Better heads for my 88

[88K5Jimmy]

Just curious as to what heads are out there, other that Vortecs, that are comparable to vortecs in the power aspect. Of course, they would need to work with a TBI intake, stock exhaust manifolds, yadda yadda.

Anybody have any insight?

Thanks

 

[Thunder]

World SR Torquer IIs center bolt World torquer 2 heads

GM L89 heads would work real good too. They came on the TBI/TPI Birds and Camaros and they are the cheapest of the bunch :GM L98 heads Scroll down and find the L98s
If you want to spend sum serious $ :http://www.airflowresearch.com/ look at their 180 cc L98 Street heads. Way better than Vortecs. Course you pay for it.

 

[88K5Jimmy]

Do you know the flow differences between the World Torquer 2 and the L98?

 

[dirtwarrior17]

Vortecs are probably one of the cheapest GOOD heads you can get. will add 30-40 hp on a stock 350.

the old camel humps flow really good but you will have to buy a diff intake manifold to fit the efi. Holley makes them for $180. i have camel humps, hollley intake manifold, and holley 670cfm 2bbl tbi on my 88 and they made some solid power. Had to get the manifold when i decided to drop a built and bored 350 with a 77 block( came with camel humps) into her. Don't know what kind of gains a stock motor will get.

Mideswell get em ported and polished while your at it.. another 20 hp.

 

[Thunder]

Vortecs are great heads. But. To put them on a TBI truck you need the GMPP TBI to vortech manifold and the EGR plumbing. That adds another $350 + to the price tag of vortecs.

The differece between the L98s and World heads is flow. The Worlds flow better. So they will work better with bigger cams.
If you are keeping your truck pretty much stock L98 should be fine. I would however get a Edelbrock or Holley TBI manifold so you can take full advantage of the heads. The stock manifold doesn't flow very well.

Should have headers also.

I wont even talk about the flat stock cam.

No matter what way you go you are loking at $800- $1000 for good heads and an intake system.

If you do put better heads on you will need an adjustable fuel pressure regulator to turn up the fuel pressure. Your engine will need more fuel because it will be breathing more air. Some TB mods to improve the flow and a custom chip would be good also.

IMHO if you are not going to get a new intake, headers, a mild cam, Mod the TB and a custom chip. Buying performance heads is a waste of money.
If you strangle and choke up the heads with a stock exhaust and intake they will never reach their potential. You will never get what you payed for.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

true true but chevy made all the power they wanted just by putting freer flowing exhaust, bigger injectors, and vortec heads. the computer can relearn new fuel maps if u give it time but the older they are the worse they get. Might want to invest in a chip or you can have it reprogrammed a local fuel injection shop.

I've seen all kinds of heads on ebay most of them remanufactured. sets of reman. vortecs for 350 and the manifold for 260.

 

[dyeager535]

Vortec effectiveness is not all about flow, and I have yet to see aftermarket heads that are comparable in price that utilize fastburn chambers.

I wouldn't buy a head without a fastburn chamber (of some sort) anymore.

Yes, for TBI, and TPI, Vortecs are expensive.

 

[beater_k20]

the old camel humps flow really good but you will have to buy a diff intake manifold to fit the efi.

no, and no. the old camel humps flowed really well, 30 YEARS AGO almost any late 80s/early 90s era smog truck head will blow them out of the water. in order to run a set of pre-86 heads on a 87+ engine, you just need to elongate the center 2 holes in the intake, and it will bolt right up.

there is no such thing as a set of World S/R Torquer II heads. a Torquer II is an intake made by Edelbrock, Sportsman IIs, and S/R Torquers are heads offered by World.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

Just speakin from experience..... ran stock 88 heads and the camel humps and there is no comparison... camel humps no doubt. I'm sure the heads on my blazer would out flow any of the late 80's early 90's heads cause i've run em both but the camel humps have had work done to em to make them flow better, bet theyed be close to what a vortec puts out hp wise. Bigger ports and chambers with more capacity for a high lift cam= hell of a lot better than a stock 88-93 head. Even without work done i would bet money they flow better than a late 80's early 90's head.

Either way buy a newer nice flowing set for mad $$$ or get a remanufactured set of vortecs or any good flowin head for cheap and have a local shop do some work on em... or do it yourself. Camel humps would be cheap, vortecs next then, the L98, and the s/r's. If i had a choice id get some vortecs for cheap off ebay from a reliable seller and have some work done to em.

just my 2 cents.

 

[beater_k20]

high flow numbers are great, if you've got a light car, and you're drag racing it all the time. for a heavy truck, you need velocity, not flow. velocity makes torque, and torque is what moves a vehicle, NOT horsepower. if you got a set of double humps to flow anywhere near a Vortec, you need to go into business, because that's some SERIOUS improvments. hell, you might even get a job with an NHRA team if you could do that. the smallish ports on the 87-95 TBI heads are GREAT for a truck engine, but if you were going to put them in a lighter application, or use them for a mud racer, you'd be disapointed with their performance. the main restriction on a TBI engine is the intake. swap it out for an Edelbrock TBI intake, and put a good flowing exhaust on it, you'll be amazed at the difference without even opening the longblock.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

the stock 88 head is built for a 8:1 comp ratio the humps are built for more. get em ported and polished you can make close too or over the vortecs numbers. they have a larger chamber and are better for a higher compression ratio. this is y the humps made more power on my motor then the stock heads. If the motor was stock it would be a different story. Not saying they flow as well or create as much velocity(which is the same thing) as the vortecs, but they will atomize fuel better if you take em to a head shop and let a master mechanic mess with em for a couple hours. flow is how much restriction is on the air moving throw the head. velocity is how fast. If a head flows it also has good velocity. With the humps, the desktop dyno said my 355 will put down 425 ft lbs at the flywheel.

The builder has built this same engine thousands of times and got dyno feedbacks saying the numbers where further north of 425 ft lbs and 400+ hp.

I know what torque and hp are and that hp isn't as important in a k5 but it makes more than enough torque to move a big truck and a big trailer.

Yeah it has other mods besides heads, but the stock 88 heads would not have made those numbers... no way.

 

[ZooMad75]

they have a larger chamber and are better for a higher compression ratio.

Got to disagree on that one. Large chambers equal lower compression ratios due to the bigger volume of the combustion area. In fact, Camel backs and Vortecs are BOTH 64 cc cambers. Which is why the compression would go up if you replaced a stock late 80's head with 76 cc chambers with either a Camelback or Vortec head. Stock vs Stock, a Vortec head will outperform a Camelback head. Vortec's have some drawbacks like small spring diameters and 1.94 intake valves vs a Camelback's 2.02 intake and larger spring. The port design was ripped right from the LT1 for use in the trucks. They just used the Gen II port and chamber design and wrapped it in the same basic Gen 1 small block head. Port design and high swirl chamber's allow the Vortec to outflow and outperform the older bigger heads. Chevy High Performance did head to head (pun intended) testing on almost all GM and aftermarket heads made and the Stock Vortec's out performed a Stock "Bow-Tie" performance head from the mid 80's. The Bow-Tie was only available over the parts counter and at the time the best small block head they made.

By the way, L98 heads used an even smaller 58 cc combustion chamber so mindfull of the bump in compression that might make if you have flat top pistons. It might take you out of the range of crappy octane gas and into the premium.

 

[Thunder]

FYI. There are two kinds of L98s. The iron heads have 64CC chambers. They will work fine with stock TBI pistons give a compression ratio of around 9.2 to 1. Also will work with the stock chip.

The aluiminum L98s (Vette heads) are the ones with the 58cc chamber.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

I was saying the camel backs that came with the reman 355 are better then my old stock 88 heads because the reman. motor has 10:flat tops and a cam.

The 88 heads are not vortec.

If you get the camels worked on they can make close to or over the vortecs numbers because of better fuel atomization.

If you put a modified camelback and a modified vortec the head to head the vortec will make more power every time.