I'm ordering a set of ta stage 1 SE heads for my project. it's my understanding that one of the biggest bang for the buck is getting bowl blend work done. I'm wondering if an engine with Factory exhaust manifolds and intake manifold will benefit from this bowl blend? The cost is $700 and I'm not sure that I will see much benefit from it with out running headers or a nice single-plane intake.
Entry level porting is a no brainer. Go for it. More head flow is beneficial now, and down the road. No downsides except the cost.
According to the tech at TA they flow 285 CFM out of the box. Bowl work takes it up over 300 cfm. I'm thinking the intake manifold or the exhaust manifolds are going to be the bottleneck and this perhaps could be wasted money.
That's a tought question. The 285 cfm is what a very, very good set of iron heads can get done and plenty of cars have gone fast stock appearing. Are the intake and exhaust manifolds ported out? That is where I'd spend the money first. If those are getting done then if the cash is still around consider going for the extra head work because it will not hurt at all to have that extra flow inside there. I can't say it would help too much though unless you go all out stock appearing.
Those heads flow enough out of the box stock @ .500" lift to make 500 hp, but doing so requires headers, so I can't at this point in time see you making good use of that 700 bucks spent on a bowl blend job, which by the way sounds like a high price for such work done on a Iron head, no less Aluminum!
When I bought my TA heads from Greg Gessler in January of 2006, I opted for the entry level porting. If I remember correctly, it was 200 or 300 over the base price. My heads flowed 313/225 at .550 lift, In 2010, I removed my heads and sent them off to Jim Weise for my 470 build. Due to no fault of my own, my heads and intake were installed WITHOUT a splash shield. The back sides of my valves looked like this, My heads were disassembled, valves cleaned, and had some more porting done to them. That cost me about 700-800.00 at the time. This was the result, I agree with Steve, 700.00 sounds like a lot of money for just the entry level porting which will push you well over 300 CFM on the intake side. Maybe you should shop around for that service.
You can do it yourself,..not much to it,..the castings are really nice,..doesn't require but maybe literally 10min per bowl to dress them up
Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. This isn't an all-out effort and is mostly just a fun toy that will be driven on the street with maybe an occasional street legal drag event. I think I'll use the heads as they are shipped and use the money elsewhere on the car.
Not only is the intake manifold a bottle neck long before a 285 cfm flow level is reached the overall shape/ area of the runners with it expanding the wrong way once it gets to the head makes for a narrow and peaky Torque band the the motor would otherwise have!!! The taper that the overall runner should have is as in this photo.
I would think your 700 could be used better on intake carb and headers.......new heasers are nit cheap so don't overlook a good set of used to save money, same as intake
I guess the question is do you plan on getting rid of the factory exhaust and intake down the road or do you want to keep a stock appearing engine?
I plan to keep it stock appearing. So I'm sticking to stock exhaust manifolds and a Q-jet. I could always get a B4B or performer manifold and paint it but it's my understanding the only benefit to those is the weight savings.
That sounds like a whole lot of fun and some hurt feelings for Chevy and Chrysler guys. I'd be tickled to make 450 horsepower and have a nice flat torque curve