Does anyone have any expirence directly or indirectly with the PRC 220 cast cathedral heads? I did quite a bit of Googling but I didn’t find meany reports of people using them.

Street cruising use in a 4th gen f body is what they’d be used for and a mild cam would go along with them. “The mild cam” is unknown at this time. I think I’d rather go with an “as cast” vs a ported stock head.

 

My bad. I thought I put this in the External section.

 

Let’s leave it in Internal if you’re ok with it. More traffic here and we talk a lot of heads in here. Having said that, I have only ever used one set of PRC heads, and they are the GM performance Parts LS3 units that are CNC’d by PRC…so I’m no help here.

 

I'm sure they are fine but I'm not sure that they are any better than a used set of ported 243 heads except for maybe a thicker deck.

 

I don’t really want to go used. I’m also not sure that I really want a ported stock casting. Not because of power numbers sake. It’s because I’m not sure that I want a head that has the rocker arm bolt sticking into the intake runner. You know where they remove the hump that made the rocker arm bolt a blind hole. I’m sure it’s probably fine. But I wouldn’t be doing the install, so it’s a “what if the guy doesn’t use RTV around those bolts and it burns oil,” type situation. I’ve read some pretty old threads about guys that rockers break off of the head because the “floor” was too thin. It peeled the metal on the head back like a sardine can. I believe the porters solution for this issue not happening again was by reinforcing that area with epoxy. I’m not sure if that’s still a thing or not, but I don’t want to spend $2k on new ported set of 243’s that might break and or are reinforced with epoxy. But mainly, I don’t want to pay of an install and have it burn oil because the guy forgot to put RTV on the rocker threads or something silly like that.

On the other hand I guess with the “cheap” as cast type heads one runs the risk of having a crappy valvetrain package that might break. I’m not looking to set the world on fire. I think I may have a lifter issue and it’s more of a “while you’re in there” situation. The caveat is though that I have to do it on the relatively cheap. So I’m looking to upgrade a little and my power goals aren’t set very high.

AFR Enforcer’s which I believe are 210cc Dart clones are $1,450 for a set. There add says to not rev them past 6,300. So I’m guessing they don’t have the best springs. The TSP ported LS6 and PRC 220 are about $2k. I’d like to be in or under that price range if I can. Stock reman 243’s are around $900 (which I would run unpowered) would need a spring upgrade and that would probably put me back up to AFR Enforcer money.

As far as the cam goes I’m wanting something mild. I was thinking maybe someting like the BTR V2 stage 1. That sort of mild. I have a 3,200 stall.

PRC 220? AFR Enforcer? Neither? I’m looking for the most plug and play operation so the PRC’s being able to use stock rockers is attractive.

 

I've had my TSP ported 243's for about 8 years and 20,000 miles. I haven't had any oil burning issues.

 

The PRC 220 As cast flow more like ported stock head. The Enforcer heads don't flow as much but it it comes down to what your doing with the package. They do have PAC dual springs that are rated to .600 lift

Again it really comes down to what your putting them on and what type of cam you are going to run If you want run the heads the way they are straight out of the box...

 

Don't bother shopping the china crap heads or the PRC heads. Just do a set of either GPI or LME 243's and you"ll be steps ahead. The only as cast head that's an improvement is a TFS 220, that's it. If you do the TFS heads, get them from TEA.

 

I’m coming out of left field with this one. But if someone was going to use the mildest of cams is there a big performance difference between something like ported 243’s or TFS 220’s vs stock 241 heads? I’m not chasing tenths of seconds. I’d just like a little more power for street type usage. It probably wouldn’t see 6k rpm all that often. If it’s a 15-20 hp difference between 241’s and ported 243’s using then same cam I might would rather save the $2k and do just the cam.

*Edit*

The “mild cam” selection seems to overwhelmingly endless. Cam Motion stage 2 yay or nay? I was also looking at the BTR V2 stage 1.
Cam motion stage 2

 

I recall some one switching from 241 and going 243 back in the day and it being something like 10-15 HP stock for stock on a cammed F body. Buut with a smaller cam like what you are proposing. I dont think you need to drop 2k on some heads. Especially if your rarely going to go past 6k. I would likely just do a 243 head and call it a day.
the port is a little more efficient. But the combustion chamber is smaller and i believe the slight bump in compression and chamber design is where most of the difference comes from.

Just my opinion. I would have to look for the old thread to show the difference in the dyno runs.

 

Cylinder #4 is misfiring. On cold starts the idle is a little rough but the reading on the stock oil pressure gauge is on the hash mark to the right of 40. After it reaches operating temp the oil pressure will drop to 40 and it’ll idle a little rougher. If it runs long enough the stock oil pressure gauge will drop to the hash mark to the left of 40 and the idle is rough enough that it sounds like it has a mild cam. When it’s running like this you can hear a tapping sound around cylinder 4. When it’s cruising down the highway the oil pressure is on the hash mark that’s to right of 40 and it doesn’t seem to be missing.

So at this point I’m assuming the misfire is a bad lifter or something else top end related. I changed the oil and it had a little metal in it so I’m hoping and praying that it came from the top end.. There wasn’t a lot but there was a little. I haven’t noticed any smoke coming out of the exhaust, so maybe the cylinder wall is ok.. If a lifter not lifting is causing a misfire should I more or less expect a cam lobe to have been wiped out? Or even worse a cam bearing?

 

If a lifter doesn't pump up, you usually have slack in the pushrod. If the wheel locks up usually you hear a squeal.
If you believe this is caused by a mechanical issue, At minimum, I would do a compression check and then inspect under the valve cover looking for a broken spring, damaged retainer, damaged rocker arm, Bent push rod and so on...