EZ Payment Layaway Plan - TA Performance will help you purchase the parts you need, but maybe cannot afford to purchase all at one time. We will allow you to make interest free payments against one or more items until the part(s) are paid for, or until you are ready to have us ship the item COD for the remaining balance. This has worked out great for many or our customers wanting to purchase items like our Stage 2 cylinder heads or a block girdle.
All good stuff Jim, except for the recommendation to order the pistons assuming the deck will end up @ 10.167". Doing that will add machining costs to milling the deck because in all actuality the machine shop will have to mill off around .050", anything over .030" will add additional costs and with a later block that has an extra .060" on the deck would mean that .080" would need to be removed! Adding even more additional machining costs to mill the deck. Did the factory raise the deck because they wanted to maintain deck thickness? Milling off .050" will for sure cause the need for new push rods(I would want new ones personally though) and the possibility of the need to mill the intake. If the plan is to zero deck, then .020" can be made up by using composite gaskets so that would be like removing .030" from the deck vs. using a factory style .020" steel shim type gasket. Here's the deal, the '68 block for Andy's build has IIRC plus .029" taller on one side and .031" taller on the other side. Newer blocks have even more extra deck height than the earlier blocks like the '68. If you want to order pistons blindly, then probably assume you need pistons for a deck height of 10.187" if it is a known virgin deck height. If I wasn't stuck in limbo right now dealing with family drama, I would machine some sbb 350 main standards and send one to you Jim so you can measure for yourself to see how much extra the sbb 350 decks came with from the factory.(you can buy your own depth mics though, a set of 0" to 9" would work if you don't have a set already) If you have access to a lathe you could make your own standard to use, its just a length of 3.187" IIRC, the size of the housing bore, long enough to be bolted into 2 mains without bearings that would bridge across the above cylinder holes so that the depth mics can reach it to measure. If you have never measured from a flat surface down to a round surface, be aware that you will need to measure to the highest point of the diameter to get an accurate dimension. When you get that dimension add half the diameter of the 3.187" standard and you'll have you actual deck height measurement.(I'm sure you could of figured how to do this, just wanted to write the directions for people that don't have a clue) Derek
I'd put my name in the hat for a set if there was no or even just minimal deposit required (see my other post on this topic). What does @TA Perf have to lose? It'd be different if they said "hey, we need a certain # of deposits to move forward with the project" or "we need a certain number of deposits to make another run of castings," but that’s not the case. The development & cost of the current castings on hand is paid for. Or just (my favorite saying: "all you gotta do is...") machine 'em all & let Scotty (or whomever the customer wishes) handle the porting (i.e. get out of the porting business for now). Of course I also loved when ppl told what I should be doing when I had my business so....
I’m glad I bailed out, I’m having fun with my irons As it is, my GS has been in the garage, no engine for near 2 years, it’s dusty HOPEFULLY I’m coming down the home stretch with my hand butchered irons, this is fun, a lot of labor, and a few bucks and I’ll be ripping some 17 sec quarter mile passes LOLOLOL. I’d rather spend a little than on irons, and probably not pick up a whole bunch, than a shnit ton of money on aluminum’s and not pick up much The BIG PICTURE is I’ll be driving it and making passes having fun, instead of something that is forever being worked on. I wanna have fun DAMNIT
I’d be willing to bet that most DIY head porting loose power vs stock. The sad thing is that if everyone who begged TA to make the Alum heads had bought them in the first round then they would have likely kept producing them. Instead people bashed like that was going to help the issue. There will never be another run of 350 heads, they had a pallet of them cast. People sat on the sidelines to see the results and they missed out. Any performance upgrades like the CNC are up to us, and now Scotty. My porting guy is finding lots of potential in the heads, and we know that even if a person spends $2500 plus on porting iron heads they will be prone to cracking and paper thin in places.
You'd lose that bet. Just taking the klinkers & rough casting out improves flow. How do you think head porting started? Sean, you haven't had any real bolt on results with the alum heads in six years, and...you were the very first to get them. You're still waiting and so is everyone else. Not to be mean, but Jay Michaels seems to be ahead of you.
Sorry Sean, but T/A has to take the blame. They invested in and promoted these as a product, and couldn't fill orders. That's NOT the customers fault.
Removing casting marks will help yes. But real Porting without a flow bench will just create un even flow at best and likely hurt performance. I’m sorry is it a race to get the heads done and proven? I’m busy with work, kids and other priorities. That being said my hand ported heads will out do the CNC option so i would still rather wait for the superior heads. I shipped my head guy 4 455 engines and they all ended up North of 600 HP, he is the best of the best. This is why he has a backlog of builds, he won’t cut corners. Michael from TA did his heads with amateur port work and it was 480 Hp if I remember correctly. CFM numbers aside it’s a 100 HP jump over stock from what I can see. No wonder people like Bobb aren’t on V8, they seem to be doing well keeping ti themselves.
I agree within reason. People begged for the heads for years and then once they were available only a few followed through and bought them. Hence they got got pushed back in que as they are behind on other products like BBB heads etc. Then after the fact people wanted the heads and TA was too behind on other stuff to go back to the loosing $ 350 head project. I will say that if TA created a proper inventory system and payed people what they are worth then there would be no issues with supplying the parts we need. Instead they Jack up the prices on the parts they do have, can’t really blame em but it would be nice to send the $ invested back into creating the parts we need.
Thats not a very encouraging statement I thought we all on this board to help and encourage each other? TRUE! What you just said Mart is encouraging! True again, Jay Michaels is WAAAAY ahead of everyone with his 350, and he has encouraging videos to prove it. Also true! If things take too long, people loose enthusiasm, and money. I rolled the dice and put my deposit down, after nearly 2 years Tim called me and asked "Mark you still want these heads?" THATS not encouraging! Im confused, you mentioned hand porting will typically lose power if done by the home garage guy He probably lost interest? Im confused again, is hand porting the same as DIY?
