New Heads or Port/Polish Stock Heads?
05-21-2007, 12:14 AM
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New Heads or Port/Polish Stock Heads? Ive heard that the stock heads arent really worth messing with. But i have an extra set of stock heads and all i would have to do is have them cleaned and ported and polished. I have an 02 Z28 M6 DD. Im not looking for something crazy...maybe add a mild cam, pushrods, double roller timing chain, double valve springs, and 1.8 roller rockers. Plus does anyone know what this kind of set up will do to gas mileage with my bolt ons?
05-21-2007, 12:47 AM
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Gas mileage and performance cars are something rarely found together especially when talking about internal mods. Gas prices being....well...gas prices 
this has to be considered. To make more power you have to do at least one of two things, make the engine more effecient and have less friction. To make more power to have to burn more air/fuel....in general. Ported heads or aftermarkets can produce better economy and power if they have an effecient port design and an aftermarket cam can produce better economy and more power if spec'd out accordingly, all this meaning that fuel economy is your main concern when talking to the cam grinder and head porter.
this has to be considered. To make more power you have to do at least one of two things, make the engine more effecient and have less friction. To make more power to have to burn more air/fuel....in general. Ported heads or aftermarkets can produce better economy and power if they have an effecient port design and an aftermarket cam can produce better economy and more power if spec'd out accordingly, all this meaning that fuel economy is your main concern when talking to the cam grinder and head porter.
05-21-2007, 01:06 AM
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Once the stock heads are ported, they are just as good as any other head, or close enough to justify the difference in price. The heads on my 348ci motor are 853 cast stock heads that have been CNC ported by Lingenfelter, and they do pretty well. Maybe not as good as ETP or Livernois or Trickflow or AFR, but you dont have to pay $2000 for a set of good heads. My numbers are in my sig. The torque is low, but I have a TREX V2, so its gonna be.
05-21-2007, 08:19 AM
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Originally Posted by Black02LS1
Ive heard that the stock heads arent really worth messing with. But i have an extra set of stock heads and all i would have to do is have them cleaned and ported and polished. I have an 02 Z28 M6 DD. Im not looking for something crazy...maybe add a mild cam, pushrods, double roller timing chain, double valve springs, and 1.8 roller rockers. Plus does anyone know what this kind of set up will do to gas mileage with my bolt ons?
With that being said, a properly ported stock head will be close to par with many of the aftermarket castings out there. We're really lucky with this LSx stuff. The majority of it (LS1 and LS6 especially) has really thick runner walls and a lot of porting potential. Unless you're looking for an all-out race build or have a big budget to work with, ported stock heads will function just fine.
Ben T.
