Hi guys and gals, just wanted to let you know about the latest info about the Alum Buick 350 heads. The following is a quote from Sherry at TA: the prototype castings are on their way to us right now, then we will need to program the cncs for machining and then done! Regards, Sherri TA Performance Products 16167 N 81 St Scottsdale, AZ 85260 480-922-6807
Sean, That's good news from T/A! Got your good engine with the Billet crank ready to drop those babies on don't you? You ARE getting the first set aren't you? :Smarty:
What's a ballpark number for these? We still don't know valve sizes, port size, chamber volume, set up for sbc roller rockers, single springs, double springs, triple springs, .......and price guesstimate.
Yes I have the girdled billet crank engine ready for the heads, will still take some time to get the heads fully ported and then dyno the engine NA before putting it in the car. Might dyno it also with a Gt45 turbo and also with my big 88mm turbo before it goes in the car. Need the head flow data before I can order a custom cam. I should get the first set of heads they sell but I am not getting the prototype heads they have someone else to test them. The head is a closed chamber design, about 55cc, and those are the only real things I care about. My Ta roller rockers will fit for sure and I don't care how much they cost personally. Ta will let us know soon. Another great piece of info is that Scott brown is going to offer a $1100 CNC porting option for the heads, but I am using Chris Skaling becuase he can keep working for more flow instead of the cookie cutter CNC deal.. The good news is the CNC option will be repeatable so I might just buy a second set of heads and have them CNC ported and see what makes more power??? Hand ported or CNC??
There is no doubt that the CNC head porting is a great option, the only real question is do you want a cookie cutter porting job or the custom porting that can be done by hand... I could have the CNC porting done and then have hand porting done to look for the last little bit of flow although I am not sure that a real head porting pro would appreciate starting from anything other than a clean slate though. Repeatability is the huge advantage of the CNC, and the artistic freedom is the advantage to the hand porting.
I hope they are not the same price as the parts for my iron heads or I will hate myself for being impatient lol
I don't think the alum heads will cost less than a set of iron heads rebuilt with oversized valves but they may cost less than pro ported versions... They will be less prone to cracking, more room for porting, lighter, etc.
Call and make a deposit, I know once they get them they will sell quick and it might be a while till they make more runs of them.
Called them and put my deposit down on a set. Disappointed that they don't know anything about them though.
Maybe not all of the employees know the specs but list your questions and I will ask mike Jr directly next time I talk to him.
In support of TA. All the specs in the world will become meaning less until you get the prototype set up and bolted on a block, then on a dyno, then on the track. I could have given out the specs on our 455 race head and gone ahead with the production run.. but we sent a partial test head to Al Dicksen and he caught some port to bowl misalignment. I don't think everyone would want to pay to have a head porter fix a problem that we fixed at no cost. We all want to spend our money on something that works out of the box and then up grade if we want more! None of us wants to wait, but that is the right thing to do at this point.
Yes they will lol and I will have a set with the sp3 and either fuel injection or a double pumper but I can wait for the test and tune and save my money for them when the time comes
It's a BIG day for all the 350 Buick folks and more, received the first 350 cylinder head castings on Friday 8. I will have Michael post a few pictures as soon as I can. Remember they will look much nicer after there machined. The thing is, they exist, no longer just talk. I'm kinda excited myself.
Awesome!!! The timing cannot be better my girdled, billet crank short block is ready to go! This is fantastic! How many heads did you have made to start? Just a few to wait to see if the castings are okay?
Thank you again for making another part for the 350. Take your time and make it a game changer. This has been a long time coming. Rock on Guy
