Bang-for-the buck Performance SBC street heads?

[A HotRod]

In your opinion, what Performance cylinder head for a SBC 355 engine that one would like to make 430 HP or more streetable power and torque from, that would be considered affordable?

Current heads on it are World Sportsman II - Stock

Glenn

[lefty o]

some light porting of what you have will wake them up and be the best bang for your buck.

[A HotRod]

Thank you for the reply Lefty:
Before posting this, my thoughts were to contact Mike Jones Cams and see if the 'right-camshaft-design' would make this old engine want to get-up-on-the-tires and run.

I do not have any hands on experience with cylinder head porting.

[DaveMcLain]

Chevy Vortec or that EQ head that looks like an old Chevy head on the outside but has the Vortec ports and chambers.

[Carnut1]

Sportsman 2's port up real nice and make very good power. In reality you can get your hp goals with stock Sportsmans but the combo would need to be right on. Figure guides, valve job, bowl blend, little ssr work and a bit of pinch opening will wake those heads right up. Thanks, Charlie

[mark_follweiler]

with a little work those heads will get you there. and good choice on letting mike build you a cam.

[Kenova]

What would be a good choice if you were starting from scratch with no heads? (Sorry for the highjack.)

Ken

[resurrectionjoe]

Profiler 195cc

[KnightEngines]

On a bang for buck topic I just finished touching up a set of edelbrock E-street 185cc heads.
Out the box the were pretty ordinary, flow topped out at 225cfm @ .55" lift & then backed up.
But it didn't take much work to bring them alive, I left the factory valve job alone, opened up the pinch to 1.8^", blended in the valve job properly, tidied up the bowls & lightly reworked the turns, did much the same on the exhaust side & just knocked sharp edges of the chambers.
The reworked heads went:

Intake
.1 - 61cfm
.2 - 131
.3 - 186
.4 - 226
.45 - 240
.5 - 250
.55 - 256
.6 - 256
.65 - 257
.7 - 258
.75 - 260

Exhaust went from 164cfm @ .5" up to 178cfm.

For the time spent they picked up real well, was pleasantly surprised at how good they are with minimal porting.

[Frankshaft]

I fixed an edelbrock crate engine a couple years ago, that the cam went flat in. Long story with this engine,, I won't bore you with. Anyhow, because of the history of it, even though it was 7 years old, edelbrock sent him the hydraulic roller upgrade, cam, lifters, pushrods, valve springs, and all the gaskets for $300. I thought that was pretty good of them. Anyhow, I did a valve job, cut the seats 're ground valves, and resurfaced the heads .005, zero porting. Polished the crank, honed the block, New rings and bearings, and reassembled it with the edelbrock hydraulic roller. It made 440 hp and 435 tq. Point is, edelbrock performer rpm heads, no porting, their cam, which worked, but wouldn't have been my first choice. It was only 9.5:1 . Make it 10.5:1,.use a better cam, it might make 460hp . But for the 430hp you say you want, that would be an option. I should add, it made 440hp with an hp950 carb. It made 435 with a quick fuel 750 vacuum secondary carb. The edelbrock carb that came on it, was a flaming pile of @hit. The hydraulic roller version, is rated at 435 hp, and 434 tq. They obviously run them too, because when we were tuning it, there was a yellow mark on the intake, and distributor. The engine made best power when those 2 marks lined up. I was actually suprised. Cam is 234-238 with .535 lift, 112 lobe Sep, ground on a 107 intake centerline, which is where I installed it.

[F-BIRD'88]

You already have a good head for a base. Those Sportsman II Heads get real good once you port them.
They really need that. Easy 490-516 Dyno HP at 10.25:1cr with a port matched Victor JR 750 DP carb
and A Isky 201549 cam. The 350 SBC likes to rev up with these 200cc port heads on it thus the
solid lifter cam.

Easy 440 ++ HP with a performer RPM intake and a Comp XE284H-10 hyd cam.
with the porting.
Another good street cam choice for this is the Comp XR286R-10 #12-772-8 solid street roller.
These heads on a 350 tend to like to rev up and want a cam with some duration like these examples.
But great power.These heads work made to be ported by the end user.

240ish stock flow get it up to 260-265 cfm with generous hand porting. The bowl contour under the valve is critical.
That big fat as cast valve guide boss in the valve bowl really needs to to be slimmed and stream lined.
These really picks up the flow and power on these heads.

So you got good heads. They just need porting. The castings are near indestructable.

IMHO as opposed to changing the heads on a 355 SBC,,,, I'd turn that 355 into a 383 stroker and keep and port the heads you got.
You will get a much better street result (big torque) for the cash spent. They get even better on a 383 , on the street.

[Kbails]

also like others have stated my vote would be to do some baisic porting to what you have (there are a few good threads on these heads here) or spend some money and have somebody port them/ good valve job. but if the heads you have are really far gone and needs a lot of work. you might be better off upgrading to a brodix ik series or similar as others have stated. maby to start tear them down and really see what you got to work with. its kinda a tuff call because the money you will spend on a budget head wont really make a whole more power than what you got already, but if you have to completely redo the heads you got you might spend close to what new heads will be..rite?

[A HotRod]

Thank you all for your ideas !

The Sportsman II heads I have are 72cc chambers on top of 4-valve relief Flat-Top Speed Pro pistons, so my compression is a poor
8.9-1. I have read that this head can be milled up to .040" which I calculated to reduce the chambers to 68cc.
I also understand that they can be angle milled, but I have no understanding on how much it would take to achieve 10 - 10.25-1.

Are these 200 cc intake ports a bit to large for this 355 cid engine?

The engine is in a 2150# fenderless fiberglass Model A Coupe bodied old Hot Rod I built 30 years ago. Currently I'm in the process of entirely changing the car, and when completed should look similar to this old Altered from 1956.
The Trans is a T400 hydro with a 2400-ish convertor which connects to a Chrysler 8-3/4 with 3.50 gears.

I've had 3 camshafts in it over the years:
1. Hyd flat tappet .480/.480 lift - 230/230* @ .050
2. Hyd roller with the same specs as above
3. Hyd roller .462/.470 lift - 210*/215* on 110 C/L - current cam

The intake manifold is a self ported GM aluminum Q-Jet, with a self modified Q-Jet following Cliff Ruggles books direction. I must say the carb works very well and the engine runs as clean as a whistle.

The Loaded Toad.jpg

[Newold1]

In my opinion the Promaxx Series 1 190cc aluminum head is just the ticket. Just a little over $1000 a pair complete ready to run out of the box. Flow about 270cfm @.600" and 198cfm exhaust @.600" out of the box no extra porting or rework needed. They have a 64cc chamber option which solves your compression/piston issue.
This is my idea of "Best Bang for the Buck!"

Sure you can buy cheaper heads but put a cost of a GOOD expert porting job and rework and all of a sudden they are not really so cheap.

[F-BIRD'88]

If the flat top pistons are .025" below the deck at TDC on that motor
then simply mill the 72cc heads to say 69cc and reinstall using a thing felpro 1094 .015" steel shim head gasket
The new cr will be 9.8:1.

You could also work with the low compression ratio and add a lil supercharger to that motor.
You'd really like that on that car.
with the low 8.9:1 cr use a .041" head gasket. You are all set for moderate boost on pump gas
and lots of power. A simple Comp XE274H-10 hyd cam will rock with the blower.
A generic (Summit #1105) 224-234- .465-.488 114 hyd cam is great for this
Either of the 230deg cams you got now are fine too.
Hell the lil hyd roller cam that is in it is fine for this.
Again a little porting sweetens up them good heads.

Weiand 142-144 blower,, Weiand 177 blower. EATON/Magnuson/TFS MP-122hh "Magnacharger" blower.
750 to 950 carb. enjoy.

Modest easy 5-6psi boost to get 430-450 HP and you can crank it up well beyond that with more pulley ratio
with any of these lil street blowers. The Eaton/Magnuson us the most efficient,
You got the car and low cr engine for this. You will really enjoy this combo.