SPIDE

i have a chevy tahoe 00 model with the last of the mohicans 5.7L genII ...baught it cheap with cracked heads... 96-00 had the thin casting probs so im lookin for an aftermarket alu head as i already have a cam layin around from a previous project .. comp 206/210 0.450/0.480 lsa@ 112 that im going to use to save the $300 ..so far ive looked at the blueprint engines h8002k 195 , the powerhouse 190 and powermaxx 185 ... all these are under $850 but i just want a second opinion from someone who has either run them or knows anything about any of them that can help me choose between these three , or if they know of another set that will work with my cam.

Darth Z

Following. I would also like to find a good set of heads for my 96 Vortec 5.7. I haven't found much of anything besides the Edelbrock ones, which only offer minimal improvement over the stock heads. I'd really like to find some already ported, polished, and gasket matched.

Blown06

iTrader: (32)

Back when I was doing cylinder heads for a living (roughly 1998 to around 2005) I would occasionally get a set of iron votec heads off the 98 and early 5.7 truck motors. Those heads where really nice for what they where even though they were iron. I don't know what availability is like now, but back then you could buy a brand new pair of empty castings from GM for like a couple hundred bucks. With handy grinding work, nice larger valves and the right valve job, you really could not beat them $$$ wise for a decent street head on a mild small block around 400 horsepower or so.

Did gm offer an aluminum copy of that head? If so, do they still offer it?

stock48

iTrader: (16)

On a deal like that you want to stick with a head really close to stock runner volume. The factory 906/062 heads are around 170 and id stick with that. Over the years I have built many 400~500 hp sb's with those heads with great results. Prob is they are getting scarce now days and the Mexico GM replacement is not as good of a casting. Id prob stay away from alum for what you are doing and look for a nice iron head. I've had decent luck with the Enginequest repalcements. You could either buy the new GM Mexico casting heads and work them a little or use the Enginequest. In alum the Edelbrock Etec 170 is a pretty nice head but not sure if you would see much difference with it with a .450 206@.050'' camshaft. Once you get up around 185~190 cc it's likely going to start losing a good amount of tq where you need it.

1Bear

iTrader: (1)

While they are the verge of being a little large for a mildly built Vortec truck, Chevrolet Performance does have the small port Vortec Bowtie iron heads that utilize 185cc intake ports along with 65cc exhaust ports and 66cc combustion chambers. At least from a strength standpoint, they should offer quite an increase in durability over the thin wall factory castings of the light duty trucks.

Chevrolet Performance also has the Fast Burn aluminum heads that have the Vortec intake bolt pattern (also has the early pattern), but they have quite a bit larger ports, coming in at 210cc’s on the intake side and 78cc’s on the exhaust side, with 62cc combustion chambers.

Both the iron and aluminum heads come with 2.000” / 1.550” valves respectively. Both also have relatively thick decks that could be milled to either match the 64cc combustion chambers of the stock Vortec heads or to raise the compression ratio slightly. Both are machined to utilize either the center bolt or early style perimeter bolt valve covers.