350 rebuild for the 87 blazer

[Lucid walker]

Hello everyone, my name is James. I am on the process of acuiring parts to rebuild the 350 in my blazer. Right now I'm running stock piston, 15 months on new rings, new bearings, summit 1102 camshaft, ported and polished 193s, 600 c.f.m. eddy carb, 31 inch tires, 700r granny, 208 t case, and 3.73 gears. It is a pavement princess, I do little to no weeling or mudding... learned my lesson when I was young... it is a daily driver. I put the engine together last winter in the drive way, and so far have been happy with it, however tax man has been so kind to give me about 1200 dollars to put some power into the ol' truck. I have a set of polished 906 vortecs in my shed, that are in "good" shape, meaning no cracks. Valve guides are decent by my judgement, and they are pretty much ready to go, minus a resurface to eliminate head gasket leaks. My question to you guys is, is it worth putting the 400+ dollars into the heads I have and buy the matching intake, or would I be better off Investing In a promaxx or other brand, or what have you? I' never going to put a larger cam than a .480 into it, but I want to not worry about my heads splitting at the exhaust seats. AnyAnyone out there running any vortec copies out there? Is it worth the extra money? Thank you all for any opinions!

 

[Justin V]

The Vortec copies have thicker castings, evident in the weight difference between them and the factory versions...

If you believe the hype the Vortec head is the best head GM ever put on a Gen I from the factory, but I think the money only coincides with the gains if you have new castings to start with.

If yours are pretty much ready and all you need is an intake and gaskets, I say go for it... if they need work then look into a Summit/Jegs pair of heads that bolt up to your existing hardware.


Pretty sure that whichever way you go, you should see a gain over 193's, even if they are ported and polished...

 

[Lucid walker]

Thank you for the reply. One other question if you don' mind. Am I pretty much guaranteed that the factory heads will crack at some point, or is it just a matter of overheating? That is my biggest concern at this point. I have no personal experience with the vortecs, but the majority of what I hear says they are very prone to crack. Thanks again!