290 HP Crate Heads

[Shawn F.]

A friend of mine said he would sell me a pair of VERY LOW mileage 290HP crate motor heads for $300 which includes the stock springs, push rods and self centered NON roller rockers. These heads have about 2500 miles on them I believe he said or less. Pretty much he installed this crate motor for a customer who drove the car for a few weeks or actually days and then bought some Dart aluminum heads for more power. Pretty much it's a complete setup and all I will need is a cam and lifters. I am looking to finish my 355 engine with TRW flat top pistons.
Few questions here...
1.) Are these heads any good?
2.) These heads are 76cc heads, with the TRW pistons they state that with 64cc heads it will make I believe 9.74:1 compression ratio. I know there are tons of things that factor this such as gasket thickness, how far down the hole the pistons are sitting, etc, but from the info I just gave, any idea how much more that will drop the compression ratio? I would love to go no lower than 9:1 compression but I am guessing with 76cc heads it will be much lower than that?
3.) Is it possible with the correct cam, carb, intake and exhaust setup (hooker full length headers), that I can achieve about 330HP from these things on this 355? I was wanting to shoot for about 380 on this engine with Vortec heads and such but ran out of money and it's going to be a daily driver anyways. IMO 330 HP is half way decent for a heavy 80 El Camino.

Any information would be greatly appreciated here! I am hoping to get this engine put together in the next month and dropped into this car with a low mileage TH350 trans I have had put away for a project. \/

 

[bowtie81]

With some porting and cam change it is possible for your goal.

 

[axisg]

I would rather take the $300.00 and buy some vortec heads. The 290hp crate motor from GMPP uses stock cast iron heads ( not vortec )

 

[Shawn F.]

Vortec heads are over $650 shipped to my door compared to just $300 for the pair of these 290HP heads with rockers, pushrods, etc. With the Vortec's I will then have to spend $300 for a intake manifold specifically for those heads, then will need rockers and push rods. All that will most likely add up to about $1000 dollars after it's all shipped and said and done... I really wanted to go this route but after reality kicked in I realized I just do not have that kind of money right now. Things keep popping up on this car over and over and one problem after another and I am just OUT of funds unfortunately. Next year I may be able to upgrade to a Vortec setup but really my main goal is to get this car on the road in the next month and be done with it so I can start on my 63 Chevy II wagon. Once the wagon is done this El Camino is probably going to get sold. \/

 

[D&A Machine Shop]

If they are the perimeter bolt heads then they are basically the same
as the late 70s or early 80s 624 castings. They are not the best heads around but they will probably work just fine. Just remember if you go with much cam at all then you will need to upgrade the springs and possably the valves.
Hope this helps.

 

[Shawn F.]

I plan to go with a 450 lift cam which I looked in GM Performances site and it says these heads support max 450 lift so I think I will be fine.

 

[Damon]

They should be -993 casting heads. 76cc "bathtub" chambers, 1.94/1.50 valves, standard ports (non-swirl port, and obviously not Vortec). They're bascially heavyweight casting versions of the old lightweight casting -882 emissions-era heads use on stock 350s throughout the mid-late 70s and early 80s. Nothing to write home about.

 

[Al]

They are the same heads they put on the Goodwrench 350 engines, which they advsertise at 260 HP with headers and an intake and carb. If the engine makes 9.75:1 compression with the 64 cc heads you'll probably be looking at around 8.5 with the 76 cc heads. Do as the other guys have suggested and save the money for the Vortecs. They are a much better head design for not much more. Shop around and see what kind of a deal you can get on Vortecs from someone else. You can find better deals than the $650 you've been quoted.

 

[Doober]

I think you'll be happier with Vortecs imo. You can get a set of used Vortecs for the same price or less from a salvage yard (a quick search on Car-Part.com says about $125 per head), and have them double checked at a machine shop for not too much (mine are 906, had no problems).

 

[Al]

Also you can get an intake for far less than $300. That's something you can buy used without any problems as long as it hasn't been screwed up by the previous owner. If you're going to be into cars you need to learn how to cut costs until you get to where you can afford to spend money on all new parts. And if I remember right you can modify the regular intake to work with the Vortec heads. I may be wrong on that part though.