305 (059) vortec heads vs L69 heads.

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Aug 14, 2011
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How much better are 059 vortec heads over stock MCSS HO 305 heads? There is a guy selling a old 1996 L30 (305) vortec motor for $100 that needs rebuilding. I am thinking about buying it just for the 059 heads to use on my current HO 305 if they are enough of an improvement over L69 heads which are supposed to be pretty good for 305s.
 
IMHO, you might see a bit of improvement, but probably not worth all the effort, plus the cost of a new intake. May not be important where you live, but the vortecs are not EGR compatible, so if needed you would have to additionally plumb exhaust from the passenger exhaust header to the intake. There is also reported a lot of issues with the Vortec heads getting cracks, so there is a risk that the heads might not be usable.
 
the combustion chamber I think is better on the vortecs but the intake is a drawback and the erg plumbing, the valve covers are also different I think, vortecs have center bolt and yours are the 4 outside bolts correct?
 
Yeah, I'd avoid them as well... being a motor in need of a rebuild, God only knows whats happened to that engine. Being that they are light castings, they are fairly prone to cracking in multiple places if they get overheated... easy to do in an overloaded truck thats beat on... more especially if it was a Dex-cool engine and not maintained; (see gummed-up cooling passages). Even if they make it by with a clean magnaflux, you'll need that Vortec intake =$$$ Another minor point is that they were designed for max efficiency with a roller cam. Not a huge deal, but worth noting. In the end, total cost makes them less of a deal and for a minimal gain.

IMHO, best bang for the buck is to have the stock heads cleaned up, cut for 1.90 intake valves, a 3 angle valve job with a backcut, and have them tapped for screw-in studs... as with any stock heads, some port matching and minor cleanup will help too. just have them magnafluxed before you put $$ into them.
Do you have the 14014416 "416" castings or 14022601 "601" castings???
Most of the L69's I've come across have the 416's, but some of the '84's have had the 601's... (haven't opened my Recaro's L69 covers to find out what she has.)

416 has 58cc chambers... the 601 has 53cc chambers and are a little beefier.
 
I don't when this issue that vortec heads are proned to cracking if overheated was started. The GM crate program for the 602 uses the cast iron vortec 062 head and we ran a 602 up to 280º a few times and up to 240º every friday or saturday nite at the oval track. We never had any problems with it and it is going into it's 6th season in someone elses race car and has nevern been opened with the exception to change the timing chain. The 602 is in lots of rac cars and if there was a problem with the vortec heads we would have heard about it. I have the 906 vortecs on my street car and I run the engine 210º and it's ran the hot a few time with no problems. Since race engines are always abused I googled "GM 602 crate problems with heads" and you can look at the results.

https://www.google.com/search?q=GM+602+ ... 2&ie=UTF-8
 
Over at Thridgen forums, Fbody guys have used the 059s heads on TBI 305s and get 300 HP, even with the stock peanut cams.

I have read vortecs aren't really prone to cracking. Just that many early vortecs were prone to having leaky intake gaskets that caused overheating and cracking.

The GM Qjet vortec intake with EGR isn't cheap, at least $300 beides running a EGR line or getting a ZZ4 PROM.

With the motor needing a rebuild, there is probably an incresed chance the heads could be bad.
 
They most certainly do crack... I assure you. I doubt that you'll find cracking a common issue in circle cars with new engines, but I'm sure if you visit a machine shop that is worth any salt, they will tell you its a crap shoot bringing them used Vortecs for machine work. Great heads, but... there is a big difference between a GM crate engine with relatively virgin cast iron and 12-18 year old engines with 100k-200k miles and hundreds of thousands of heating and cooling cycles over that timeframe. Those cycles cause the castings to eventually fatigue and crack wherever there are stress points &/or where the metal is weakest... typically along or between areas with holes or other surface imperfections... the very same reason that any good machine shop requires old heads, blocks, etc be magnafluxed before they'll put any time into them. Go look in a machine shop dumpster sometime... many don't make the cut... There is also a reason the GM Performance Parts "Bowtie" cast blocks and heads are thicker, including the GMPP "Bowtie" Vortecs.

Last Summer I helped a friend pull junkyard 12558062 vortecs for an S10 TPI 350 he is building... he had no choice but to buy the vortec tpi intake $$$, but rather than buy new GMPP Vortecs, or even new GM production Vortecs, he wanted to buy junkyard ones and have them rebuilt because he thought he could save a few hundred. In the end, he mighta saved $150 or so, and burned up 2 Saturdays... it took 2 K1500's and a Suburban to get what we believed to be 2 "good" vortecs. The 1st truck had very visible cracks in both heads, one had a very nasty crack between the valves and into the water passage above #6 cyl, with antifreeze and rust in it. The other side had a crack that led under the exhaust valve. The second truck had only one head and it seemed decent. We pulled the first head off the Burb and found what we both believed to be a crack in the corner of the exhaust port of what was above #8 cyl position (rear), it wasnt easy to see, but you could see a faint line that did sure look like a crack. The second head seemed fine. He dropped them off at the machinist on Monday and was called later that day because they found 2 cracks in one head when they magnafluxed it....probably about 30-odd bucks wasted between hot tanking and the magnaflux ... The next Saturday we brought the bad one back to the yard for an exchange. Took another Burb and a G Van to find another "good" one. We started to pull one off the Burb and discovered why it was there... dropped a valve and figured we'd move on and come back if we had to. Found a Vortec 350 G Van and got the second head, was a MF to pull, but we got it out and it seemed good. IIRC it had almost 70k and was stoved-in on the side, so it probably was somewhat taken care of. Was in pretty nice condition overall besides the damage.

This is my experience with them, based on this alone, odds seem pretty good for finding used vortecs that are cracked. I'm sure thete are countless others out there with similar experiences.
 
Your examples seem to match what Crankshaft Coalition says:

Vortec heads have gotten a reputation for cracking easily. The truth is they do not crack any more than ANY modern lightweight production head, although there have been problems associated with leaking intake gaskets on Vortec engines that may have caused more than the usual number of cracked heads.

In other words, stock GM vortec intake gaskets were crap that leaked coolant and vacuum easily, causing rampant overheating. This is why many used and junkyard Vortec heads are cracked. The POs just kept driving the trucks and vans allowing them overheat over and over rather than fixing them with improved intake gaskets. So now there are alot of cracked used Vortecs floating around.

Here are Crankshaft's tips on finding good used Vortecs which really applies to any used head or block.

When buying Vortec heads from junkyards (or any head for that matter), the chances increase that the heads will be cracked. There are ways to tip the odds in your favor, though.
To find heads from an assembled engine that have a better than average chance of being uncracked, look for:
heads from a wrecked vehicle. These stand an excellent chance of being good, as long as the other things listed here pass inspection.
engines that do not have the thermostat removed. A missing thermostat is an indication the engine was running hot.
engines that still have antifreeze in them. Engines with straight water, or without any coolant showing, may well have been losing coolant. No one replaces leaking coolant with antifreeze- they will use straight water "until I fix it". By then, it's often too late.
engines with water in the oil or oil in the water. This is a sure sign of a blown head gasket or cracked casting, either of which can lead to overheating and cracked heads.
vehicles that have antifreeze receipts or antifreeze or water jugs laying around inside the vehicle. That's another sure sign there was a problem with the cooling system.
Look for heads having a spark plug (or spark plugs from adjacent cylinders) with no unusually colored deposits- or a lack of deposits that were removed by coolant getting into the chamber(s). Head gaskets leaking or a cracked casting that lets coolant into the combustion chamber will make the plugs look a lot different than a normal plug- look for uniformity.
Look for engines that do not have evidence of stop leak in the radiator/cooling system. If it has stop leak, it was leaking. If it was leaking there's too big of a chance it overheated and cracked the heads.
Signs of stop leak use is a sludgy or copper/silver colored metallic accumulation inside the radiator fill neck, the same thing under the radiator cap, and possibly even in the overflow tank.

If you think about it, what is the most common reason to junk a car or truck with an undamaged body? Major drivetrain problems.

They also say never buy used Vortecs sight unseen from online, always check them in person before exchanging cash.
 
Like I said I have 906 vortecs that I bought used and no problems.....but I am looking to switch them out for 12464298 aluminum heads to take a bit of weight off and a bit more performance
 
Well I do know 350 vortecs have higher velocity than other factory Chevy heads. While the 059s are not quite as good, do they also have better velocity over other factory 305 heads?
 
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