madmike1157 Im still dead set on an LS motor, buuut a 460 with what they describe as "old school cobra jet heads" and a bunch of other parts just listed locally for $1500 obo. If I could get a casting number off the heads, might it be worth considering?
The goal of the project was go fast for cheap and LS/turbo seemed to be the way to go, but after reading your article, well... its a solid case.
ALSO - need opinions -
This car is a beater. The floor pans have been cut out for whatever reason and replaced with some "regler ol" sheet metal and the welds are absolutely awful. Is it justifiable to cut the garbage out and order the floorpans from LRS for $229 and make it look presentable even though its a track beater? Does this push into a safety/structural integrity concern?
If its gonna happen, it needs to happen now before I can proceed with anything else....
My opinion:
Fix the floors. I thought you were buying a new welder anyway.
460- I assume "Old school" means cast iron. You cannot mistake 429CJ heads,......the intake port is the size of a tennis ball.
The rocker studs are 7/16, and screw in. The casting numbers can be sourced online, but a CJ head ends in D00e. Intake port volume is something like 300 cc. The exhaust port on these heads SUCK. ( The exhaust port on all cast iron 429 heads SUCK) You have to remove a bunch of ugly bumps and the factory smog air injector bosses to get them remotely capable of flowing enough air to offset the air the intake ports move in. Additionally, if somebody got happy w/ the die grinder, the wall thickness is so thin you can easily break through into the over generous intake port. The engine in my story had the smaller passenger car heads on it ( Cleveland sized valves 2.19 I, 1.71 E) as opposed to the 2.25 I, 1.76 E valves in the CJ head.
I had both sets on that engine in my story, and I could not tell you if the bigger head made a difference ( because I also stroked the combo up to 496 that next year after I blew up the engine in the story.)
I do know this: I beat the snot outta that combo. The kind of abuse that comes from someone that doesn't know WTF they were doing kind of abuse, and doing it anyway. ( 37 degrees timing, (two) 175 hp plate n2o systems stacked on a dual plane intake, 93 octane gas, stock rods, stock crank, 2 bolt caps, HUGE 4.360" bore heavy assed pistons, and 7000 RPM) If ever there was a combo that shoulda blew up it was this thing, but it didn't.
It was the MOST fun I've ever had w/ a drag car, because what was at stake pretty much amounted to about $$800.00 if I blew a rod out of it. A bonafide old school junker that was capable of 6.40's all summer long that I could drive on the street. W/ a better intake, a better nitrous system, (fogger) better gas (100 octane) timing retard, and a great solid roller, that same combo could've ran a high 5.
** Foot note---- if the heads are infact true unmolested CJ iron castings,..you could probably sell those things alone for what you would pay for the entire engine,......(evidently, true cast iron 429 CJ/SCJ heads may be pretty rare for the dude trying to restore one.