455 Cylinder Head Special Ported iron 455 Heads flowing aprox. 280 cfm on the intake and 200 cfm on the exhaust. The heads are complete with stainless steel Stg-1 valves, Duel valve springs, bronze guides, P.C. seals, and surfaced ready to run. $1200, you supply cores. www.paeenterprises.com Jim Burek is a board member here, and has many many great references from members.:beer
I didn't think he was doing Al heads.... TA performance is selling Al heads though. PAE has a new 455 block in the works...
New Aluminum Heads These are new castings designed by the guy who did the Mopar Indy cylinder head. I have money down on a set that is to be cast in mid January.
I believe they have new 455 aluminum heads in the works along with the 350's. Jim Burek is the man that can give you all the answers on all that. www.PAEenterprises.com :TU:
ooohhhh....cool! It's about time someone does something for the 350 guys (and gals)... It would've been nice to have those heads when I had my LeSabre:Brow:
Bulldog aluminum heads are indeed being done. From what I have gathered they have been in the works for awhile now and there have been a few sets ordered already. Bigger numbers out of the box and priced about the same as TA's. I hope they go over good, just don't know. Rumor outa the PRI show is Mike and TA have only sold a dozen sets of his(at that time). I dunno myself, and we all know how rumors go, but thats what was "overheard" from an interesting scource(it would floor ya,lol). In any case, competition is a good thing I think, it just drives the prices down for us little guys. And it gives everyone another alternative as to where to shop for parts. later.......................
Geez Adam, don't make yourself a stranger to the small blocks guys since you're running with the big dogs now. lol.
I have a set ordered. Figured it was that or buy the wife the new dining room table........Im doing the :3gears: thing and shes doing the:rant: thing....... I can feel the :spank: coming when the Visa bill gets here:laugh:
When I find a little 71 GS350 I'll come running to JB for a set of heads. Man, a 475 HP 350!!!! Too cool....I would love to hear that thing idle!:shock:
I was talking with a respected builder, parts supplier, at the Midwest Challenge. I'm under the impression that a better flowing head is going to be needed for the new iron block to take advantage of the new displacement and horsepower possibilities. Are the current crop of BB Buick heads currently at there limits as far as airflow? The reason I ask was he wasn't real enthusiastic about the current Stage 2 heads when I mentioned them.
Whoa there Dave.. First off... the Bulldog heads are not even done yet, so any claim of "bigger numbers" out of the box is just that.. a claim.. Second... I have seen Bulldog Caddy heads... decent heads, but you won't confuse it with the casting finish and machining quality of a TA head. It's an apples and oranges comparision, if the Buick head from Bulldog looks like the caddy head. But the heads are nothing more than "vaporware" at the moment, so I can't even really say that.. Third.. TA sold out the original run of 50 sets of STG 1 Alum heads, and has sold about a dozen sets of the second run. I know that for a fact since Mike told me that personally, and I have had 9 sets pass thru my hands.. JW
Hi Jim, 1 - Agreed. You are correct, they aren't done yet so the claims of numbers is incorrect on my part. I admit fault. 2 - I haven't seen the Caddy heads myself but I asked a couple caddy guys locally here and they were very happy with them. I have seen TA's and they do look good. Haven't worked on any myself but the rumors I have heard the Bulldogs are gonna have a few little things that some may enjoy. I am gonna have some aluminum heads, just gotta decide which. 3 - Doing "hick" math, 50 sets and "about a 12" of the second run makes apporx. 62 sets then. That definately sounds a little more logical to me. I figured someone like you would have seen quite a few of them. I found that dozen to be just wrong too. Thats why I alluded to the "rumor". Kinda surprises me who made comment all the same...........but then again, maybe just rumor. Better on my part to let that one go by the wayside I think. Thanks, later............................
We ABSOLUTELY NEED a better head.....Even for the cubic inch we're running now we could use a better intake port.Yes,even more than the Stage 4's..... Had some very interesting conversation w/an individual that is interested in helping us Buick guys out with this,Just a matter of who'll step up,And who just wants ask "How much?" There are days when I think "Hell w/ it....I should just build a BBC and be done with it."But then there are bright spots and hopefully I can achieve that 1000+ HP N/A Buick motor to put my car where I want to be. Keep your fingers crossed.:Brow:
better head???oh man Gary! What all American guy doesn't want that!!! oh boy now I'm in trouble now...hope my wife doesn't read this:spank: And Gary....shame shame build a BBC? Even the thought???Come on guy don't do this to meou: Bite your tongue! Knowing your determination I'm sure your goal will be reached, and that will no doubt help the other Buick racers to follow. :TU: Rick
I'm thinking 1000 hp naturally aspirated can't be that far off. Wasn't Scott G running that kind of HP in his Pro Stock back in the early 90s?
I'd say in his case and also Mike's Wagon those were two of the more powerful BBB's so far and I would guess each was over 900 HP. I'd be content to reach that level of power but with some of the idea's be kicked around now,I think there is more on the horizon. I'm being optimistic,But..... To see 8.80's at 150+ MPH I will need a motor that makes about 1020 HP since my car is now about as light as it is going be.
Right now, Stage 4 heads ported will support anything people are capable of doing with the current 455 block. And almost no one is pushing the envelope, Stage 3 and 4 heads sell extremely low in volume. Mike at TA has Stage 6 head prototypes, that as a best comparison will be like a Big Chief, pro-stock head. The intake is so large I can put my hand in it. Even his combination 533 cid, and as much as 8000 RPM doesn't require the bigger head. You will need either more cubic inch or more RPM to take advantage of the next level of head. I just saw a set of Stage 2 Track Eliminator heads flow almost 370 CFM on the intake and 260's on the exhaust, with excellent low end numbers. There is only a handful of guys that have combinations to benefit from that (750+hp). The big block community needs another Stage 1 type aluminum head like it needs a hole in the head. The Bulldog will be slightly different, Chrysler valves I guess. But I can't see how they can be a considerable performance difference. In a small market like the Buick, competition on an item like this will do two things. RAISE prices not lower them, and slow the cash flow needed to invest into the next generation of parts. The reason prices will be raised and not lowered is the volume for both vendors will be low. So instead of TA making 50 sets at a time it might be 25. Cost's more to make fewer, cost's about the same to ship 25 sets of heads as it does 50 sets. Machine set up and labor costs are now spread over fewer heads. And there is less cushion to absorb problems. For instance, with this last run of Stage 1 heads, about half of the heads had excessive porosity and must be destroyed. Well in order to find that porosity you must machine them. So that resulted in a production delay, because it took longer to have enough heads fully machined to fill orders. So TA has to absorb paying machining time which is hours per head, labor to prepare and ship the defective heads back to the foundry. If a vendor is selling an item such as heads and is making the bare minimum profit, and producing very low production numbers, they will not be able to absorb such costs. You are probably saying, it's the foundry's fault, yes it is, but we can't flex our muscle with them, because we are probably 2% of their business. Now if you split the market that will be even less. Some think that TA shouldn't have a monopoly on heads, and you are upset that it can often take many months or longer to fill orders. We already have to wait as much as a year to get castings, because of our low priority with the foundries. Again, splitting the market won't help. If things go ideally, when TA is out of heads PAE will have them and vice versa, but the way foundries and castings seem to go I doubt that will be the case, more often than not. The quality and performance of the TA heads is not an issue, pricing is very competitive as compared to larger markets such as BBC so that shouldn't be much of an issue. Everyone would like things cheaper of course. The delays to fill orders is the detracting factor, and I'm not convinced that splitting the market will solve that issue, I think it has potential to make it worse. And in a worse case scenario, cause a vendor to experience financial problems. Dave
Dave What's the availabilty on stage4 castings right now? What about setting me up w/ some stage6's? I'm willing to push the performance envelope...Just need sombody to sell me the parts:TU:
