v8vette84

So I found a set of ported LT1 heads on ebay going for a reasonable price. The flow specs are as follows...

Int. Exh.

.100" 68 .100" 50

.200" 130 .200" 106

.300" 189 .300" 148

.400" 228 .400" 168

.500" 253 .500" 191

.600" .257 .600" 196

"For sale is a very nice set of freshly Ported and Polished 178cc Intake Runner LT-1 #374 Heads, these heads have been fully Ported & Polished with new 1.94"/1.50 stainless steel swirl polished 11/32" valves with a competition valve job, Chambers(60cc) totally reshaped/deshrouded/blended, all new valves springs(.600" lift/110seat/330open pressure), locks, retainers, locators, shims, guides machined for .500" viton seals, hardened studs w/guide plates(Head machined for guide plate clearance, *Not limited to self aligning rocker arms, use any style roller/stamped rocker). Heads are ready to bolt on and run, excellent upgrade for a stock/built/stroker motor, these heads flow very well for a smaller cc head and will produce a ton of velocity with excellent response and create a broad power band." -From the ad

What do you guys think? Not worth the money? I'm shooting for 400whp at least...

Puck

iTrader: (17)

Unfortunately flow bench numbers don't always directly correlate to performance, so unless you get in touch with someone who has ran them before then we can't be sure of their worth.

On paper they look like mildly worked over castings that have been refreshed. Exhaust was clearly flowed with some sort of pipe or extension, and intake is around what an LE1 head would flow...but again, bench results can be manipulated a million ways.

It would be a gamble to buy them, since once a head is ported you can't really do anything else with it since most companies wont port on top of someone else's work. It is too cost prohibitive to "fix" a poorly ported set of heads, and you will end up having to start from an unmolested casting or purchase already ported heads if you want to upgrade in the future.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Since some setups exceed 400rwhp everybody seems to think any halfassed thrown together pile of junk will hit those numbers and do so with good low and midrange performance. Wrong on both counts.
Those heads may well be an upgrade from stock but the chance of them being a 400rwhp+ set of heads is unlikely.
Why would anyone swap valves for such a mild set?

Springs that are 110lbs on the seat are going to be good for something like the HOT cam and that is about it I don't care about the .600 lift rating.
I looked up the ebay listing and it looks like they got grinder happy and ground out the shelf below the sparkplug in order to open the chamber up to 60cc which is really big.

Typically ported LT1 heads with chamber work, milled for a compression bump on a stock shortblock are going to be more like 53-55cc

v8vette84

I was just hoping to find a cheaper alternative to getting LE1's or LE2's done as I have the crappy97' LT1 heads that don't have as much material for porting... I just don't want to buy heads to send out. But i'm having a hard time finding a used set of LE1's that aren't outrageously priced. I already have the valvetrain, I just need the heads and valves.

1badzee

iTrader: (12)

LE stuff is fairly priced as it is (new from him). Where have you seen them outrageously priced?

Valkyn

iTrader: (8)

The 97 heads are okay for being ported into LE1s, I had Lloyd buy a set from me to do just that.

But it is a pain to take your heads off and wait for them to get ported.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

You still face the problem of unreasonable expectations.

gregrob

iTrader: (8)

LE2 will do the job and they're about the best you're gonna do on a budget. We made 411 with a very mild cam

WS Sick

To me as well the description and numbers point to a stock set of heads with bowl /chamber work and a valvejob. And as said the springs listed suck.