LT1 Heads on an SBC

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Covy Slayer

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jun 27, 2009
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Im currently converting some LT1 heads to vortec and i'm gonna bolt them on to my chevy 355 roller motor. I was just wondering if the 1.52 roller rockers off of the sbc heads would bolt right on to the LT1 heads and if not what would I have to do to make them work?
 
can i ask why? the LT1's are good flowing head, but the vortecs are even better and cheaper.
edit: i'm assuming that you are putting LT1 (gen2 motor) heads onto a gen1 block
 
I'm going to assume when you say LT1, you mean that you have heads of an early 70's LT1 and not a gen 2 92-97 LT1. If its a newer LT1 and you are trying to put vortec heads on it, you're in for some trouble due to the reverse cooling. If you are wanting to replace the old style LT1's heads with the vortec heads than your ok. If i'm uderstanding this right, you want to take the roller rockers of our old lt1 heads and put them on your new vortec heads, right? Do you have guideplates on your old heads? Vortec heads use a self aligning rocker instead of guideplates, so if you want to put your non self-aligning roller rockers on your vortec heads you will need to have them drilled and tapped for screw in rocker studs so that you can put guideplates on also.
 
Need more info. '92-'96 LT1 heads won't work on a conventional Gen I SBC. Early '70s LT-1 heads will. You can use the 1.52 rockers on either head. Typically roller cam applications use self aligning rockers or guide plates.
 
I have a gen 1 small block and i aquired some lt1 heads. lt1 heads and vortec heads flow the same exept for the reverse flow cooling, but all i have to do is block two of the water ports and presto, vortec heads. Now can anyone answer my inital question, will 1.52 roller rockers from sbc heads bolt on to lt1 heads?
 
Covy Slayer said:
Now can anyone answer my inital question, will 1.52 roller rockers from sbc heads bolt on to lt1 heads?
I did.
 
What I said still holds true. If you ran guide plates(which you should be) on the heads that you were using your roller rockers on, then in order to use them on the lt1 heads you will need to install screw in studs to be able to use guide plates(assuming they don't already have them, which with GM they probably don't). One thing you should check out is the size of the rocker studs from your original heads to make sure you use the right size on your new heads.

Covy Slayer said:
I have a gen 1 small block and i aquired some lt1 heads. lt1 heads and vortec heads flow the same exept for the reverse flow cooling, but all i have to do is block two of the water ports and presto, vortec heads. Now can anyone answer my inital question, will 1.52 roller rockers from sbc heads bolt on to lt1 heads?

If you wouldn't have mentioned anything about vortec heads in your original post it would have been less confusing.
 
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