Head upgrade question

[sauldgold]

Hi everyone,

I've been looking all over the net till my eyes are blurry, and I need some advice.

I have a '98 tahoe daily driver, 5.7L about 110K, recent tune up -- plugs, wires, rotor, new spider. I'm subject to CA smog regs.

My cylinder heads are cracked, so since I have to replace them, I'm looking into upgrading to an aftermarket pair.

I've been reading about chevy performance, dart, edelbrock -- all supposedly have better flow rate than stock. I spoke to the guys at enginequest, and they claim that their heads are a 25 horsepower bolt on, but what do I know?

So my questions:

1. Are any of these heads worth the extra $, or would I be better off just getting stock replacements?

2. If they are worth it, please advise which to consider, which to avoid, best bang for the buck, etc.

Oh and for what its worth, I will be installing headers when the replacement heads go on.

 

[ezdaar]

heads and cam is what gets the air in and out of the engine.

Get the best you can afford.
Keep compression and port flow rate in your head.

Match the port flow rate at various lifts to the to the cams max lift.
To big on either and you get a mis-matched system and don't gain as much and possibly losses at various RPM ranges.

Go here and post up this same question with a HP/TQ goal and a budget.
Remember no matter what you do, you will require tuning and possibly fuel and converter mods, as well as exhaust.

Its a snowball that never stops.

 

[sauldgold]

i posted there. I'm not going to change the cam, I'm just trying to zero in on some heads