I hope your right AND wrong Sean LOL Right about lots of heads left, and wrong about lots of heads left. If they have a lot left, then Im good to go, BUT if they have a lot left, that tells me not many have interest in bringing the Buick 350 into the performance arena. The way Im anticipating these heads improving the Buick 350 is comparing to to the 5.3 LS. The block structure on the LS is very similar to the 350. The oiling is similar, the LS has a front mounted pump so it also has to draw from the rear of the pan to the front, and I dont think the LS's oiling is superior to the original SBC. The bore size on the 5.3 is under the "magical" 4 inches, so is the Buick 350, BUT the stroke is longer on the Buick. So with all that, what makes the LS everybodys hero.......... their heads! I believe with the TA aluminum heads on the 350, it will change the 350 from a torquey 350 that runs outta steam at 4500/5000 into a 350 that will BREATHE easily from 4800 to 6500/7000 rpm. The 5.3 LS is a TURD for low end, she wakes up around 3000/3500 and pulls nice.
I've heard that, but I gotta try I cant see it actually creating a vacuum, at least enough to overcome the vacuum the engine is creating.
I was still making 390 hp at 6100 rpm with the TA 510 cam the intake was choking it off. My Lunati cam starts to die at 5800 but the new intake was going to let it spin past 6.
So sometime next week, or more 455 stuff in front of it? I think you & Pam should fly out to TA, take the tour, enjoy the AZ weather for a week, then fly back with your heads in your carryon.
Agree there Mark. If they have a lot left, definitely not good. I'm nowhere near ready but also sure don't want to be searching for a used set(s) someday. Maybe should just buy some bare castings for now. I was/am hoping (as is TA I'm sure) that some of these would get out there and that the Buick 350 would finally get the recognition it deserves and that all those blocks out there would become a hot commodity. I have 4 of 'em - Two orig. #'s matching for my cars (both supposedly rebuilt by PO's - will see when I open 'em up) and 2 to build. Have thrown away countless but there seems to be plenty still out there. Was also hoping that after the 1st run, that improvements would be made on subsequent runs. Is the guy up in MI on FB still the only set out there we know of that's actually made a pass (or even a donor pull) ? He did tell me that he thinks there's more to be had as he didn't pick up much really but also had a pretty maxed out pair of iron heads that they replaced & he didn't make any other changes when doing the head swap IIRC.
I think it’s about $3500 for them complete with porting. They do offer different porting levels. I opted to buy the bare castings and pay a pro to port and build them.
Ok, thanks for that. I guess they must not have bare castings if that is what you ordered and they are making you wait?
I got the first set they sold a few years ago, they are ported and done now. Dyno testing soon. The thing is that although they have castings on hand those castings need machine work before they can sell them as bare castings. So neither bare or complete heads are available till they get the 455 stuff done. I jumped on the heads right away because I doubt there will be another run of them made ever.
Ok, thanks for clarifying that "bare castings" aren't the same as "raw castings". I will look forward to seeing how your 350 does with these on the dyno. My 350 is plain vanilla 1968, but runs really well. The aluminum heads are an appealing upgrade as they seem like a huge win and I love the fact that they bolt up as stock. Maybe someday...
I believe so. Yes, his iron heads were ported to the max, so when he changed to the aluminums he didnt pick up much, BUT he did pick up some, which says a lot actually about the aluminums, they exceeded a set of max ported irons. If the aluminums did that, imagine what they can do compared to stock irons
I have a busy life with kids and too much work however yes it will be fun to see these engines come together. I have two engines that are almost ready to dyno. the first one is a pretty simple race 350, lots of machine work, bored 30 over, stock crank ground 10 thou on mains and rods, Hershe forged rods, diamond forged pistons, modified stockish oiling system, single plane intake. It’s about 13:1 with modified iron heads or about 12:1 with the alum heads. Will dyno it with both sets of heads The iron heads are converted to closed chamber so very Small cc chambers ups the compression compared to the alum and stock heads. I will be testing a few very large camshafts in this one. 4000-7000 rpm power range, should be fun. The second engine is more serious. It’s also 30 over, 7/8” thick block girdle, king billet crank, Hershe rods, diamond pistons again, alum heads, single plane intake, belt driven oil pump, and twin turbos. This one is much more street friendly with a mild cam and better low rpm power. 2500 to 7000 rpm power is expected but we may not need to rev it much over 6500 rpm.
My set is going to be near 5000.00 when all is said and done. I ordered the level 2 porting 2.02/1.6 valves .020 off the surface Im going to need new pushrods Shim kit to center the exhaust rockers Gaskets and such.
Thats pretty lame actually I'd never shame anyone for not wanting to spend the money, Buicks arent cheap to build, but they're cool as hell and they're well respected, were underdogs for sure, but were fighters and we dont quit What would be interesting, is to do a comparison between a full on 5.3 LS, 4bbl, n/a build, and a 5.7 Buick full on 4bbl n/a build.
for 5 grand it better go a second faster All the parts for my motor plus porting my stock heads was 5 grand and I replaced everything
It'll be interesting to see how much better he can get them to run w/tuning, maybe a cam change(?), upping the compression(?), etc. I figured about ½ of what he picked up could be attributed to the the weight savings alone which while certainly a benefit of the heads doesn't really showcase their ability to make power.
