243 Porting Needed for Mild Cam ?
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 35
Likes: 13
From: Florida
Texas Speed has a bunch of CNC machines running, and business is booming.
I didn't see anybody here saying that Texas Speed is cheap and not reliable. There's a saying about "FAST, CHEAP and RELIABLE" and you can only have two out of the three..
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2023
Posts: 35
Likes: 13
From: Florida
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 636
Likes: 187
I know many will disagree with me here. But once you price out the total from one of the major shops for a full porting service. Its really not far off from just going with an aftermarket casting. After finding a decent pair of 243/799 cores, shipping them off, having them do whatever stage service, proper spring kit and valves if they dont use the stock ones, shipping them back. Youre almost at or past $2k.
I got 243 cores for -500 dollars (bought an LS4 with dod failure for 300, parted it out for 800, kept the heads). I had TEA do their stage 2 job which cost around 2350 out the door including tax, shipping, etc. This included a .660 pac dual spring kit with titanium retainers. So my total out of pocket on those was about 1850.
i was quoted over 3k out the door (tax, shipping, etc) for tfs 215 heads with powder metal valve guides. Powder metal valve guides were very important for me as i didnt want to incur the extra expense of roller rockers, which would put the heads at close to 4k out the door.
at the end of the day, the performance on the two will be very close for my application. the aftermarket castings certainly have advantages (stronger, better performance out of the box, etc) but for me, and maybe others who already have 243 cores, the performance difference did not justify the cost.
as for spending the extra money on a more expensive port job (advanced induction/TEA vs tsp, for example), everyone has to draw the line somewhere in their build. Yes, the AI,TEA,TFS,Mamo heads will be better than TSP 243s. But for a 5.7 with a mild cam, most probably would not notice the difference. On a max effort engine, or one with big cubes and a big cam that regularly lives over 7k rpm, yes the difference will be significant.
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 503
Likes: 54
From: TX
i just went through a similar decision making process for my 383 LS1 build.
I got 243 cores for -500 dollars (bought an LS4 with dod failure for 300, parted it out for 800, kept the heads). I had TEA do their stage 2 job which cost around 2350 out the door including tax, shipping, etc. This included a .660 pac dual spring kit with titanium retainers. So my total out of pocket on those was about 1850.
i was quoted over 3k out the door (tax, shipping, etc) for tfs 215 heads with powder metal valve guides. Powder metal valve guides were very important for me as i didnt want to incur the extra expense of roller rockers, which would put the heads at close to 4k out the door.
at the end of the day, the performance on the two will be very close for my application. the aftermarket castings certainly have advantages (stronger, better performance out of the box, etc) but for me, and maybe others who already have 243 cores, the performance difference did not justify the cost.
as for spending the extra money on a more expensive port job (advanced induction/TEA vs tsp, for example), everyone has to draw the line somewhere in their build. Yes, the AI,TEA,TFS,Mamo heads will be better than TSP 243s. But for a 5.7 with a mild cam, most probably would not notice the difference. On a max effort engine, or one with big cubes and a big cam that regularly lives over 7k rpm, yes the difference will be significant.
I got 243 cores for -500 dollars (bought an LS4 with dod failure for 300, parted it out for 800, kept the heads). I had TEA do their stage 2 job which cost around 2350 out the door including tax, shipping, etc. This included a .660 pac dual spring kit with titanium retainers. So my total out of pocket on those was about 1850.
i was quoted over 3k out the door (tax, shipping, etc) for tfs 215 heads with powder metal valve guides. Powder metal valve guides were very important for me as i didnt want to incur the extra expense of roller rockers, which would put the heads at close to 4k out the door.
at the end of the day, the performance on the two will be very close for my application. the aftermarket castings certainly have advantages (stronger, better performance out of the box, etc) but for me, and maybe others who already have 243 cores, the performance difference did not justify the cost.
as for spending the extra money on a more expensive port job (advanced induction/TEA vs tsp, for example), everyone has to draw the line somewhere in their build. Yes, the AI,TEA,TFS,Mamo heads will be better than TSP 243s. But for a 5.7 with a mild cam, most probably would not notice the difference. On a max effort engine, or one with big cubes and a big cam that regularly lives over 7k rpm, yes the difference will be significant.
They do perform though thats for sure.
Ive been eyeing TSPs As Cast 225s. $2200, powdered metal guides, dual spring kit, larger valves.
Obviously how much you want to spend and what you plan to do with it are the key players
if you just want a nice bump in power to have fun with, find a good local machine shop to mill and perform a valve job on some 243/799s.
Im not at all above doing things cheap when the occasion calls for it.
Once, I took a pair of 706 heads that I received for free from a friend, had a local machine shop mill them down to 59cc, good valve shop, including cutting the intake for. 2.0 valve. I blended the valve job into the ports myself, used some 2.0 valves from some 241s I had laying around.
Those ran great on an LQ4 short block. All for about $500 in machine work.
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Brett Foote TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 636
Likes: 187
Youre right on about how quick the price climbs when you call TEA or AI.
They do perform though thats for sure.
Ive been eyeing TSPs As Cast 225s. $2200, powdered metal guides, dual spring kit, larger valves.
Obviously how much you want to spend and what you plan to do with it are the key players
if you just want a nice bump in power to have fun with, find a good local machine shop to mill and perform a valve job on some 243/799s.
Im not at all above doing things cheap when the occasion calls for it.
Once, I took a pair of 706 heads that I received for free from a friend, had a local machine shop mill them down to 59cc, good valve shop, including cutting the intake for. 2.0 valve. I blended the valve job into the ports myself, used some 2.0 valves from some 241s I had laying around.
Those ran great on an LQ4 short block. All for about $500 in machine work.
They do perform though thats for sure.
Ive been eyeing TSPs As Cast 225s. $2200, powdered metal guides, dual spring kit, larger valves.
Obviously how much you want to spend and what you plan to do with it are the key players
if you just want a nice bump in power to have fun with, find a good local machine shop to mill and perform a valve job on some 243/799s.
Im not at all above doing things cheap when the occasion calls for it.
Once, I took a pair of 706 heads that I received for free from a friend, had a local machine shop mill them down to 59cc, good valve shop, including cutting the intake for. 2.0 valve. I blended the valve job into the ports myself, used some 2.0 valves from some 241s I had laying around.
Those ran great on an LQ4 short block. All for about $500 in machine work.
funny, as part of parting out of the LS4, i sold the stock 2" valves from the 243 heads. After all, why not? somebody could use them as a budget upgrade in a 706 head. TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 503
Likes: 54
From: TX
Thats awesome! I bet thats exactly what someone out there did with them.
The thing is....it's a rabbit hole. I think you start with a budget and a plan and "try" to stay somewhat close to it. I always like to hear from the people that are smarter then me tho.