ARGH! cant decide on what to do with heads!

Foxfan88

My Grandpa has great wood.
Sep 13, 2004
2,487
4
0
Miami, Ok
i got my engine torn down to the shortblock yesterday.

i had a small HG leak and intake leak on cyl5 and cyl2 had a bent pushrod....


new lifters (are old and need replaced anyways) and pushrods are on the list

i got a deal on an F-cam and it'll be on its way.

i'm fabricating a custom upper box plenum of sheet alum to mate up to my typhoon lower intake, i think it will feed the engine well seeing how my intake charge is pressurized


but i need to do something with HEADS.
i pulled my thumpers off and they are good. but the valve springs are WEAK, so weak that you can turn the springs with ease and so weak you could press them down by hand and remove the locks and take the valvespring off the head.
i am guessing my 9 psi and hard driving wore the springs out and i bet thats what caused the pushrod to bend.

i need to do some head upgrading while i am down there.
i really like the thumpers, you stick your finger in the ports and you can tell its a good flowing head and excellent port work.

i'm torn on what to do. i dont really want to spend the cash on nice aluminum heads, i'd rather save that for a big project in the future or something. plus im a firm believer you dont need badass alum heads to make power.

so i have narrowed it down to two options

my friend is wanting to build a engine for his pickup. he found a complete explorer motor at the junkyard for 500. me and him are talking about both going half in paying 250 and he gets the shortblock for his project and i get the P heads and upper/lower intake.

i could get this heads worked over with new springs and some porting. but i feel after all thats said and done i would be spending more cash for not much of a gain, not to mention i would want to get the p headers for plug removal etc etc.

OR have bigger valves (1.9/1.6) put into my thumpers along with a nice stiff spring to hanlde my application. my friend from work does his own head work and has his own valve machines and seat cutters etc etc... he can do it all. he quoted me a good price of around 3-400 buck for bigger valves and springs, PARTS AND LABOR, pretty nice deal i think.

i bought my thumpers used for 400 had them checked before and new seals put in before i ran them. they are off now and if i spend say 400 bucks i would have 840 dollars in the heads.

either way i sm still going in on the explorer motor because i can make my money back and soem profit selling just pull off P heads and intake.

i'm leaning towards the thumper setup with bigger valves and springs.

i'm not looking to make the MOST power possible. i want something fun to drive, my car was pretty fast before it broke down. with cheap parts lol i had maybe 1500 in the engine. i want to do something nobody else does. people buy the good alum heads all day, i want to be different and run a good number with STOCK HEADS.

car trapped 115 before with b-cam and stock thumpers with weak springs.
i am getting an F-cam thats more suited for a blower, fabbing up my own upper plenum, and if i get the thumpers done up, PLUS tuning via tweecer i hope to have to car trap 120+ at the track and run mid-low 11s. i think it can be done.

give me some opinions
 
keep your Thumpers on they will work better than the P's anyway. if you bent a pushrod and your springs are that weak chances are you bent a valve also or atleast kissed them off. i would get them checked out(esp. the valves), decked lightly, 3 angled and undercut leaving the valves standard size and get some good springs. have them set the springs up a little on the heavy side. there is no reason this with your other mods you are performing won't let this car run 11.50's. run what you got and make em scratch their heads!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Unless you plan on turning RPM above 6500, keep the typhoon upper. The amount of lower end your going to loose is going to be significant.

Also, whatever you do...be sure to get the heads and block checked and/or machined for flatness. It sound's like you may have been lifting the heads a bit, and it can change the shape of the heads a bit. Also, I'd run either 8548 or 9333 head gaskets along with arp head studs.

New valvetrain will certainly help those heads...and weak springs are especially costly on forced induction setups. I've used P heads, and while they performed awesome...I wasn't keen on the plug angle.
 
id go with the p heads, awesome low down power, and pulls strong to redline!!! make sure to get good springs, and specific P headers, it will make your life easier by far!!! If you put bigger valves in those suckers it would blow the e7's out of the water, and I would keep the typhoon intake as well!!