[DieselSJ]

Originally Posted by '63GENIII

Those heads can't get much past 4,500 rpm. That is likely the reason the boat guys pull them.

The D shaped exhausts are nice but the ski jump in the intake port kills the flow and you will find water if you try and make it go away. The heads with a good cam will allow torque to come on like a freight train til that 4,100 - 4,500 but not much after. The non adjustable rockers are kinda lame too.

I think that there are plenty of better heads out there that would out do the big block version of the vortec heads. Don't get me wrong, they're decent heads but think that if I didn't have a set to begin with, Id have run something else.

That said, they work real well IMO for towing. If I was to spend more time bouncing it off the rev limiter, Id try and find some good large ovals, a set of squares or maybe some AM heads.

I read your L29 build thread a few times when I was looking at doing the head swap onto my 87 block. Do you remember the duration of your cam? I saw the lobe center post but didn't see the duration. Clay Smith came to the same conclusion about not needing a split duration with those heads. Mine is 214/214 at .050 and about .510 lift. Just curious as to how close he was to the Straub recommendation. I'm running stock TBI on a factory adapter on a Weiand intake. Been considering swapping to the Vortec intake (have it laying in the garage) and later ECU.