Heads!

[allpontiacs]

Hm is it just me or is this site kind of dead? Anyways, I digress...on to the point of this post! I'm going to be building a fairly stout 455 (it's finalized, buying a block off Dave Bisschop) for my 1980 Firebird. I've started with the cylinder heads, which are a set of #16's from a '68 400HO. I bought them with a recent rebuild (which meant good guides; Dave B confirmed that) and they were outfitted with brand new Comp dual valvsprings (995-16's) and 1.65:1 HS rollers. Purchase and shipping: around $800, which was a ripper deal! Then I talked to Dave B (he owns SD Performance here in Abby) about some machine work, and settled on the works; full p&p, 5 angle valve job, filled exhaust crossovers, opened pushrod holes (for the high ratio rockers), and brand new 1 piece stainless valves (stock size, which is plenty big enough at 2.11/intake and 1.77/exhaust). Total for that: well, another ripper deal. $1200. I just went today to look at my beauties, and they're all done and looking purdy!!! I go and pick them up on Monday, but in the meantime I've got my hands on the flow chart...I'll give you the highlights.

Intake:279cfm@28/.550 lift
Exhaust:208cfm@28/.600 lift

Along with these beauties is a cam I'm buying, an older Ultradyne solid with 255/262 .050 duration on a 108 LSA.

;D

[79 Z28]

not bad at all, hope everything works out for you, decent flow too. :)

[Mr Monte]

You have pretty much the same heads as me......#62. Have you thought about using a 400 block with a 4.25 crank?. Eagle sells these kits with forged pistons and ESP rods and all bearings for $1800. 3" mains are supposedly have more webbing around the crank and hence a bit stronger.

[allpontiacs]

I have, and I don't like the idea. These new stroker cranks are still not up to snuff, guys are running actual 455's a lot more reliably than the strokers. Not sure why, there was an issue with the thrust surfaces but that has since been cleared up. My thoughts are that the 3.25" mains hold up a little better than the 3" mains, maybe the crank has less flex? I don't know. It's not a big deal, but I'd still rather build a 455. I've heard about the whole deal with the 400 blocks being a bit stronger, but frankly I haven't seen any proof out on the racetrack. In fact, Dave B is currently running a stock 455 crank into the 9's with no problems at all, so if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me!