What reman heads to use?

I need to get a set of reman heads for an '87 K5 Blazer. It has a 350 in it that is not original to the truck. There seems to be an almost infinite number of choices. What is a good, reliable brand to go with?

Not looking for a hot rod, nothing fancy... just a stock setup to get my truck back on the road.


Thanks,
Brandon

I suggest you take your heads to a good machine shop and have them inspected and rebuilt.Remans are very commonly someone's cores that were too rough for a good machine shop to rebuild.So they end up getting traded in for remans and rebuilt, even though a good machinist would have thrown it away a found a better core. If you had 2 junk chevy heads laying in the back porch and needed a pair of heads would you take your still usable heads and trade them for remains or trade the 2 laying on the back porch in.Most people keep the best and trade in the worst.

Thanks for the reply. Of the companies that are out there, what are some reputable name brands?

If you want to go aftermarket, buy a set of World S/R heads- they are "street/replacement" heads and they are pretty good quality and have some upgraded design features which make them already superior to oem heads right out of the box. They are a little extra money over some, but they are also new heads. Otherwise if your current heads are in decent enough shape take them to a machine shop and have them checked over and possibly rebuilt/freshened up and put them back on at possibly half the cost or so of new.

QBuff02 said:

If you want to go aftermarket, buy a set of World S/R heads- they are "street/replacement" heads and they are pretty good quality and have some upgraded design features which make them already superior to oem heads right out of the box. They are a little extra money over some, but they are also new heads. Otherwise if your current heads are in decent enough shape take them to a machine shop and have them checked over and possibly rebuilt/freshened up and put them back on at possibly half the cost or so of new.

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Yup.
The World heads he mentions are pretty good out of the box, not stellar.
If you want stellar you need to have a head porter work some magic on them.
I have a set in my hands and they are quality items for sure.
They would power a stock truck engine for a long time and surely make you a happy camper.

They are very similar to the old school "Camel Hump Heads" that were coveted for hot rods back in the hey day of the horsepower wars.

I found mine in the junkyard for around $46 each out the door.
To have them gone through by a machine shop local to me will cost around $600.

Or I could check them out in the garage and do some minimal work to them for nearly free and put them back to work if they check out.

Ricko1966 said:

I suggest you take your heads to a good machine shop and have them inspected and rebuilt.Remans are very commonly someone's cores that were too rough for a good machine shop to rebuild.So they end up getting traded in for remans and rebuilt, even though a good machinist would have thrown it away a found a better core. If you had 2 junk chevy heads laying in the back porch and needed a pair of heads would you take your still usable heads and trade them for remains or trade the 2 laying on the back porch in.Most people keep the best and trade in the worst.

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When I'm doing a head job, many customers do not want to wait for the turn around time. It can be 3 or 4 days for the machine shop to inspect and rebuild the heads. They would rather just exchange the heads and get back on the road the same or next day. I've never had any customers come back for a bad head after using the reman heads. I agree with going to a good machine shop. It can make all the difference in the world.

I purchased reman heads. My heads were mismatched. One side had the 14102193, 64cc swirl-port head and the other had the 14102191, 76cc, non-swirl-port design. They had not been machined to have the same compression either. When the heads came in, one of them was boxed wrong, so I'm unfortunately still having to wait, but the one that came in correctly appears to be a good piece with good parts used for the reman.

https://cylinderhead.com/find-your-head/gm-cylinder-heads/

Get #083s !

For the dollars spent, I stay away from re-man heads and typically, the parts/labor cost to have heads completely rebuilt, exceeds to cost of just buying new heads as those costs have radically decreased with time and competition. Plus with re-man heads, there is always the core issue and if you return unusable cores to a supplier who is 6-states away, you lose the core refund which can be as high as $150.00 per head, depending on the head design.Summit has some excellent choices and have used both of them with good results on about a dozen or so small blocks. My first choice is the Chevrolet Vortec replacement head as it's just a better head design than the original head, with better intake/exhaust passaged and combustion chamber design. $363.50 each at Summit, see https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-151124/make/chevrolet ...You'll need to add rocker arms/nuts unless your old ones are good. I'd recommend new ones. These heads have 1.94 intake valves and 1.50 exhaust valves, 67 CC combustion chambers. One drawback is that the only intake manifold that will work with them is the Vortec design intake so you'll need to find one on an existing Vortec 350 (1996/1998,) or go aftermarket. Another choice is Summit's version of the Chevy standard design (non-Vortec) High-Performance head with 2.02 Intake valves and 1.60 exhaust valves, 72 CC combustion chambers, for $353.50 each. See: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-152123/make/chevrolet As with all engine head swaps and applications, you need to pay close attention to the combustion chamber size of the new head vs the old head to make sure you are not making a significant change in engine compression. Both of these head designs are cast iron, however Summit aluminum heads are also available, but at more cost. No, I don't work for Summit but do buy a fair amount of parts from them and have for years. Hope this helps and please come back to the forum and lets us know how you are doing so that others can appreciate and learn from your experience... illmanners