put together your own or buy built?

So with the wife's approval of the truck's heart transplant happening sooner than later thanks to it's thirst for coolant and oil..... I've come across bare aluminum heads with 200cc intakes and 64cc chambers cut for 2.02/1.60 valves for just over $300. Sure, I'm certain these are Chinesium and I'm OK with that. Summit has valves, studs, springs and retainers for another ~$250. I know the valves will need to be lapped in, but that (I am under the impression, never done it myself as an adult*) is all I'd need to make a complete set of 200cc aluminum SBC heads for about $550. The cheapest assembled heads (without studs, so still another $20-40) are $630-ish.

What am I missing?

* First engine I was ever a part of rebuilding was a Farmall Super-C. I was 11 or 12 (43 now) and I think we put new valves in after having the seats cut and hand lapped them in. That was 30 years ago, they were cast iron and the engine spun to 1800rpm so different world.

Watching this for personal reasons.

If the bare heads need any type of machining done, say for the studs or reaming the guides for example, then you are most likely at a push financially, plus the extra time it will take.

If I were buying assembled heads, I would disassemble them, clean, inspect, measure and reassemble as well.

In reply to SaltyDog :

these appear to have the studs pre-threaded. this is what I found

Can you live with BRO-SPEED brand heads?  I’m not sure I could.

Patrick said:

Can you live with BRO-SPEED brand heads?  I’m not sure I could.

Thats the beauty of cheap chev heads. The valve cover gaskets will leak enough oil that nobody will be able to read the brand stamps anyway.

Well done setups are available built and blessed on oem 243 or ls3 heas for ~1300 shipped off Ebay via Thompson Motorsports.  There are tons of nice ls3 stockers that folks have pulled off that will do the same thing and have sodium filled large valves for ~600-800 assuming we're talking a 6.0or larger.  You'll have to swap i take and throttle body ro let them breath/work with the square ports but they breath soooo much better.  I forget the cfm but it was ridiculous.

It would seem like there are nicer options for the same money that don't involve much of your time?  Message me if you like and I'll share all my current hunting grounds and deals.

Do ls heads fit sbc? 

Also, it looks like the ebay ad is for a set of advertising heads. No flow numbers. Id be leary of that......

i have had some chinese small block heads weep coolant into the oil, so there is also that

Aluminum can be porous. A professional drag racer told me that he got some of the early Edelbrock heads that had that happen. 

I would think your chance of a good resolution to this would be better with a name brand. 

84fsp he’s looking at gen1 sbc heads.  

Otherwise it’s a no brainer to go with 243/799 heads 

I would think seriously about getting used heads from someone you trust. 

Patrick said:

84fsp he’s looking at gen1 sbc heads.  

Otherwise it’s a no brainer to go with 243/799 heads 

Crap - sorry.  On that note I have nothing to add other than I keep finding the gm high performance factory hp heads on craigs list ~1k.

Might be worth trying the chinesium heads if they can share flow numbers?  I'm running chinese/304/eum Maximizer headers ad they had great reviews and flow tested the same as the 1200 kooks for half the price....

Some of the chinesium heads do provide flow numbers (or are sold assembled and flow tested, sometimes with light porting by machine shops). 

FWIW, I read a thread a couple few years ago, about a guy building an SBC and used Chinesium eBay heads. It took a bit of work, to get pushrods to clear, valves lapped in without runout, etc. 

They may have gotten better, by now...

I’m trying to do a budget build but be reliable. Not looking for crazy power because the truck is a hoot with all of about 150whp now. I see jegs has a pair of 185cc heads without studs and guides for about $650. 

Hell id take a pair of aluminum L98 heads if anyone had a set. But those have gotten to be unobtainium the last couple years.

and yes, I know I can get fantastic numbers from vortec heads. I just want to lose 40 or so pounds off the nose and love the look of bare aluminum on a black block. 

For the money you are talking I have seen complete running motors from the junk yard. Would that be a better way to go and then sell the short block or save for another project?  

What I've read about the cheap Chinese heads is that they are hit and miss. One set will be fine, the next may be porous, or machining problems, or whatever. Basically no quality control. If you get a bad set my guess is there won't be any returning them. I probably wouldn't mess with them personally. I would either do vortecs or hit the swap meets for a used set of quality brand aluminum heads.

The cheap aluminum heads seem to have a hit or miss reputation, but a lot of the cheap iron heads are better liked FWIW. 

I wonder, would it make more sense in terms of $$$ vs power to just stick a stock LS in there instead of building a Gen 1?

dean1484 said:

For the money ythis ou are talking I have seen complete running motors from the junk yard. Would that be a better way to go and then sell the short block or save for another project?  

This IS the project. I’m not going to find a 350 hp motor in a junkyard. Besides I like building them. 

In reply to rslifkin :

Sure it probably makes sense to do a stock ls motor but that doesn’t fit my vision of this truck. 

For what procomps cost to fix and make “workable”, you are in deep enough for a brand name head. Spend the money, jmo. While heavy, don’t discount the cast iron versions.

OK, since some have mentioned that a lot don't share flow numbers, what about these:

looks good.....

In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :

I read through the entire description on that eBay link. Those heads look like a good buy. 

Skip White is well known.  Though some of the cheap Chinese stuff is affiliated with him.  -Probably- good stuff, but you never know.

Having built up a skookum 350 in my '77, I'd recommend considering a stock (but maybe used, or merely re-ringed) 5.3 or 6.0LS.  You'll get more power on less gas with less leaks than the old stuff.  It's what I should have done, but I already had the ball rolling.  My '61 will have an LS - I learned.