help me make a judgement call

[CyanJaguar]

461 heads fully ported
2.02 1.60
dual springs with dampner
shaved 0.010

$300

should I or should I not? they will be for a 327

they dont have hardened seats or accessory bolt holes

[BurnoutNova]

sounds too good to be true, 461's are pretty hard to find in good shape, not cracked or anything. you'll be spending a couple hundred to get hardened seats put in, and they will need a valvejob on the exaust side at the very least. its hard to buy old heads just becasue new ones are so reasonably priced.

i'd take them to a machine shop, have them magnafluxed, have the springs pressure tesed and see if the guides are sloppy. and then get a quote for hardened seats, and go from there.

[kaycee]

I got a set of em on my 327 same setup as your looking at,I got about $400 total in mine and they run great.This are sought after heads for the nostalgia group because they want a #'s correct engine you could probabally double your $ if you find the right guy.If you don't care on the #'s part and just want some good performing heads then I would look for a set of vortec's.

[CyanJaguar]

Originally Posted by BurnoutNova

sounds too good to be true, 461's are pretty hard to find in good shape, not cracked or anything. you'll be spending a couple hundred to get hardened seats put in, and they will need a valvejob on the exaust side at the very least. its hard to buy old heads just becasue new ones are so reasonably priced.

i'd take them to a machine shop, have them magnafluxed, have the springs pressure tesed and see if the guides are sloppy. and then get a quote for hardened seats, and go from there.

what happens if they are run without hardened seats?

a valve job on the exhaust side? can you explain?

there is a chip on one of the heads, but it does not affect the sealing.

btw, they came off a 71 camaro 355 drag car running 11.2 with these heads

[CyanJaguar]

Originally Posted by kaycee

I got a set of em on my 327 same setup as your looking at,I got about $400 total in mine and they run great.This are sought after heads for the nostalgia group because they want a #'s correct engine you could probabally double your $ if you find the right guy.If you don't care on the #'s part and just want some good performing heads then I would look for a set of vortec's.

Im not really into numbers matching. more trying to have a nice performing motor.

the cheapest vortecs are $600 and I have to buy a $200 intake and also valve covers.

would they actually make more power than ported 461? I put the flow numbers of the vortec 855 in d2k and compared with ported 461s and the 461s make more power (bigger valves help) but of course I dont know how ported these are.

[mnunn454]

As long as they aren't cracked or warped, I'd say they're worth $300. I paid $200 for a pair over 25 years ago and thought I got a pretty fair deal.

[truckdude239]

u need harden valve seats because there is no long lead in the gas if u want to run a lead sub. with every tank of gas. if not the vavles will not last long seeing the lead use to lube the seats

[ETsC10]

If the cores are good (a machine shop can evaluate them for you) and, the rest of the parts are good, they may be for you. However...

Do the heads come loaded with the original parts? If so, often on older heads both the exhaust valves and intake valves are toast, the valve guides hogged out, the springs weak and/or the push rods bent or too worn. Don't forget stripped holes or bad rocker studs. All these parts can add up big time! Or, as previously mentioned, the heads warped or cracked. Walk in with your eyes wide open.

Plus, it might be a good deal IF you already have the other things to make them work (because of no holes in the heads). Gunna run headers? Etc? Etc?
Keep researching this stuff before deciding. You have to hang your accessories off of something!

Been there. I spent $400+ on my 327LJ's heads...just on the valve job...and I already owned them, did the valve train R&R myself and had the exhaust valves donated. Not complaining here--they are just what I wanted and I was willing to pay for that. Had I not been trying to shoot for originality and had the proper accessory brackets, I would have plugged on a later model set of heads or a pair of the nice new hotrod ones available aftermarket.

Finally, as an investment, they may be a good buy even if you get other heads to run on your motor.

My two cents...holly cats! more like 200 cents! Good Luck,

[BurnoutNova]

Originally Posted by CyanJaguar

what happens if they are run without hardened seats?

a valve job on the exhaust side? can you explain?

there is a chip on one of the heads, but it does not affect the sealing.

btw, they came off a 71 camaro 355 drag car running 11.2 with these heads

if you run without leaded fuel, you will pound out the exaust seats... the lead acts as a lubricant. lead substitute does not help this, all it does is raise your octane level by a couple points. its kind of misleading.

you only need hardened seats on the exasust side, becaues those seats get so much hotter, hence you'll only need to grind the valve seating surfaces on the seats that are replaced. this is just a best case scenario, once you get into them you might be looking at alot more than just that.

overall, if the heads are ready to run, and your willing to diump a few hundred bucks in the to update them, fo for it. but if you just want somthing cheap and realatively good for performance, you cant beat vortec's, or even world S/R heads, dart iron eagles, ect.

[BurnoutNova]

Originally Posted by CyanJaguar

btw, they came off a 71 camaro 355 drag car running 11.2 with these heads

just becasue someone else had good luck with them doesnt mean you will, theres alot of variables that will affect there performance. the weight of the car, other details on the engine/ suspention, nitrous?

dont be misled into thinking these will make your engine perform like someone else did... kind of makes me wonder why there so cheap to begin with?

[CyanJaguar]

hi guys, and thanks for the advice. I decided to pass on these heads.

I'll save up for some edelbrock aluminums.

[70GMCer]

Keep your money and wait for a deal on a pair of Vortecs.