Vortec or not to vortec?

[alloy]

I've finally got the 55 running pretty well with the sniper fuel injection. Was a long haul but the data logs seem to be very close, or at least I'm told they are. Look like gibberi8sh to me, but thankfully I hooked up with a guy that is good with tuning. He hyas a sniper1 and he removed the troublesome fuel pressure regulator in the throttle body and replaced it with an external regulator, but when he put the fpr cover back on it cracked. I was able to design and cnc one out for him and have put them on ebay. I sold 8 of them in one day.

(shameless self promotion) https://www.ebay.com/itm/225795837340

Anyway the 55 is running pretty good and every once in awhile it belches out smoke, mostly from the right bank. From what I can tell it does this after a sustained run at the same throttle position and after letting off the throttle, both high vacuum situations. I'm thinking either dried up valve stem seals or bad guides, or both. It will cost me around $600 to have the heads rebuilt. Unfortunately the $200 valve jobs are gone forever.

Vortec heads are supposed to add 40 hp and I already have the vortec style intake and it also has a set of self guided comp cams 1.6 rockers so it's easy to go to the vortecs. I can get a set of stock gm ones for about $700, and then add $120, then tax about $950 total to have them modded for more valve lift. Stock one are good for .450 and the info I have on the cam is it's .450 lift, then add the 1.6 rockers which I believe would work out to .480 lift total.

There are these.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3739958327...lWwoeBm7MTJ3BQI6IE60STyQ==|tkp:Bk9SR5yk8pbgYg

They are $829 plus $68 shipping. And since they are in Tennessee if I deal with them direct there won't be any tax. So cheaper than the iron vortecs. And I can use a regular intake manifold and perimeter bolt valve covers. I've got a nice performer intake I'd like to use and get some nicer valve covers

Has anyone here used the aluminum vortecs and bought from skip white?

 

[great white]

Honestly?

I’d take that cash and put it towards an ls swap.

Vortec heads are pretty good, but its basically a technological dead end.

Even a mild LS will bury any sbc and have more headroom than the sbc could ever even dream of.

But if you want to keep the sbc, I’d probably look at some zz4 or aftermarket heads over vortecs. A good set of afr’s or edlebrocks will bury the vortecs.

 

[alloy]

Yes honestly.

I have an ls3 in my nova and I had considered doing another ls3 in the 55. The 55 has a pretty much brand new engine and it didn't and doesn't make sense to put another $7500 to $10,000 to ls it when it has a perfectly good engine in it. I'm not looking for ultimate power, the vortec heads add power by being more efficient. This us a cruiser, it's too heavy to be fast. I have a 500hp plus hot rod and I never drive it. I'm over that now, I'd rather drive 55 in my 55.

The aluminum heads I linked to are aftermarket.


If your into ls's my nova is for sale.

 

[Aukai]

2 words I have heard internet stories about, one, China, and two Skip White, both below par. Look at GM performance, or Scoggin Dickey's for heads. The 906s have better intake flow numbers from what I know.

 

[great white]

2 words I have heard internet stories about, one, China, and two Skip White, both below par. Look at GM performance, or Scoggin Dickey's for heads. The 906s have better intake flow numbers from what I know.

I can confirm that I also haven’t heard a lot of good stuff about “skip white”.
I’ve read he imports stuff from china and sells it as his own. Sometimes “as is” raw cores, sometimes “built up”, etc. I forget the china co name, but its something like “performance pro” or “performance products”. Knock offs of edlebrock heads and intakes mostly.

Skip whites stuff might be good or might have some “isms”. Given what I’ve read about the chinese company that supposedly provides his “cores” and his stuff (no personal experience with his stuff), I’d spend a little more for a brand name product. Brand names have more skin in the game when it comes to tgier stuff doing what they actually say it will so the QA is likely to be more stringent.

Mr White may stand behind his products, but that doesn’t help when you’re sitting in the garage staring at a dropped valve seat on the head you just had to pull.

At least with afr, edelbrock, gm performance etc you can be relatively sure you are actually getting what you think you are. The downsode is you’ll have to pay out more for them….

 

[pdentrem]

Watch these for ideas. Nice and short.

 

[great white]

If your into ls's my nova is for sale.

Nah, the L98 in my Vette is good enough for me:



Only about 250hp, but 350lb/ft. Moves out nicely, will roast em as long as I want and is dead nuts reliable. 25 mpg doesn’t hurt either (for a “performance” car that is)

Mostly stock. 700r4 has been worked over by a local shop that does a lot of performance rebuilds, bored out throttle body (AS&M), running a Moates APU1 real time tuner (not much around anymore for obdI but Moates makes good stuff), crane roller rockers (stock ratio, no power increase other than friction reduction, had them on the shelf gathering dust so why not?), ditched the old bosch maf for a modern blade style maf (like the newer mustangs), some intake work, a bit of a clean up on the 114 heads (they’re basically production zz4 heads) and a wideband. The rest is just custom software and lots of tuning. Someone before me gutted both sets of cats (it has/had 3) so I had to put a heated wideband in it.

Without the cats, the stock (ie:unheated) o2 sensor takes forever to heat up and so it takes forever for the ecm to switch to closed loop. I needed a wideband anyways for tuning purposes, so a heated wideband was “two birds with one stone” type of deal. I’ll eventually put cats back on it, but I’m waiting for the exhaust to eventually rot out and then going stainless from the heads back.

I thought about an ls swap for it shortly after we bought it, but its just a cruiser for the wife and I on sunny summer Sundays, so more hp would just be a waste and the sbc in it is running well and healthy.

The LS isn’t exactly a “drop in“ for a C4 either. You need to rework the front k member (at a minimum) and switch to obdII to run it (or go aftermarket).

The L98 may run out of breath at roughly 4500-5000 rpm, but the torque curve under that restriction is damned near “diesel-like” and comes in pretty strong just off idle. Jam the throttle and (assuming the rear tires don’t blow away) you get thrown into the seat and you’re not getting back up until I either lift or the car catches up with the tires. You even get second gear rubber if you keep your foot into it on the shift.

I do have to admit though, that L98 intake is a “draw“ for me. It may limit performance, but it was all the rage when I was growing up. Just something about it sitting on top of the engine like some kind of metal spider that looked/looks cool to me. I’ve even got two full tpi setups on the shelves in the back garage. I used to swap them in to SBC GMT400 trucks way back when. Tpi intake is great in a truck as it puts all that torque down low. Shame GM never installed one as a factory option. Would have been a great match with a heavy truck body.

I’ve driven L98’s before, but this one is just a different animal. The words “factory freak” come to mind. Its the strongest feeling L98 I’ve ever driven. The 3:45’s are probably a big part of that. Still going to loose if the race is any more than a couple hundred feet and the other car can breath on the top, but the Vette is king as long as you make them fight your fight. If it didn’t make V8 noise, I’d almost think it was electric by the way it torques itself out of the hole.

Not great for 1/4 mile sprints (its a mid 13 sec car at best), but for a street car, its just about perfect.

I do know, however, that if the 350 ever pops, I won’t be replacing it with another.

I’d be on the hunt for an all aluminum 6.0 LS and a 6 speed….and maybe a new wife after she saw the visa bill…..

To be totally honest, I’m more of a “Ford guy”. The Vette showed up at the right time and was priced low, so we grabbed it. Have to say its the first chev I’ve owned that that I’ve liked and hasn’t turned into a total pile of crap. I’ve just never had any luck with chevy’s.…until this one that is. But it is a garage queen, so who knows how it would be if I used it regularly….

 

[pdentrem]

The GM TPI was a missed opportunity as you say on trucks! Peak torque and hp at reasonable street rpm.

 

[great white]

The GM TPI was a missed opportunity as you say on trucks! Peak torque and hp at reasonable street rpm.

Yep, they were “grunters” for sure. Not the best choice for their performance cars though.

It was part of that “rush to EFI” thing all the manufactures were caught up with back then. Was a good system and certainly looked the business, but plop a decent carb and dual plane on the block and it would make an otherwise stock TPI look like a total dog….

 

[alloy]

Can we please stay on the topic of cylinder heads?