Thinking about making the swap from vortecs to Victors. Will I be a happy camper or not?

What's the rest of the combo? The Vic Jr.'s are a pretty big head for most street engines.

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Mid 11's on pump gas, all motor . . . and no trailer.

Eric I am running lightweight speed pro pistons sitting on a set of 6"eagle rods in a 355. An Xe274 cam with a 750 Holley vac sec carb.Stall is between 3500 and 4000. Presently have the L31 o62 heads with no porting and a Professional product air gap stlye intake.I am running 12.90 @105,106 mph , full load car.I checked the flows on the vortecs and dont see much sense in installing another cam with a higher lift as I am pushing the flow numbers to the limit now so thought I would sell off the whole top end .Good buy for someone if I decide to change. Less than a 1000 miles on all new out of the box heads and intake.Had screw in studs and guide plates installed and guides and spring pockets cut down to accept the 981 comp springs.Some people called it over kill for what i was doing with the car but I beleive in being safe. Car is mostly run on the track with an odd trip to the ice cream stand with my wife and dog.

Yes, buy the 64 cc versions and soon after the installation you will be looking at a nice big solid or roller cam. your converter should be sufficient with those heads. Currently we have a 1st gen camaro at our track with a 355, 13:1 comp and a small XE294 solid roller and he runs 11.6's or so. Another benefit of those heads is you can step up to a 406 down the road when you've had enough of the piston noise of your 355. http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/wink.gif
Seriously, you'll love those heads.

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Custom Auto, your source for quality machine work, cores and new parts at competetive pricing right here in British Columbia 1-888-563-4050
A Canadian, EH? (with a 10 second street car)

Thanks Doug.So much for my wife:s trip south this winter

agree with Eric and Rust both. I have a set of vic jrs on my 350 and love them.

You will not have any bottom end though. With my present setup of Comp magnum 292 cam, 3.73's and a 3500 converter I have zero tire spin at launch, but it comes alive just off the line pulling 1.7 60' times and 7.70 in the 1/8th at 90 mph. (about a 12.08 quarter)

I tried to spend my money once, since I knew I would be building a bigger shortblock and wanted something that would allow me to grow.
Be aware of the hidden costs though... The heads have 7/16" rocker studs, which is good, but you'll have to buy new rockers. You'll need 5/16" hardened pushrods. Also, if you go for the angle plugs, you will be buying new headers too. Funny how all the "little" things can add up quick.

He'd have to buy new rockers with most any aftermarket head he buys, and the Crane Gold race 7/16" stud rockers are awesome, don't have the retainer to rocker clearance issues that ANY of the Comp's have, and are (reasonably) cheap. Of course, a new manifold would have to be purchased as well...
Another option and perhaps a better one would be the E tech 200's from Edelbrock. He can use everything he already has including the rockers and then upgrade as the budget allows. Pricing is close to the Performer RPM heads with flow numbers (advertised) of 259/204 @ .600" lift. HP potential with a well built engine (high compression, roller cam, etc) should be well into the 500 range.

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Custom Auto, your source for quality machine work, cores and new parts at competetive pricing right here in British Columbia 1-888-563-4050
A Canadian, EH? (with a 10 second street car)

Can you buy Victors with straight plugs?If my wife misses her trip south I had better have something too show for it so I probably wont look at upgrading down the road as an option and buy what I need this trip to the bank , thats if we dont go on strike in 2 weeks.Looks bad.My goal is closer to spring any how unless Edelbrock decides to have a half price sale.From what I am reading it looks like it is going to be costly to go 1 second faster .Thanks guys .

If you don't plan to step up in cubes or make any other changes then there's another vote for the E Tech 200's. Here is a great way to utilize all your current components.
Looks like the Vic Jr's are angle plug only.

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Custom Auto, your source for quality machine work, cores and new parts at competetive pricing right here in British Columbia 1-888-563-4050
A Canadian, EH? (with a 10 second street car)

Yeah you're right about the Crane golds Rust, they're great pieces. I started to order Harlan Sharps, but the speed shop owner / "racer and engine builder" told me the Cranes were the only rockers he'd never seen a failure on, I was sold... "spend money once"

Boys I was in to the shop today pricing heads and I have a couple of questions. Are these heads 23 degrees and where is this measurement taken on a head. I always thought it was where the intake bolted on. Also what is the difference between the heads when it comes to roller vs non roller.Can I purchase either the Victor jr. or the etechs that will accomidate both applications. thanks again from the great white north in Canada

Chevy"s standard angle is 23*. I'm not exactly sure how this is measured, but relates to intake runners and combustion chambers. The 15* & 18* get real exotic requiring special intakes, valve train and headers. Their advantage is a straighter shot for the air/fuel mixture without the restriction of the bend in the runners. (This is one advantage FURD has) This is all very pricey and not worthwhile unless you run extremely high RPMs, or just have a lot of money and want bragging rights.

Regarding the difference between roller and non, on the assembled heads, the only difference is valve spring pressures.
The heads I have are PN 77589, which are 64cc chambers. They have 140 lbs of spring pressure seated for flat tappet cams or hyd. rollers.
PN 77599, also 64cc chambers, have 200 lbs of seat pressure for solid rollers.

Since I presently use a hydraulic flat tappet cam, I bought the 77589 heads. If I change to a solid roller, I would want the specified springs for that cam, and those pressures can vary greatly between a "mild" street solid roller with .less than .600 lift and the race rollers with .600-650 lift. When you look at the price of a roller set-up ($ 1000.00 +/-) a couple hundred bucks more for different springs isn't going to matter. Incidently, both have 1.550 diameter springs, so there is a wide variety of springs available that will work without modifications.

Not real certain about the E-Tecs, other than their max lift is .575 and spring diameter is 1.460.
(can't find my Edelbrock catalog right now.. my wife probably hid it)

This is how I understand it - the 23 degree angle means 23 degrees from the centerline of the intake valve measured from the perpendicular. The less this angle, the more the valve 'stands up', and the straighter the line the air-fuel mixture has at the back of the intake valve. The more the valve stands up, the higher the intake port runner needs to become, hence the term '15-degree raised runner' heads, from AFR, as an example.

Catmann - my car used to have a 355 with 13:1 CR and the Vic heads under the previous owner. It went a 10.77/128 on a small shot of nitrous with a fried exhaust valve. The problem was that on the street, the engine just did not come on strong like it did at the track. In fact I would almost classify it as a dog. At the track, it was another matter, but for a car that sees any amount of realistic street driving, I would not recommend you use these heads on a 350 ci street/strip engine.

To make the best use of these heads you need a huge cam, compression and RPM, if you are using a 355 cube engine. This will greatly limit the bottom and low-midrange torque output of the engine.

In fact, I would not use any of the parts you have currently with the Vortec heads combo, if you decide to go with the Victor Jr. heads. The airflow in these heads is upstairs, right around solid-roller cam and .600+" lift territory. These heads are really competition heads for racing, esp. on a small cube motor. Therefore, your entire combo will need to be completely swapped out, from the cam, to CR, to converter and rear gears. Otherwise, you'll end up with a combo that greatly falls short of its potential, and really wont be a lot of fun on the street to say the least.

I would take Rust's suggestion and opt for a better street head like an E-Tec 200, but personally, I would keep the Vortecs with some bowl work on the exhausts, and run a plate nitrous system. That way you are out a minimal amount of coin, still have a very street-friendly combo, but yet can run in the 11s on spray, maybe quicker. The Pro Racing Series Cheap Street class has an unported cast head and engine claimer rule, and the quickest and fastest cars are currently running Vortecs with no porting, 2.02/1.60 valves. The nitrous jet is also limited, and yet these guys are running in the high 9's. Some of the other heads they can select from are the E-Tecs and the RPM heads, yet the quicker guys run the Vortecs. Bear in mind, the cam is also limited on lift, to .485". This is where the Vortecs shine. Something to think about.

If I may say so, before getting enamoured of the 'glamour parts', think about your entire combination, starting at the back of the car and moving forward. Your current combo looks really solid; I would build on that. I can't tell you how many guys I've seen over the years put bigger heads, cam and so on in their cars over the winter, only to be sorely disappointed at the performance at the track in the spring. I've seen guys rant and rave and throw fits because they actually lost a tenth or two - sometimes more - over a previously great-working combo, just because they put in a bigger cam which did not work right with everything else.

In any case, maybe a better idea here is to outline what it is you want to do with the car for next year, and we can help by reverse-engineering for parts selection. After you've been through the school of hard knocks, you tend to learn some expensive lessons in what not to use.

http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/cool.gif

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'Silver Bullet' 1977 Z-28 413" SB
11.73 @ 115.10 and dropping...
Old Vortec combo:
12.15 @ 110.52
1989 GTA L98
Daily driver