Thanx Jim. I just talked to the guy today and here's the lay down. About 11yrs ago he bought a 73 stg1 car from Tom Rose. Tom raced the car and those heads where on the motor. The heads where worked by Crane and have big block Chevy valves in them. The heads were removed and stored in plastic bags with oil and have remained this way for 10yrs. Still waiting on pictures of them,but I'm thinking they are just reworked stock 455 heads. Don't you just love grapevines! I'll keep ya posted
Mike You never know with Tom,he could have had those rare ones too. He had probably 10 sets of factory stage2 heads,thats where I got my sets. Richard L. I believe also picked up 3 sets when Tom started selling his stuff off. My guess is they are worked over stage1's too. Hope they are the rare ones,or stage2's though. gary
I know this is an old thread but. At this years nats the white with green GSX'ed stripped car were running what looks to be those heads along with cast manifolds. Bad with names but he also was out of Mi. Sorry if it was you or know of him... After seeing those heads on the car I had it in the back of my mind that I saw pics of them and these are the ones!
Yes, Guy tis me running the green stripe (Sparty) with them there funky looking exhaust port heads. As for how much do they help? That is a loaded question. The heads are not ported and will never have a grinder touch them. I have a set of ported heads that were ported by a very reputable Buick porter. The heads were flowed along with the ported iron heads and a set of untouched iron Stage 2 heads by the same shop. The flow numbers were a little better than the ported heads. The intake ports and runners are identical to the stage 2 heads which are larger than the production head intake ports. The intake flow numbers were identical to the Stage 2 intake numbers. The exhaust flow numbers, well no comparison, the Stage 2 exhaust just keeps going and going and going. I have used these heads on 2 different engine combinations. Each time the only change were the heads and exhaust manifolds. On my pure stock engine with unported heads and a small cam (210-230 dur at .050) there is no performance gain. The cam is too small to take advantage of or utilize the flow potential. On my stock appearing engine with a larger cam (233-248 dur at .050) there is a 4 tenths gain in et and a 5+ mph gain over stock unported heads. The heads do work. I think there is still a couple more tenths with some tuning. A larger cam will generate a couple more tenths as well.
The person who initially had the heads never did procure the manifolds that matched the heads. It was a bit time consuming (20+ hrs) however I was able to get production manifolds to work.
I 'd love to see TA make some better flowing cast iron manifolds and an aluminum stock appearing intake as well!!!
Hi Jim I came up to you a few times at this years Nats to meet you, but each time you seemed really busy...(don't think we ever met?) sorry. I did check out your blue car with the Spyders. Very, very nice!
Im sorry Guy. I was busy last year with two classes etc. NOT this year. I handed GSR off to someone else to run. So only BSA for me now!! I didnt even know your car was there until after the Nationals! Bummer, I always wanted to see it in person after you restored it. I will not be as busy this year do please stop by and say hi. Thanks for the compliments on the car. And thanks for the advise and tips on the Spyders. PS I got Joe to sign my decklid a few years ago while he looked over the car. He got a kick out of the Spyders and that we both restored them for our cars. I hope you will be back to the Nationals with the car!