Pontiac cyl head work.

[67rstbkt]

wow... this is so interesting. As a SBC guy, I wouldn't think twice about ordering a pre-balanced kit... they're so cheap, why wouldn't you. lol

The rotating assembly is more than I paid for the whole car :lol: ! A roller valvetrain retrofit costs more for a Poncho than a SBC rotating assembly! I sure do miss those small block prices! I guess that's the cost of trying to be different huh?

Yea, you and me both. I thought about going with SBC (LSX), but there was just something about keeping the car Poncho powered. I think I'm going to go the stealth route and make my engine look stock and paint the manifold and heads to match.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I kicked around the 6.0 LSX too for awhile. I wanted to stay old school so I went with the 455. Maybe one day I'll do an LS swap in something else.

I'm in the same boat as you. I kept figuring exactly what I wanted to do but the whole thing changes once you get down and dirty.

If I can get at least 400hp out of this engine I'll be happy. For the cost of forged replacement rods ($275), I figure it's cheap insurance. By the time you have the stock rods checked for straightness, resized, magged, and add ARP bolts you'll probably break close to even anyway.

The pistons are the kicker! $425+ seems to be the starting point for forged. Cast really isn't much cheaper in the $300 range.

My cylinder head guy claims to have a wholesale hook-up on prices so I'll get with him before I start spending money on anything.

 

[67rstbkt]

I kicked around the 6.0 LSX too for awhile. I wanted to stay old school so I went with the 455. Maybe one day I'll do an LS swap in something else.

I'm in the same boat as you. I kept figuring exactly what I wanted to do but the whole thing changes once you get down and dirty.

If I can get at least 400hp out of this engine I'll be happy. For the cost of forged replacement rods ($275), I figure it's cheap insurance. By the time you have the stock rods checked for straightness, resized, magged, and add ARP bolts you'll probably break close to even anyway.

The pistons are the kicker! $425+ seems to be the starting point for forged. Cast really isn't much cheaper in the $300 range.

My cylinder head guy claims to have a wholesale hook-up on prices so I'll get with him before I start spending money on anything.

Something tells me that 400hp will not be an issue. These motors in stock form were under rated back in the late 60's and early 70's. My motor decoded to a 70 GTO, 360 hp. With the right heads and compression, should be a piece of cake.

 

[olds307 and 403]

Try Olds, we have two cylinder heads available. The Kaufman racing D port heads look nice and fit "regular car" headers. I wouldn't spend much on cast iron junk heads. The heads on the LS engine are a major part why it puts out big HP numbers. The after market heads for Olds and Pontiac have modern or at least improved chambers and flow much better while saving weight. You can always add good heads later.

 

[79GP6.6L]

wow... this is so interesting. As a SBC guy, I wouldn't think twice about ordering a pre-balanced kit... they're so cheap, why wouldn't you. lol

Yea, Pontiac is a whole different world. Much less available all around. I think the aluminum head choices out there are limited to maybe 3 or 4 companies. The cheapest that I know of are Edelbrocks at $2000

I think the Pontiac aftermarket is pretty impressive, considering the fact that the engines have been out of production for over three decades.

As far as heads go, I'm running #46's that I scored on ebay for $20. They were covered in grease and grime and the seller only knew what kind of car they came off of. I degreased them, stripped them bare, did some basic clean up work to the ports, and had my machinist do the rest, including some more extensive port work. I think I put a total of $600 into the heads, which was well under the price of Pontiac aluminum heads. To me, it was worth it.

$450 sounds like a good deal to me.