BUILD THREAD JRP's '87 Regal Thread

[joesregalproject]

Got over to the machine shop this morning to drop off the balancer and got an update. Both sets of heads have been baked and cleaned. The 76 heads are a little nicer than the 72 heads so those are what I'm going with. The valves are all pretty lousy, stems are scored and the ones from the 76 had rust on the faces so they are gonna get replaced. Going to go with stainless steel, swirl polished, chrome stemmed, hardened tipped valves from Liberty Performance Components. The heads are also going to get new hardened seats and spiral reamed guides. The bowls will be blended, and the valve spring seats will be machined to uniform height and spring seat locators will be installed. Obviously gonna mill the heads, probably somewhere between .010" and .030", mill the head to exhaust manifold surface to true it. Then they will get new heavier springs matched to the cam.

My timing set came in, it's a billet double roller unit with 9 way keyway from iwis. The crankshaft is done and in the mail, it should be back any day. There have been some delays on the pistons but Bob talked to Autotec and they said I should have them by the end of the month.

Edit: Also got my new rear package tray in as well as the sail panel inserts I got from Brian Suter. Still have to put the back seat back in.

 

[MrSony]

Neato. Keep in mind the chambers are tiny at 55-58 cc. Only mill whats needed. More than that .030 and you'll need shorter pushrods. If you can spare it... Why not have both heads done... If you aren't already.

 

[joesregalproject]

Neato. Keep in mind the chambers are tiny at 55-58 cc. Only mill whats needed. More than that .030 and you'll need shorter pushrods. If you can spare it... Why not have both heads done... If you aren't already.

I'm only gonna mill what is needed to true the surface. I really have no reason to build two sets of heads for one engine. Just out of curiosity, when is T/A supposed to come out with their aluminum heads and do you know what kind of price range they are talking for them?

 

[MrSony]

I'm only gonna mill what is needed to true the surface. I really have no reason to build two sets of heads for one engine. Just out of curiosity, when is T/A supposed to come out with their aluminum heads and do you know what kind of price range they are talking for them?

Before summee, 2500ish. Not cheap but flow better than what you can take an iron head too.

 

[joesregalproject]

Before summee, 2500ish. Not cheap but flow better than what you can take an iron head too.

What all do you get for $2500? Valves, springs, or just bare castings? Either way $2500 doesn't seem that unreasonable, especially when you consider they sell their "stage one" basically stock rebuilt heads for over $1500. I want to see if I could have Bob put my heads on a flow bench before we install them, so I'll be able to see how well they actually flow.

 

[MrSony]

What all do you get for $2500? Valves, springs, or just bare castings? Either way $2500 doesn't seem that unreasonable, especially when you consider they sell their "stage one" basically stock rebuilt heads for over $1500. Bob is going to put my heads on a flow bench before we install them, so I'll be able to see how well they actually flow.

Assembled. You can put a deposit down on them, which is half price, more or less. From what I remember, they have 1.9 and 1.6 something valves, stock rockers work but the valve placement is different so the exhaust rockers would need shimmed something like .020 to be on center, but it wouldn't affect anything TA said if you didn't since the rocker foot is wide enough to compensate.
Post up them numbers, from what I remember stock smog heads (only slightly worse than my heads, for example), peak at about .400 lift on the intake around 180cfm, exhaust around 140/50 at around the same lift.

 

[Texas82GP]

Just got caught up. Love the progress. Mr. Sony isn't the only one happy to see you went with a Buick 350. Engine build sounds awesome. Keep up the good work.

 

[MrSony]

fyi the chamber size for the new heads is the same size, so no worries about compression changes if you toss em on down the line.
edit: I guess you could use TA's .020 gasket for an extra .5 of a point if you want to be able to ping on pump gas lol.

 

[MrSony]

I thought I'd throw up some pictures I've stolen from the V8Buick Forum on the heads.
The last pic is the passenger head from my '70 SP engine when I took a peak inside. And before you ask, yes those are 350 intakes, a 350/231 timing cover, and I believe a 400/455 water pump.

 

[joesregalproject]

Just got caught up. Love the progress. Mr. Sony isn't the only one happy to see you went with a Buick 350. Engine build sounds awesome. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for following up Jared! The Buick motor isn't the cheapest route, but I don't think I would have ever been completely satisfied without one. Stay tuned and I'll keep the updates coming!

fyi the chamber size for the new heads is the same size, so no worries about compression changes if you toss em on down the line.
edit: I guess you could use TA's .020 gasket for an extra .5 of a point if you want to be able to ping on pump gas lol.

That's cool that they kept the same chamber volume so you don't have to totally recalculate your CR. I'm not sure what my final chamber volume will come down to once my heads are milled, obviously it'll depend on how much has to be taken off. I have a set of fel pro heads gaskets that I bought for this engine, but I may go with the the TA gaskets just depending on how all the math works out. IIRC, with the Autotec pistons the actual compression comes to somewhere around 9.23:1 assuming stock heads and a fel pro gasket.