what compression you want and see if you need a bit of milling to get there. When I first switched over to the aluminum heads, my existing long block had 9.4:1 static compression. Greg Gessler milled .040" off the heads making the chambers 59cc. That brought me up to 10.4:1.
Stage 2 se, sell your old headers to offset cost. You don't have to buy $700 brand new headers either. You can pick up a nice used set for around $400. In the long run you'll be happy you went stage 2.
When I do something like this, it my luck I can never find used parts till after I buy new. Lol I try to budget new parts, that's the worst case senerio, then if I get lucky and score good used parts bonus. I didn't purchase my heads assembled, but I would assume that means ready to run, minus a cleaning b4 install, but I would call to verify. Sometimes there is wait for the heads from TA, so that might play into this as well.
Idug out my old Moroso power speed calculator but have forgot how to use it. been 17 years that I used it. how many cc for a stock 73 head w/ stage 1 valves? surfaced only for true. I can muddle through this if I know the cc. thanks kenny462.
It is supposed to be 71cc, but I bet you that is low. Unless you measured it sometime in the past, I wouldn't bet on 71cc. How did you come up with 9.75:1 in the first place?
More power at the cost of what drivability loss below 2500 rpm my friend with the aftermarket heads greater port volume? And don't forget this hard fact, if you where to A/B a set of iron head against a Aluminum head with all else being equal you would find that the Aluminum head needs to flow 12 to 15% more Intake air to make up for the heat loss of the Aluminum chamber. Adding the needed CCs into the port volume of a Aluminum head to achieve the increase in air flow can be the tipping point in being able to run stock rear gears and Converter and the need to having to change them!
Steve, the TA Stage 1 SE heads on my engine were initially ported by Greg Gessler, his entry level porting, think it cost me 300.00 above the basic valve job. They flowed 313/225 @ .550 lift. I initially replaced my untouched iron 70 Stage 1 heads with the aluminum heads and used the dual plane Edelbrock Performer. The engine used a KB 118 cam. I gained 3/4 of a second and 7 MPH trap speed putting me solidly into the mid 12”s. Loss of low end? I couldn’t feel it anywhere, in fact, the engine felt stronger everywhere. Even after going to the SP1, I didn’t notice any loss of low end despite being told that I would most certainly lose some. My thought there isn’t much you can do to the BBB to kill low end to the point where it would be a problem on the street. When I had JW build my current engine, he did additional porting to bring the flow to 334/250 @ .600 lift. I told Jim I wanted to run 11’s with excellent street manners. With that in mind he selected a smaller roller cam, 230/238, 112LSA.. It also had to work with the GV overdrive which brought my final drive to 2.76. I can tell you I don’t feel a loss anywhere still. It will melt the tires with ease from a roll and is very responsive on the highway with the GV engaged. I got exactly what I wanted, a car that consistently runs mid 11’s with no drive ability give backs. I knew it would, the low RPM Dyno sheet showed 500 TQ at 2800 RPM. 589 peak TQ. A big part of all this is the TA heads, I can’t say enough good things about them. You do have to use more static compression with them to make up for the loss of heat, but with a minimal amount of porting, they easily out flow the best ported irons. I would tell anyone contemplating using them not to worry about ANY loss of performance anywhere, I didn’t experience any. Not to mention the ability to use current pump gas as well. My engine runs great on pump 93. The only time I add race gas is at the track. Mike T did his homework on these heads.
