97firechicken

i am thinking about getting some ported heads, and i wanted to see which made more, i think the LT4, but they are hard to get some for a decent price. any ideas folks?

Mikael

The LT4 has more potential. Remember, you have to use the LT4 intake mani.

94F1Z28

The LT4 will have the most potental,but there are some head porters getting some great numbers out of the LT1 heads.I think GTP is based in texas and i have read about their heads and they cost alot but they have great flow numbers.

WS6T3RROR

well this is a tough question. you talked about price already. and that would be where i made my decision. the lt4 will make more power without a doubt when properly ported compared to an lt1 casting. but you not only have to buy lt4 heads since that likely isnt what you already have. then the manifold. i'll just round and say you can get ahold of everything you need for around a thousand or 1200. just a guess since i'm not up on lt4 parts costs. then you have to add in port work we'll just throw out $800 for port work so now you have 2k in the heads. for the same money maybe only slightly more. i would buy some heads from afr 195's or 210's(depends on if you plan to stroke or not). the 195 lt4 heads flow in the 260 range untouched. if you add port work to that later on or when you rebuild or something then you would (dont quote me on this but its what i remember) have much more potential than even the lt4 heads because afr leaves a lot of meat in the heads for porting. and you wont be out for new valves because they already come with 2.02 1.60 valves, and the ones i've seen had a pretty nice valve job as well.

once again this is all JMHO. good luck with whatever you decide but if it was me i would stick with lt1 castings unless i wanted something really scary, and if that was the case i wouldnt piddle around with any 23* heads.

97firechicken

yea i was going to get the manifold ported also, but im just trying to see what is the best deal, cause i have done some looking and shopping around and i cant find the LT4 heads that often. But i probably will stick with the LT1's and get them ported. I have tossed around the idea of AFR's, but i would rather buy some stock ones and then get them ported cause the price range is dramatically different.

anyone know how much AFR's cost?

And let me know if im off track, but when i do go for head porting i am going to tell them the cam i have and try to do a match, that way i will make things work better together.

WS6T3RROR

afr's are around 1700-1800 complete not the best deal but it all depends on what you plan on doing witht he car if its just going to be for street fun just stick with the stockers and have them ported. if you're going to do something a bit more wild like a moderate stoker down the road the afr's may be the way to go. but you may want to drive some cars with serious power before you get into doing something wild. not everyone was meant to drive a 500hp car some people dont know how to handle it. 400rwhp on a stock short block through ported stock heads sounds good to me. bang for the buck wise.

you're going about the cam thing a little backwards you match the i/e of the heads to that of the cam and the lift of the cam to where the heads flow the best. at least thats how i do it and then after all that i decide what the actual duration numbers need to be and the ivc so i get the best usable power all across the rpms.

best advice i ever got when i was learning engines from my dad and uncle. was to be honest with myself what can i actually afford to do and what do i want the car to do. a car that runs 10's is a nice dream. but if you drive it every day you might not need/want to deal with that kind of power output. i'm sorry thats off track but you seem to just be considering a combo and a route to take as to how you make power in the future. i'm just trying to give a shove in the right direction.

ported lt1's will do fine for most people and for the money if you need more power just use dope.

97firechicken

First i appreicate any advice, so keep it coming.

You are right i am looking for future use also. But what i think i am going to is buy some stock ones get them ported then when i build a race motor i will get bigger equipment, cause im like you im not a rich person, hehe i work 2 jobs also.

rskrause

If you already have a set of LT1 heads, it sure isn't worth it to get a set of LT4 castings. In any case, if $$$ are tight, go with the LT1.

Rich Krause

AlexBarabas

I'm sorta new to this area of F-bodies... are the LT4 head castings more efficient than the LT1?

97firechicken

From what i can know the intake and ehhaust ports are bigger.

And thanks for the advice guys. I will probably go with the LT1 stock ported heads. Next question once i get them ported who should i get to put bigger valves and do the rest of the head work?

WS6T3RROR

if its my dollar i want the guy doing my porting to do my valve job too. you dont really need bigger valves unless you want to get every last bit out of the heads. since you said money is tight you might want to give lloyd (nightrain66) a call. he is one of the best when it comes to quality per dollar and he's very honest i talk to him regularly. if you use stock valves i'm not positive but i think you can get 260 cfm if you go up to bigger valves you can get mid to high 280's but usually that comes at the expense of low and mid lift cfm which is where the power is anyhow.

also you said something about cams earlier, and i dont know if you have one already if you do thats ok but theres no point in giving up mid lift for cfm @ .600 lift if your cam never gets there. most of the time a guy that does heads can pick out a relatively good cam for you. on the other hand its good to get input from several people talk to professionals like bret (sstrokerace) he has a few different ideas on things than what other people do. the other thing is if your short block is still realy strong and has good compression still. i would maybe think about having the heads milled some and using impala gaskets. if you raise the compression you'll be able to live with a bigger cam and have a smoother idle all at the same time, but when doing that cam selection is critical. sorry if it seems like i'm getting way off track here but theres a lot of consideration that needs to go to the engine as a system not as assembled parts. just trying to give you some ideas since it seems like you're in the planning stage.

97firechicken

yea i have been talking to him and getting some ideas, but what is different abotu the impala gaskets? And one of my main concerns is making sure that these mods that i do wont blow my enigne up or cause major problems.

JeffK

Here is a good story for you...
I recently purchased a set of used LT1 heads off of Ebay to port and polish. I was told they came off a Corvette. Once I got them and did a little research, I found out they were actually LT4 heads. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased and can't wait to get those on. I would have been perfectly pleased to port and polish a good set of LT1's, but I will be very interested to see how the LT4's do.

97firechicken

thats cool, i wish i would have a little luck like that. I think you would be pleased with them.

AlexBarabas

Why would it matter if you get LT4 or LT1 heads? If you're going to port everything and rebuild them anyway, wouldn't it be better just to go with the cheaper option?