Budget Vortec Head Upgrade

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by garyd1961

Not referring to you personally but I just don't understand this. The center bolt valve covers is an upgrade just like the roller cam and one piece rear seal. Yet people pay extra so they can put the old leaky type valve covers back on. For what? It's only bolts not every other bolt is the same as factory.

For me, everything I do to my truck is a balance between nostalgia and performance. For some people, that line is way one way where they want everything to be exactly as it was from the factory. I love seeing a totally stock truck, restored or not. It is something truly special. For others, it's more about performance and appearance. You end up with an LS motor, shaved firewall, notched frame, relocated tank, modern interior, etc. The craftsmanship in some of these trucks is truly impressive, and they still retain some nostalgia, at least from the outside. Valve cover adapters like this are for those of us who are a touch more on the nostalgia side than the performance side. I admit the adapters don't make a a lot of sense from a purely functional standpoint, but I am still tempted by them.

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by garyd1961

Not referring to you personally but I just don't understand this. The center bolt valve covers is an upgrade just like the roller cam and one piece rear seal. Yet people pay extra so they can put the old leaky type valve covers back on. For what? It's only bolts not every other bolt is the same as factory.

Some like their vehicle to look era correct.
Same reason Holley sells a bunch of efi units that look like a Holley double pumper.
Same reason they make a big deal out of putting a shaft radio in , and not a din sized unit.
I am in the planing stages of building an era correct type/themed vehicle.
There are some newer things I will be able to hide and still look the part and others I will not be able to.
My truck I went with the newer engine because it was all new and cheaper than having a machine shop do a basic rebuild on my old unit.
If I rebuilt my old 350, and add a roller cam and better than smog heads, it would have been 4500.-5000.00 the base rebuild 2500.00 + retrofit roller cam and lifters/etc 1100.00+ heads 1200.00+ better intake than the cast iron lump 109.
The g.m. crate vortec and the parts to turn it into a copy of the ram jet 350 with 330-340 hp was under 3k .
It seems g.m. prices the crate engines a fair bit higher now. but when I bought it for a little over 2 grand, it was a no brainer, all new everything from g.m.

[Rich72C10]

Mind reader! ...you answered one of my questions in my head - could I keep my stock valve covers. I really like the look of my stock engine bay.

At Cars & Coffee yesterday a friend said to me, you engine is way to clean - you need to drive this truck more! LOL

[57taskforce]

The Manifold torque and sequence, is essential with the vortec heads and intakes. That’s why so many of the vortec small blocks had issues from the factory with mixing coolant and oil. The factory supplied gaskets and torque procedure were wrong, resulting in the manifold being over torqued and killing the gaskets.

[bry593]

Regarding intake gaskets, the intake screw torque must be followed or the gaskets squeeze out on the ends. That 8 bolt intake design is not one of GM's crowning achievements.

A good thing about the late model valve covers is that they don't leak. The center bolts distribute the clamping force most evenly to the flange.

$45 for a temp sender with 3/8 npt threads?

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by bry593

Regarding intake gaskets, the intake screw torque must be followed or the gaskets squeeze out on the ends. That 8 bolt intake design is not one of GM's crowning achievements.

A good thing about the late model valve covers is that they don't leak. The center bolts distribute the clamping force most evenly to the flange.

$45 for a temp sender with 3/8 npt threads?

It is a stock AC Delco temp sender that member A1971Blazer machined down to fit the smaller port in the Vortec heads. The other option would be to mount the temp sender in the thermostat housing, but I prefer to have it in the stock location.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...=726700&page=3

[MikeB]

Originally Posted by bry593

That 8 bolt intake design is not one of GM's crowning achievements.

Man, you've got that right! Why in the world did they get rid of the additional 4 bolts? GM had problems even with totally stock parts.

Originally Posted by bry593

A good thing about the late model valve covers is that they don't leak.

Yes, great design that limits how much the gaskets can be compressed.

[jocko]

I agree - that's my preferred choice and the type I bought, I just haven't had a chance to use them just yet. If you painted their edges chevy orange, they'd likely almost disappear visually - i.e. look like a slightly deeper head - and all you'd see is the usual gasket below the stock valve cover, over top of the adapter. I think they should seal well to the head due to the vortec bolt down pattern - and then you'd have the 'normal' leak concerns with the stock valve cover to the top of the adapter. The only ones I've ever seen good pics of installed were a thicker, different type of adapter and they kinda stood out if not painted.

[pjmoreland]

Originally Posted by jocko

I agree - that's my preferred choice and the type I bought, I just haven't had a chance to use them just yet. If you painted their edges chevy orange, they'd likely almost disappear visually - i.e. look like a slightly deeper head - and all you'd see is the usual gasket below the stock valve cover, over top of the adapter. I think they should seal well to the head due to the vortec bolt down pattern - and then you'd have the 'normal' leak concerns with the stock valve cover to the top of the adapter.

This arrangement would get the crankcase vent inlet hole back in the correct place for use with a stock air cleaner, which is what I've been planning on doing. Wasn't sure how I'd do that with the Vortec valve covers since things are awfully crowded over the back of the driver side valve cover with the throttle linkage, transmission kickdown and power brake booster hose all in that space. I do like how well the center bolt Vortec valve covers seal though.

[pjmoreland]

I went ahead and preemptively replaced my intake manifold gasket with the metal/rubber Felpro MS98000T gasket. I am waiting for the RTV to cure, so I haven't started it up, but one thing I noticed right away was that the manifold bolts didn't feel mushy like they did when I torqued down the Mr. Gasket gasket. I followed the guidelines in this video, starting at 13:49.

https://youtu.be/uoB8t6__210

[OL SKOOL]

Would those vortec heads work on a 400 sb. Would i have to drill out the steam hole passages? P J that engine looks great in there.

[pjmoreland]

Thanks, OL SKOOL. This article talks briefly about drilling steam passages by hand in Vortec heads.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp...ster-for-2500/