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Ideal iron heads for a trail/street BBC?

mofugly13

mofugly13

1 ton bucket of rust
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I anm going to be rebuilding a 454 I got from RyanB. over the next year or so, but would like to start acquiring parts now. It's got the peanut port heads. I understand these run out of breath at around 4500rpm. My K5 is for trails and road trips to trails, and Oregon to visit my brother. I am not going for anything wild, but warmed over compared to stock. Would I be better off looking for a set of big oval heads? I plan on pocket porting and maybe going to bigger valves, and an RV cam. Should I keep the peanut ports, maybe grind the ports to match the intake, or should I look for some large oval port heads? I am very patient when it comes to finding the right parts for the right price, so it's not like I'm in any hurry. What would you all do? I dont want any high dollar aftermaket heads, just you all's opinion on the best stock heads for the kind of driving we do.

EDIT: I am hoping to get a Mercruiser MPFI setup for it, if that makes any difference, but that will depend on if I can find one at the right price.
 
Try a set of BBC vortec heads. They are somewhat of a sleeper, as compared to the popularity of SBC vortec heads. They will wake up a BBC just like a SBC. I too am looking for the mercruiser efi setup for my project; 89 454, 396 crank to destroke it to 427, vortec heads and cam/ valvetrain, and MPFI-should be a runner.
 
I am currently building up a 496 for my Jimmy and am using a set of large oval port iron heads for the build up. 781 castings that I am putting bigger valves in and getting some bowl and port work from a racer friend of mine. I have told him the application and he won't get too crazy with the head work. Mostly cleaning up, port matching and unshrouding valves. They are plentiful and cheap. I paid less than $100 for the pair that was in excellent shape.
 
yeh set of 049 or 781s, with a little porting and some 2.19/1.88s, and youll be set. I get 049s on mine, only way to go imo.
 
k20 said:
yeh set of 049 or 781s, with a little porting and some 2.19/1.88s, and youll be set. I get 049s on mine, only way to go imo.
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That's pretty much what I figured. I don't think the vortec heads will work with my mark IV block, I have read it's a bitch to get the water passages to seal properly. K20, what are the specs on your engine, cam, pistons, compression ratio? What kind or torque/hp are you loking at?

I think I'll start looking for some 049 or 781's.
 
DOH! Thanks supersize. Too bad I'm friggin broke right now, it's exactly what I'm looking for. ****!
 
Why not just go with TBI and a set of 781s, headers, mild cam, ect. TBI is Cheap, easy to Mod, gets good MPG, makes great torque, Be a lot easier and cheaper than adapting a marine system to 4x4
 
k20 said:
yeh set of 049 or 781s, with a little porting and some 2.19/1.88s, and youll be set. I get 049s on mine, only way to go imo.
Click to expand...

I have a set of 781's on my 454. About what does it cost to have these mods done? I was looking at a set of Merlin II's, but they run around $1400+.... Just want to weigh the options. :D
 
machine work for the valves, probably around 200 bucks, valves are around 200 bucks for both intake & exhaust, and porting I did with couple different grinding wheels.
 
Bad Karma said:
I have a set of 781's on my 454. About what does it cost to have these mods done? I was looking at a set of Merlin II's, but they run around $1400+.... Just want to weigh the options. :D
Click to expand...

I hope you are talking about their cast version...


I coundnt touch a set of aluminum big block heads for less then 2 grand:(
 
Yeah, that's what I meant. The basic cast iron, hydraulic flat-tappet version. They do have some nice features, though. I would love to run them. Maybe someday..... :crazy:
 
I can get a set of vortec heads from a 96 454 for a decent price I'd say. If anyone is interested let me know I will phone him and look for a price if he still has them. I would say cheap. drop me a email if interested or post up. [email protected]
 
I put a 1989 1 ton's 454 in my 69 K20. I ditched the TBI and put on a Weiand Action Plus intake, Jet Stage II 800 cmf q-jet, a Crane Energizer 266 cam, lifters and springs, along with Comp Cams Magnum rocker arms. I went ahead and stayed with the peanut port stock heads. These changes seem to work very well with my K20. It has all the power I could want and definitely goes past 4,500. If I'm getting on the gas hard I hit 5,000 with no problem.

The peanut port heads are actually good for low end torque which is exactly what you want with a heavy 4wd. I sure gave thought to changing heads when I had an issue requiring them to be pulled off, but I took the advice of my machine shop and kept them.
 
My dad did the iron heads that were on Wally out of some car large ovals. Bigger valves, flycut bowls, blending all of it, cc-ing the chambers, contouring the block to unshroud the valves, etc. It all worked really nice with the 468 but the peanuts would probably have been a bit better under 2K rpm. Keep in mind a small displacement motor like a 396 won't need the air a larger port can provide.
Being patient works well, a set of edelbrock's found me for a very reasonable price but it was a year before I used them and wasn't looking when they showed up.
 
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