HELP WITH BBC HEADS.. I AM JUST LOST NOW
Hey guys I am confusing myself...LOL Myself and son built and installed a 540 in his 83 Camaro. After the custom 1700.00 headers didn't allow for ground clearance we ended up having another set made. 2" primairys and 3" slip on merge collectors. This is a street car but we take it to the track about 3 times a month with 3.5"slip on collectors. Anyway I am wondering about the heads. I used the 088 heads on it with 2.300 intakes and it seems to run extremely well on the street. But at the track it seems to lack luster above 5800 RPM. I have already changed jets, timing, collectors, checked install height and seat pressures of the valve springs. I even took the intake off and gasket matched it. It picked up 4 MPH. So I am assumeing the heads need a lil something to work properly. The thing is I can not put aftermarket heads on it now because they all seem to have a .400-.700 raised exhaust ports. I don't have that kind of header/frame/floor clearance. Plus they don't seem to offer anything with the OEM style exhaust port configuration {rect}. After working on this motor and making 100% sure the fuel, air, valve timing total timing, gearing, trans, everything you can imagine are correct and it runs extremely well at lower RPM I am thinking it can't breath at the higher RPM's. I have checked everything more than 1-2 times. It does NOT miss, backfire, hesitate, or flatten out above 5,800 it just doesn't pull the way it should. Any of you guys have any advice? What would be a better head for it keeping in the OEM configuration that I already have ? 1700 bucks for another set of headers, to fit a new set of heads is just out of my resources. Am I correct in thinking that I should just take the heads off and have them ported leaving the exhaust as close to OEM as possible ? I am thinking it is a flow issue and you don't have to make the ports bigger to have it flow better. Is there someone out there making a head that flows better than the 088 but has the NON raised exhaust ports ? In advance I want to thank anyone for thier opinon and or advise !
Ed