Poor TA can't win There is finally a AL head.. Go somewhere else and buy a pair then I'm the last to give advice but from what iv'e read on that deleted thread was the re designed ports inside these heads that more or less are a direct fit on stock 350 block and factory exhaust port dimensions is what makes them better. Options for bigger valves and valve train also. Many have said CFM flow isn't everything, am I correct at least on this.. Iv'e seen $20,000 Buick motors built and now the complaining on the $2500 price of these heads. A medium ported iron headed 350 GS doing 13.4 in the 1/4 I bet would do 13.1 with level 0 porting swap.. 20hp from the heads and minus 60 lbs up front. Then start the porting and all the good stuff.
The fact of the matter is the majority of the blow-hards were likely to never buy these heads anyway. Keep up with the theorizing and pissing and moaning with all the great pie-in-the sky ideas (that'll likely never amount to anything beyond that), TA put a product on the table that appeals to as broad a market as possible (and that market isn't even very broad). All those with "what ya shoulda done was...." ideas, here's a thought: DO IT. Prove how right you are and how wrong they are by bringing a product to market that blows theirs out of the water and sells like hot cakes. It's so easy and quick, show em how it's done and I'll be right here to cheer you on. Until then, it seems we have the V8Buick version of these guys:
You are wrong about the 455 heads, without any changes to the bottom end, removing unported factory heads and bolting on a set of the TA entry level 455 heads without any porting WILL net an increase of HP and torque and would be noticeable on the but dyno. Probably would be 30 to 75 more HP depending on year of engine or mods to the bottom end and if it has headers already. Look, like I said in my previous post I'm just the messenger here pointing out if someone thinks they can buy those heads and expect to bolt them on right out of the box without spending more on bells and whistles and have a power gain like you can with even TA's entry level 455 heads they would be wrong assuming that. And,NEVER NEVER DID I SAY THAT I DIDN'T LIKE THESE HEADS, not once. I do like that aluminum heads are available for the sbb 350 that have a lot of potential with extra $work. AND your very last sentence; "Anyone else looking to offer us a head for that engine?" Years ago I was in contact with Ken Betts to collaborate with him to make aluminum sbb 350 heads but Ken didn't want to if TA was going to commit to making them. Which they did a few weeks after that conversation so we didn't proceed with the project. Maybe if we knew it would take them 6 years + to get their heads on the market we may have went with it?(who knows?) I promise you one thing, people would of been able to bolt them on with no other changes and they would of made more power right out of the box without having to buy bells and whistles first! As for the $200 bowl blending, Larry always recommends that for the 455 heads even though they would make more power without having that done, but for the $$ its a no brainer for the gain it gives. That little mod on the 455 head brings it up to what the level 4 ported cast iron heads would flow! But for the step child sbb 350 that mod only gets you to a level 2 cast iron head port job. Might as well just put a 455 in it because the heads cost less than the sbb 350 heads even the Stage2 BBB heads cost less! My standard? Maybe, but it should be theirs because it is a great standard for their 455 heads, why not for the 350 heads? Even the TA Rover head flow is higher than the sbb 300 heads(that includes the factory al and the factory cast iron) can be ported to and that's right out of the box! That includes the best flowing factory Rover heads as well! Why aren't the 350 heads the same way or even at a level 3 ported cast iron head? Why is the 350 standard lower?
My guess is that there is physically less room in the heads to flow air, but look at a 350 Chevy and it’s valvetrain geometry and port flow.
You and Ken should have done it. Respectful to not compete with TA, but its better for the market and us Buick guys to have more options. Who knows, Ken seems to really be ramping up his company and has lots of good stuff in the pipeline. Maybe that talk can be revisited. I still don't agree with you on the 455 head scenario, but I'm not going to delve into a huge debate about that because the likelihood of someone with a bone stock 47 year old engine going out and slapping $3K worth of iron heads on is almost zero. If someone did then they obviously aren't a member on here and should have asked first LOL.
Guy's we are all on the same team here. Several people brought up good information and opinions for discussion. TA made what they believe the majority of customers would want. You can't please everybody. I'm with Derek that they could be more performance oriented right out of the box, for OUR liking. That said the majority of the market is content with the potential of power. That is, they don't plan to race, like to have upgrades to their car for shows or just bragging rights. That's fine also. If I did not have to use iron heads for Pure stock races I might consider the new heads. This should all work itself out in the next year or two as people start getting their builds done with the heads. We won't know apples to apples increase as it sounds like all the pending builds are going right to the aluminum. TA has a very good reputation for making heads so I don't think the 350 heads will have any problems, but I have not heard that they have done any extended testing like heat cycle tests. The photos I've seen of them looks like the exhaust ports are moved higher on the head. Can someone with the new head check that? As for the port shape being improved thats really a stretch. Think of this. The air/fuel enters the head in the same place, enters the cylinder bore in the same place (+/- .040") and exits the head in the same place. All traveling in as straight/short a line as possible while dodging the push rod and head bolt holes which have not moved. The increase is mostly due to the valve size being larger.
As you see folks the thread did not need to be deleted for the debate to go on. It would have been better to delete the offending posts or leave it alone. There was good info on there even though there were arguments over what should have been done. If this bashing of TA was so bad then why was the thread allowed to go on with Mr. Sony getting on TA about that timing cover. I would say more but I am going to shut my mouth.
See this, people putting words in my mouth that I didn't say, again. It didn't have to be a factory stock engine the TA 455 heads got swapped on, could of been any level of rebuild swapping factory unported heads for the TA heads. But even a low mileage factory engine would make more power with a TA aluminum head swap. I would never recommend spending that kind of $$ to swap aluminum heads on a worn out engine!
Well, there is a "Help from Above Forum". This is the "Engine Tech Forum". We don't have or need a "Venting/ Whining Forum".
