Stock Accessories compatible with Vortec Heads?

[Portland68]

Looking at upgrading to Vortec heads on my 350 and having trouble verifying that all mounting holes are the same as stock heads. Will power steering mount the same/use the same bracket and are there any other issues when switching to these heads (besides using the vortec manifold as well)?

Thank you!

[AJC]

As far as I know it should. You can mount Vortec accessories on older heads but they might be miss a hole or 2. So going by that knowledge, you wont use all the mount holes on the Vortec heads with older accessories.

[bigmac73]

I have a Vortec top ended crate engine, all your accessories will bolt up. Except for your stock throttle/kickdown bracketry and you will also need a Vortec specific intake manifold as the bolt pattern is different from stock heads

[jbarron]

The A6 style AC compressor has a bracket to the intake that will not work anymore.

[weim55]

You don’t specify specifically what accessory drive arrangement you are using so here’s a general summary of what to look for:

If if any of your brackets incorporate exhaust manifold mounting you will likely need to modify the brackets slightly to fit. The exhaust ports are slightly higher ( 1/8 to 1/4 inch (?)) so bracket mounting holes will be off a little bit. As one of the other guys said, AC brackets that go up to the intake manifold Will need to be completely fabricated for the Vortec mounting bolt arrangement. I’ve done a few of the swaps myself but only with power steering and alternator, no AC. The modifications to brackets were very simple and not difficult to execute. If your truck uses factory AC mounts I have a feeling that could turn into a real nightmare as I believe the factory brackets use both the intake and exhaust manifolds (?)

The bolt spacing on the front face of the cylinder heads are the same for all years, no difference for the Vortecs.

You have to use a Vortec specific rocker arm, the old-style ones will not work on the newer heads.

If you have some sort of a temperature sender that screws into the side of the cylinder head the old style is standard thread, the Vortech is metric. There are adapters in the aftermarket to make this work.

Center bolt valve covers required, obviously.

I can’t for the life of me remember if some of the cylinder head to block bolts are different lengths (?) from the old style heads(?)

Steve weim55 Colorado