NC road trip to pick up my pickup

[woody90gtz]

Turns out both of the Vortec heads are cracked and one of the head gaskets blew. Can't tell if it got hot and blew the head gasket or if it blew the head gasket and then got hot. It could have even been an intake that went first, these were known for that.

So I'm in the market for another pair of Vortecs. I priced out AFR's and the required intake & rockers to swap them for the Camaro's Vortecs and it's over $2000...so I found a pair guaranteed crack-free on car-part.com for $260. Surfacing them would be $30 per locally. I also found one pair in the local mini junkyard last night, gotta see how much he wants for them.

This project keeps dragging on.

[Barry]

How much did you pay for the parts truck. I feel like you made out super good on that

[woody90gtz]

I did ok on it for $800. It cost almost $100 to go get in it diesel and dinner for the bro-in-law, but I did get 250 out of it after I took all I wanted.

I just checked out the engine tonight and it is roller-cam-ready. Didnt check the mains yet because I need longer bolts for my engine stand, but it should be 4-bolt. The heads on it are stock HD swirl port 350 heads #810), which according to some research should be good low end torque heads and have the HD exhaust valve for heat dissipation. This could be an option with a stock TBI intake...but I've already bought a Vortec intake and know the kind of grunt Vortec heads make.

[woody90gtz]

If you have three Chevy 350s torn apart in your garage...you might be a redneck. haha

Grabbed another set of Vortecs today and they look much better. After the hassle of pulling a junkyard engine out in a field they better be!








My garage looks like I'm a hoarder.

[99GaGT3X00]

My garage looks like I'm a hoarder.

yeah a hoarder of everything 350.

watch out tiff might call you into that show.

[wicked-irocz]

It's hard to not hoard 350 parts when you have 2 vehicles with them. I have the same problem except I also hoard 3100/4T60-E parts and 3/4 and 1 ton GM parts because of multiple vehicles that have that combo. I have 5 sets of rims with tires that fit my truck

[woody90gtz]

Yeah, the Camaro makes 4 sbc 350s on my property. hahaha I actually want to sell it and build a nasty 383 roller out of that 4-bolt engine I got with the parts truck.

I bare blocked the Z71 engine so I can clean it good after the hone job. My old man told me I was crazy for tearing down a 25k rebuild...but I'll show him how much better it runs once it's done. Waiting for my machinist buddy to show up now and then I can slap it together.

There's a guy on the truck forum telling me it'll only make 250hp which I find hard to believe. Stock Vortec truck 350s made 255hp with a smaller cam and less compression and garbage exhaust. And the Vortec heads themselves will support about 450hp in stock form with the right combo.

[wicked-irocz]

I think your 298 hp is close with the right tune.

[woody90gtz]

Second pair of used Vortecs were cracked too...a magnaflux picked it up. WTF!

So today I bit the bullet and bought brand new ones. I'm tired of waiting.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWNX%3AIT




Cylinder hone came out good though.

[3X00-Modified]

All these cracked heads would make me wonder if they are even worth the effort or if they will crack when your using them.

Are the white lines in the second pic the cracks?

[woody90gtz]

Pulling heads off a junkyard engine is always a risk. Both engines were "rod-knock" engines and the first definitely had coolant in the crankcase. Second one looked clean, but the junkyard owner said the guy who had the truck was a douche. I'll bet they both got hot at some point and they were both over 100k.

The white lines you see is where the magnaflux powder sticks to the cracks. You put an elec charge on the head and the powder sticks to the cracks magnetically. Pretty cool.

[3X00-Modified]

Well at least the cracks look consistent... LOL

[Cliff8928]

Man, almost could've had etecs for that price....

[bonecrrusher]

Well now you have a couple hundred pounds of scrap metal!

[woody90gtz]

Yeah, E-Tec 200s would be great...for me to poop on!