69 350 Is at machine shop, it has been hot tanked and inspected, looking to get as close to 400 hp as possible, cost wise is it better to go with aluminum heads or have stock heads worked on? what goes into reworking stock heads for my application?. thanks Eddie.
If you have stock irons already, porting & TA big valves would be the most economical for cost savings. You will get your 400 hp with that and a select cam, compression, headers, etc.
If you do the alu heads get them cnc ported by TA right away. So you have the most out of them. In stock form they flow as good as ported Irons only. I am always a fan of use what you got but that's based on my early humble being broke hot rodding days lol.
you are going to spend 3 grand on the alum heads so you have to figure out if you can swing that or not. if you are going to use the stock heads get some porting done and the larger valves as this will be where most of your HP will come from. might be able to keep this under a grand. the important part is getting the oil mods done on the engine that is more important than anything. you can get the 73 capscrew rods as this will be good for 6 grand all day long and some forged pistons if you can swing this part. Best thing to do is get the oil mods done and get the bottom end shored up with the good pistons and rods. Then if you can swing more money get the irons ported with new valves. You just have to figure out how much money you want to spend in this area. There are the Molnar rods now which will cost more than the 73 capscrew rods and the capscrew rods are fine I have ran them for 25+ years now with the forged pistons. If you get a cam that has a LSA that is about 114 you can go a little more radical and keep a good idle. Right now I run a cam that is at 116LSA and it idles good with some lump and the shot out of the hole is good with this type of cam also. you don't have to do any of this if money is a problem then you just get the compression up to 9.5 and just don't put too big of a cam in and you can get to a good solid 350 hp But DO the oil mods it is well worth it. I will tell you all how much this oil mod helps, I have the large gears on my oil pump and there is not a drop of wear on the cam gear or the oil pump gear and there is 25+ years on these parts.
I have 50 at 3 grand and 70 at 6 grand I have the TA adjustable regulator and the front cover has mods for more oil also TA did this when I ordered the part. I can adjust to any pressure I want. I get about 15-20 in gear depending on how hot the oil is at the time. runs up to 40-50 instantly. it can go up to 80 when I first start the car if I rev to 1500 sits at 70 at 1000 rpm cold I have an index ground cross drilled crank to go with this also and there were other mods done at the cam bearings to change oil direction to go around the cam bearing. All this is probably why it has lasted this long.
Been thinking a lot about oiling lately so good stuff there. If the volume is there by opening everything up I'm not sure that much pressure is needed - that pump uses HP.
I believe most power will come from the heads here, get ta clean up porting which I believe is about 235 cfm intake at least, or get level 1 porting will get you closer to 400 hp. You will need different pushrods for the 69 rockers anyway. The aluminum use a longer pushrod I believe. Ta 310 cam or the ta 413 would be good . The 310 being lower in rpm and makes best power with headers. 413 with more porting and a single plane intake probably get you that 400 hp. And good torque. Roller cam is really the best option. But more money. And need to setup block for it. You will want a bigger torque converter if automatic transmission. 26-2700 minimum. Get light weight forged pistons and good rods, stronger rod bolts. 73 and up cap screw Rods would be helpful here. Should be a fun ride. I suggest a Ta backgrooved cam bearing in front position.
Here's the numbers TA put out a while back, compared to the numbers my head guy got on my irons: It cost me $1500 for: Full race port and polish Hardened seats Solid bronze guides Comp valve grind Set spring heights
Great post. I’m thinking of some home porting and a cam swap to wake up my 69 350. I’ve exhausted all bolt ons and the low compression motor is just not powerful enough. I’m interested to see what you spend and how it goes. Keep up the good work.
1500 is pretty cheap for iron porting and all the work plus the cost of valves and spring. Seats aren’t really needed. These cars have been run on unleaded fuel since the early 80s . Mach5 , I suggest you mill heads .050-.060 with big valves and blending, shock will get compression up just about 9.3 if you get a 44 cc chamber and have 69 pistons. You will need .050 shorter pushrods. The crower level 3 cam advanced 4 degrees when degreed In would make good power and have great lower torque. A 22-2400 torque converter would be decent with it more converter would be more fun. You could probably get away with the ta 310 if advanced 4 degrees and got a lot of porting with the 9.3 compression. I would push for 40-42 cc on heads though. That would be 9.5 compression. The sp3 intake would probably help upper power and can be an option for more power
Thanks for the info. So far it has long tube headers, poston s divider, hei distributor, edelbrock 750, electric fans, 2200 stall converter, shift kit and posi 3.26 rear gears. I’d love to find someone in mass or New England that can port, blend and mill the heads. Or if anyone is selling a used pair haha.
It's great to wake up the sbb, however the sad part is a 5.3 LS costs you 500-800$ and just a cam will put you at 400hp. So 1000 invested. Yes you need some other parts too but 2000$ gets you a great carbed LS. That makes you smile.
Personally, I would dump the edelbrock carb, I feel it’s holding you back. S divider isn’t much help either.
I don’t have a big budget to wake it up and I was thinking an ls swap then take my time fully building the sbb. And yeah I know the poston and edelbrock are not ideal. But a t/a intake and a built quadrajet is nearly 1000. And sorry to highjack the thread.
I'm not sure... if reliability is boring then all power to you. I have it all sbb, bbb, LS I like my buicks but nothing beats LS on a budget. And I dont think at all it's boring, it is common yes because it works. No oiling issues, comes with alu heads and you can carb it very easy so you dont have to deal with EFI computers and wiring if that scares you. I have some pretty hopp'd up buicks but the 6.0LS will give em a.run for the $ Ps there is retro fit kids out there to make them look decent as well. Again... on a budget=LS isn't to beat.
Yep, and no extra sets of chebby stuff, headers, ls eng, conversion stuff, etc., That you eventually have to sell off cheap. Put an LS in a cool 65 Chevy II. Keep your Buick Buick.
