FastBurn vs. Vortec vs. 882's.

[grayw0lf]

So here's the situation.
I have a pretty stock 77' 350 w/ 882 heads (1.94/1.50). Only the Holley 650 & Performer intake are not stock.

What kind of performance upgrades would I see by switching to a Vortec setup? How does the Vortec compare to the FastBurn heads?

[1972C10]

Fast burns are supposed to be a better head But the vortecs over the 882s would be a huge difference mainly due to the compression You would gain a good bit going from a 76cc head to a 64

[stllookn]

You could get as much as 30-50 hp increase but you should add a manifold, carb, cam and headers to realize as much as 100 hp over a stock GM crate 350. It is difficult to change just one component and reap maximum benefit. Go to chevyhighperformance.com and look up "The Goodwrench Quest" to see how they took a stock GM crate motor and turned it into a 400 hp street fighter just bolting on heads, carb, manifold, cam, and headers. There is a bit more to it than that but not much. They did some work on the Vortecs but you can order them directly from GM Performance with most of the mods.

882's are prone to cracking and were offered on engines that produced 150-180 hp!

[grayw0lf]

Are the FastBurn heads the same thing as LT1 heads?

[03glide]

chevyhighperformance.com is an auction site.
The magazine is chevyhiperformance.com took me a minute to see the difference

[jimfulco]

The Vortecs have a similar port & chamber design to the LT1, but are made for standard (non-LT1) blocks. The Fast Burns are similar to the Vortecs, but they have larger ports & are made of aluminum.

[grayw0lf]

Were the FastBurn heads ever on a production vehicle, or are they strictly GM Performance Parts? In other words, what are the odds of finding a set in a junkyard pile of heads?

[Fred T]

Can't answer on the fastburns, but I do know that to use the vortecs with a cam that has much lift you need to machine larger spring seats and replace the press-in studs with screw-ins. I was looking at all of this and ended up getting E-tec 170 heads and a Comp Cam XE268 cam. Don't have them in yet. I was thinking the Chevy Hi Performance website had an article compaing vortecs with fast burns.

[jimfulco]

Fast Burns are/were on some crate motors, but never in a production vehicle.

[MrGoodpliers]

Vortecs are definately the ticket for the budget minded builder. I've had the on a couple of vehicles (I'm cheap ), and they perform great. You can run them stock if you keep the cam reasonable. I've heard 2 numbers on max lift--.465 and .480 so do a little research. you will need a vortec-specific manifold and I recommend GM intake gaskets because I tried the FelPro and they leaked. The GM sealed up tight only torqued to 12-15 lbs. Best of all, you can score the heads for about $200.

[grayw0lf]

200 heads!!! Where?

[stllookn]

I have seen Vortecs on ebay for $200. The local junkyards will charge between $150 and $200 for used ones but they are getting pretty popular.