Are the aluminum heads TA sells ready to run as delivered? Second question, is the price listed at TA per head or a pair? Can I use my stock rockers and pushrods with TA Al heads? Finally, can a hydraulic roller cam be reground to a milder spec? Background: I have a GS 350 4-speed that is pretty original at 92,000 miles. It needs a little more go as my other car is a Stage 1. I was wanting to put headers on it but every bolt in the exhaust manifolds feel like they are going to snap. I'm not opposed to pulling the heads and getting the bolts out but in my mind, getting a set of Al heads solves two problems. I've also got a guy that is selling his motor but it is running a pretty radical roller cam that I don't want (230/237 .525/.531 110 LSA) as I don't think my 3.08 4 speed car would handle it well. He says it needs 3000 stall. So, I'm trying to figure out if I should buy the TA Al heads or buy a whole motor with big-valve iron heads. My other options is to swap in my spare 455 and call it a day. Opinions, thoughts, doubts or regrets?
Well you have a spare 455 and they say replacement for displacement. I on the other hand are in the process of having a 350 built utilizing many of TA Performance parts. My machinist spoke with Mike Sr. last week and discussed what I want to accomplish. Aluminum heads level one porting with bowl blend and 2.02 intake valve SP3 with Holley Sniper. As for cam will be a roller with approximately.500 lift. Specs haven’t been verified as of yet. Will post when things are sorted out.
They can be, depends on what you want, Bare Castings, 1650.00, fully assembled, ready to run, 2800.00 Price is for a pair of heads. I believe you can use stock rockers and push rods, but you should always check for proper push rod length. The new heads use longer valves. That probably means different push rods regardless. You also have the option to use Chevy roller rockers. When you buy a hydraulic roller cam, you are buying the core (blank), 295.00, the grind is 199.00, or you can send it somewhere else to have it ground. My roller was ground by Comp Cams to JW's specifications. Can you regrind to a milder spec? I think so, but it depends on what you have and what you want to go to I would think.
I would suggest the 200 $ clean up port budget blend on the aluminum heads. A 71 engine is only about 8.2 compression factory. The smaller 55 cc chambers will net 8.4. You may want to bump compression if you are looking for some real kick
That eng with the 110 roller cam & big valve irons you are looking at isnt that radical. If it's a fair price and decently built, I say buy it, change to a 373 or 410 gear and it'll rock pretty well.
I was wanting something that would idle about 750, have a detectable lope and pull to about 5000-5200 strong. I don't want a steep gear in this car. The current 3.08 is pretty decent all around gear for a little bit of travel. If I had an overdrive, it wouldn't hurt me but a stick car with 1:1 top gear The complete engine minus carb with roller rockers, TA intake and valve covers is $3500 and a hard day's drive away from here. He says it is blueprinted and true 10.5:1 compression. He's checking to see if the crank is drilled for a pilot bushing and if the boss in the side of the block is tapped for the Z-bar stud.
Thats the problem with factory 4spds. No o.d. When I was a kid, tallest gear with 4spd I ever ran was 355. Mostly 373, 410 and even 488. Travel in your daily driver.....
Not for nothing but you can put a Gear Vendors behind manual transmission. https://www.gearvendors.com/hrgm4sm.html
Yep Larry, Amost a must, especially if you want to run the e-ways for any distance. I got tired of the new cars blowing by me when I had 390's and a 3 spd auto. The 2004r really was my BEST upgrade.
I'm working toward an M23Z gear set for the factory M21 which has a 2.98 first gear. That will get the 3.08 gears launching like 4.10s.
I'd hate to see another 350 4-sp. car get converted to a 455 but... I'd have loved to have bought your car when it was for sale if I didn't already have a 350 4-sp. (basket case but super neat car). In my experience, which corresponded to the Kenne-Bell build from the 80's, the 350's respond best to better flowing heads, a 4-sp. (not sure why - Maybe more times hitting the higher rpm?), and rear gears. On my last 350 4-sp., I went from 3.23 to 3.42 to 3.73 and every time the car went significantly (few tenths) faster (drove 700 mi. ea. way to the Nationals w/3.73's & I don't drive 55 but it screamed). After I went to big valve/ported iron heads it was also a significant change (previously had headers & a KB Mark II cam w/stock '70 Hi-Comp bottom end - Changed to a KB C108 w/the heads & true 10.5 SCR - picked up about 1 sec.). The iron head engine sounds like a good way to go. As noted, with the alum. heads you might as well figure on doing the bottom end too to up the compression. If you did ever still decide to go to the alum. Heads on if you buy that engine, you'd already have the compression and could sell the iron heads (I assume there'll be some sets coming up for sale once the alum. heads get sorted out). Personally I'd probably do a 5-sp. over a gear vendors OD but I haven't looked into it nor decided what I'm doing with my next build. Would depend I guess if I intended to take it to the track. If not, the M23Z gearset is probably the best way to go. Just my $.02 fwiw.
He sent me a video of the car idling with open headers. Doesn't sound too wild. He says power is about 2800-6500. This might take you to a video but it is on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10209975569166144
I like it as long as you have confidence in the build - Sounds a lot like my old car. Yea, you might need some better gears (trans or rear) but... Is he including the headers in the price?
It'd be nice to have the carb to start, but I'd probably run a QJ on it anyway. What intake does it have? My old car had no power brakes (or steering) so vacuum wasn't an issue but that may be something to look @ (can't recall for sure but I thought yours has PDB - I looked at the ad a bunch of times).
This is his combo. Single plane intake: http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?th...th-the-dual-plane-intake.346888/#post-2945720
Yep, I'd love to know more specs on it. I started this just wanting to swap heads for ones that weren't all broken bolted from 50 years of rust on the manifolds. Boy, how things snowball!
Do you want me to message him on Facebook and get him in contact with you? my thinking is that I would do a full rebuild before swapping on alum heads. Just my 2 cents.
I remember that thread from last year (the Buick world sure is small) - Something was/is off on that combo. and holding it back. What "it" is, is the $64k question here wrt whether it's the way to go. Has he changed anything since then or has he grown tired/frustrated of fooling with it? I agreed most w/Alec's post in that thread - That car (even a heavy wagon) should be well into the 13's if not high 12's. All a nitrous shot is going to do is mask whatever was/is wrong. Yes, I'd like to see it run w/4.10's but I don't think that's what's holding it back. Yes the TH 400 probably isn't the right trans - I already stated but it's worth reiterating that 350's respond well to a M-21 (I'd love to do a side by side comparison w/an M-20). Kenne-Bell had the same results going from a TH 350 to an M-21 on their early 80's build (It's on here somewhere but I have a copy of it if you want). Maybe it's all tuning? Maybe the converter? Maybe the cam needs to be advanced/retarded. Maybe the carb is way off. Wagons do tend to hook pretty well (my bone stock exc. headers '69 SW 400 went 14.30's). I thought you'd said initially (I guess I assumed) the big valve heads were ported - Why would someone go to the expense of big valves w/o porting? I get it - $ doesn't grow on trees but I'd opt for porting on a 350 over bigger valves. That's where I'd start but if you have to tear the thing apart and pay for porting now it's defeating the purpose I think(?). Maybe the 4-sp. would wake it up but probably not w/3.08's (w/o doing the math maybe you could go through the traps in 3rd if you were going to run it but that might defeat the advantage of the M-21 or maybe it would be a stoplight screamer in 1st - 3rd). Granted his 4500 trap RPM isn't great. I'd try backing off on the shift points but w/o a dyno sheet that's guessing. I suspect 6200 is (way) too much and he's way past peak but idk - Shifting at 54-500 is the easiest/cheapest thing to try. Now that we know a little more I'm suspect and not so sure that's such a deal. Maybe it still is but it may not be the drop it in and go solution you're looking for. I'm by no means any type of expert so take anything I'm saying w/a grain of salt, but unlike a lot of ppl I built a stout 350 setup back when almost nobody was doing it (Mike T. Started out on 350's - His wagon ran 11's in the early '80's & so was Sonny but that was it) so I do have some anecdotal experience. Maybe I just got lucky - We had next to zero information (Most of what we had was from the V6's since a 350 is essentially a Buick V6 w/2 more cyl. & the factory 3.8 program was in its heyday) and I was young and dumb and certainty not smart/wise enough to properly tune a combo. and the car was fast (it was also light - Prob. 3500 lb. but also had a tight suspension - All urethane & TA front bar). I'd be super disappointed to have an engine that sounded like that and ran a best of 13.99 @ 98. Heck, even before I put the heads/C108 on and re-did the bottom end (I never did have roller rockers) I was running 14.0 (best of 14.01) @ 104+! My 60' times were awful so on a stock/never opened up '70 bottom end w/ just a TA intake, headers, a KB Mark II cam and 3.73's I was making enough HP on the top end to go well into the 13's and that was in the late '80's. Maybe the guy's engine is still a deal but now knowing the heads weren't ported (by someone who knows what they're doing - Dave Johnson @ TA did mine before he worked for TA) if I had the $ I think I'd start fresh or at least figure on offering him less $. Enough to cover the port work that IMHO it needs - The thing can't breathe. On the other hand, you could re-do your bottom end to get some compression (I'd stroke it a bit with NASCAR t/o rods but now you're into more $), get the alum. heads, headers, and an intake (even leaving the stock rockers if the cam isn't wild) and know exactly what you have.
