79 cutlass drag car

[old80cs]

Only thing I’d recommend is a good set of aftermarket push rods. Way back when my friend bought a crate LS7 454 and we pretzeled a bunch of pushrods in his mud bog truck. That engine hammered right out of the crate and was even better after he reworked it with porting, roller cam w/ rev kit, Victor 454R intake and a Predator carb. Good times...

 

[bracketchev1221]

Glad to see it’s moving forward. Make sure to degree the cam in and don’t forget to check your piston to valve clearance.

 

[Genoapb]

Glad to see it’s moving forward. Make sure to degree the cam in and don’t forget to check your piston to valve clearance.

Definitely and I will ask the builder what push rods. Project is snowballing quickly! Decided to sell the stock iron heads and go with a set of aluminum ones.

 

[bracketchev1221]

Definitely and I will ask the builder what push rods. Project is snowballing quickly! Decided to sell the stock iron heads and go with a set of aluminum ones.

Generally I would go with .080 wall chromoly pushrods. But you’re going to have to check for length.

 

[Genoapb]

Generally I would go with .080 wall chromoly pushrods. But you’re going to have to check for length.

Yeah, after he setup my heads for the springs. He wanted to check for pushrod length. Which is kinda how this started spiraling and snowballing. I figure why put all this time and money into the stock iron castings if I can shed 100lbs and make more power with aluminum and hopefully even recoup some of the money by selling the stockers?

 

[bracketchev1221]

Yeah, after he setup my heads for the springs. He wanted to check for pushrod length. Which is kinda how this started spiraling and snowballing. I figure why put all this time and money into the stock iron castings if I can shed 100lbs and make more power with aluminum and hopefully even recoup some of the money by selling the stockers?

Yes, the aluminum heads are generally 75 lbs lighter than steel. And you are right, if your steel heads NEED work it can start adding up. But with that being said, if budget is an issue, I would not be afraid to use the stock heads. We had stock steel heads on my dads 427 in the mid 80's and did go a best of 10.12 with them. So they can support decent power. Granted we did go faster with a set of AirFLow Research prepped GM aluminum d-port heads.

 

[Genoapb]

Set the big single plane on but decided to pull the trigger on aluminum heads. Waiting on assembly. Going to be slow going at this rate.

 

[bracketchev1221]

Slow is be

Set the big single plane on but decided to pull the trigger on aluminum heads. Waiting on assembly. Going to be slow going at this rate.

Slow is better than not at all.

 

[Genoapb]

Slow is be


Slow is better than not at all.

True! Local buider got the heads done in a hurry, picking them up tomorrow and am stoked to start assembling what I hope will be 600hp beast! I also verified for sure I've got the forged goods in the bottom end!

 

[Genoapb]

My awesome wife picked up the heads for me. Now I'm just waiting on the pushrod length checker tool and degree wheel and bigger oil pan. So I can check everything and start assembly!