Just what the title says - given a single type of head - say a stock 5.3 head vs a ported 5.3 head - is there a significant increase to be gained by going with the ported heads on a forced induction setup?

 

Maybe on the exhaust side a little gain. Worth the $$, cant say.

 

i dont think it is worth the time, effort or money. just turn the boost **** a fraction of a turn and you will be right where the heads may have put ya for hp.

a significantly better head with the thicker deck to help keep the heads down are worth something. not sure if they are worth $2k though but when your going to be pushing it prety hard i think they start to be worth the money.

 

The reason I am asking is this - I have to pull my heads (ported LS6) to send back to TSP to check the valve guides. I would also like to go to a smaller combustion chamber head to bump up my compression ratio. I was thinking about just getting a stock set of 5.3 heads to put on my 408 and selling off the LS6 heads when I get them back. Opinions?

 

Unless you are going max effort it is not worth the money for the small return in the power increase.

 

I gave Richard the go-ahead for some edelbrock 245s for the simple fact I want to spray a fat shot of nitrous on top of 12 or so #s of boost. I wouldnt spend 2K for the extra 40ish hp it gives you.

 

 

I can probably make up that 40ish hp in the compression increase alone.

 

You can gain alot more then that with the increase in boost a thick deck head will allow you to run. the 40hp number was just a number I pulled out of my *** it seems that 40 is a good number over on tech for just a head swap on some of the turbo cars(smaller cubes then you).

Why you wanting to bump your CR up so much?

 

It's low now, 9.4:1 static and about 6.9:1 dynamic

Going to 5.3 heads would put me at about 7.1:1 dynamic, 9.7:1 static

I want to go smaller with the cam too, which would bump my dynamic up a little bit more as well. I don't really like the chunky cam I have in there at the moment. Got a line on a cheap Z06 cam that I'm going to try, and if I don't like that one I'll probably go with something in the 220 range.