290hp 350 heads upgrade?

[fallguy]

Hi fellas, back again after a summer of mostly messing with my car...

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But I did spend some time with my truck....summit brand ceramic long tube headers!

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And while I was at it a high torque mini starter...totally worth it for the money and clearance.

Anyway as some of you remember I did the comp cam xe256 (with associated springs) upgrade last year. So I'm fairly happy with my engine, but I can't seem to stop from wanting more! It's a sickness really....

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My question....what heads would you specifically recommend with my setup...and why? Also would I change rockers and to what and why?

I'm assuming I'll hear all about vortex heads and that's fine if that's really a better way to go but I'd really like to add more power to my top end...low end is great but it's gutless pulling a pontoon uphill or cruising uphill at 70mph....so that is my goal with this project.

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Thanks!

JH

Sent from my ATARI

 

[Joe383]

I would get some summit 170cc heads. There cheep and you can reuse every thing. Your problem is not so much air flow with your set up, it is the low compression the 290HP motor has. The 170cc heads have 67cc chambers over the crate motors 76cc chambers and will raise the compression helping in the bottom end and top end. I would not expect them to flow much different than if you put 2.02 valves in your stock heads but like I said I think your low compression is your bottle neck here. I would use the 170 heads on a motor that's around 350HP or less which is were I would place your motor. I would not use a head that has over a 180cc intake runner with the cam you have either way. Another great head would be the Chevy ZZ4 heads. They would put compression at around 10:1 for ya but there aluminum so you would be ok. There a very high torque head. I would run these things on any thing from a work truck to a hot rod. They do require self align rockers though. I also like the edelbrock performer heads with the 64cc chambers. I had a set of these once and never used them There heads are just as nice as there intakes. There pocket ported and the entry of the intake and exits of the exhaust are machined ( Although I thought they could have used a little clean up by hand) Wish I would have used them on a motor. I would not run a set of world heads though. I had a set of sportsman IIs once and the castings were pitted a little with small air pickets around like 2 spring pockets if I remember. This was about 10 years ago on the world heads so maybe I just had a bad set or something. I have a set of vortecs now but I would run something else after the mods I had to do to mine to use them with my valve springs. It was not cheep.

 

[Joe383]

What size of tires do you have there and what gears are you running? What transmission? If your running a tall gear and have a 700R4 I would recommend changing gears in the future. Would help with the towing. Example would be if your running a 3.27 gear with 33s and have a 700R4 than I would run something like a 3.73 gear and raise your RPMs a little. If you have a TH350 I would swap to a built 700R4. Not built like for racing but built for towing.

 

[77 K20]

My dad put the 290hp engine is his truck and then couldn't pull his 5th wheel with it. He went with a mild RV cam and then some Edelbrock E street 64 cc heads. They are an aluminum vortec style head. They made quite a difference for pulling up passes at highway speed and he got much better gas mileage out of it also.
At the time the heads were around $950 for a fully assembled pair.

 

[quaddriver]

My answer to this changed greatly after 1996.

In the past I would spout off all sort of casting numbers or aftermarket heads, but for a streetable motor that you expect to be drivable, vortec heads. nothing more, nothing less.

from the description you are not running much of a cam and the improved flow of the vortec at 1.94 intakes beasts just about every old school 2.02 cast by a large margin at the lower lifts. of course if you are pushing over .500 lift which the vortec cannot do then skips it.

is the block roller capable?

 

[77 K20]

This was one article I read and then sent off to my dad when he was looking for heads for his truck.
True- some of the other heads put out some better power, but he was happy sticking with Edelbrock since the heads were made in the USA.

http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/ccrp-1209-eight-budget-sbc-head-shootout/

http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/hrdp-0908-affordable-cylinder-heads/

Also the edelbrock heads use the same intake manifold as what he was running. So he moved it right over instead of having to buy a vortec style intake. That saved some $$.

 

[firebane]

Vortec heads require a lot of money and parts to make them worth it.

You can take the block you have now and toss a cam in like the 12-300-4 which gets recommended a lot. But since you already did a cam upgrade then you should look at things like a new intake if you have.

With your current motor if you have done intake, cam, exhaust then there isn't much more to do than do re-gearing.

Or the more expensive route.. toss a 454 into the truck and you'll be happy for sure.

 

[rich weyand]

He could put shorter tires on it and get a lot more whoopee.

Are those 33s or 35s or something? Going shorter is like changing the rear end ratio.

 

[fallguy]

Thanks for the comments.

700r4, 4.10 gear, 35" tires....on purpose so none of those factors will ever be changed. But the heads will be.

What about dart iron eagle or Motown 220 heads?

I think due to cost and the switching of parts I should steer clear of vortex so I can reuse the edelbrock performer intake...

 

[350runner]

Afr... Just sayin...

Sent from the dust in front of you!

 

[Joe383]

Don't get something with a 220 intake runner unless your planning on running a huge stall, single plane and spinning the motor to 7K. The only heads I would consider as an exception to this is the chevy fast burn heads. Stick with something at 200 or under and with a 64cc combustion chamber. Your biggest problem is low cylinder pressure at low speed due to a mild cam and low compression. You could also just have the heads milled a little or get new pistons. You would have to have the rods pressed off the old pistons and the new installed and probably have the crank re balanced but it would still be a little cheaper than new heads. There is also boosting Your compression is low enough that a 144 super charger would work. Before my vortec build I almost put a 144 on the 260 hp chevy crate motor instead of doing the build I did. Might still do this some day.

 

[MadOgre]

My dad put the 290hp engine is his truck and then couldn't pull his 5th wheel with it. He went with a mild RV cam and then some Edelbrock E street 64 cc heads. They are an aluminum vortec style head. They made quite a difference for pulling up passes at highway speed and he got much better gas mileage out of it also.
At the time the heads were around $950 for a fully assembled pair.

The biggest gains were from the RV cam. The RV cam all by itself would have done the same thing for him.

 

[77 K20]

The biggest gains were from the RV cam. The RV cam all by itself would have done the same thing for him.

Guess I wasn't too clear- first he did the RV cam and drove it for a year. Helped a little bit, but was not good enough for the passes.
Next he regeared it with lower gears. Helped a little bit, but not much.
He was about to sell it then, but I talked him into those heads. That helped a lot. Brought his gas mileage up also. Much happier now with it.

 

[MadOgre]

Well ya I guess all 3 work good together rather then just one upgrade by itself. I guess Im just saying that the RV cam is a definite upgrade over a stock engine setup and will give good gains. But ya if you do all 3 then the whole will be much better.

 

[Joe383]

The 290 HP cam is a little large for the compression. I think it is like 222 @0.050 I would have left he cam and just up graded the heads. Did be get the E-tec 170 or the 200 heads? I have been thinking of upgrading my vortecs to either the fast burn or the E-tec 200 heads.