Vortec intake runners

[BOOT]

On the other hand I was planing on a stock cam for my donor just-send-it build but now that I have these cams and since I found out that the crate set of vortec heads aren't ideal either. Talked myself into it, don't need m-shop quality(well expected but not always my experience) I'll buy the tool Why Not! Thx for the suggestion/reminder Monza355

[1980RS]

Why waste your money on ebay china heads. I have a set of bone stock 906 Vortec heads that are on a 406 that run mid 11's @114 mph. Waste of money when a production head will get the job done.

That's your opinion and mine is I don't want to machine a set of vortecs for screw in studs atm, plus I got the other stuff to complete these bare heads. Vortec heads are decent and I will be using a set for another project. Also these heads were cheaper and quicker than getting a m-shop to redo other sets I have.

Sure is my opinion, I still have pressed in studs on the Vortec's and unless you are going to spin them to 7500 or run a ton of valve spring you don't need screw in studs. As a matter of fact in the early days I never used the screw in studs and never had one pull out. As for the China head being a good head I cannot say as I have not used any but some of my friends have and their cars did not do well with them. I know if there cheap aluminum heads were so good everyone would be using them but that's not the case. After running Vortec's a few races I would put them up against a lot of the out of the box cheapo heads any day. Hope they work out for you.

[BOOT]

Sure is my opinion, I still have pressed in studs on the Vortec's and unless you are going to spin them to 7500 or run a ton of valve spring you don't need screw in studs. As a matter of fact in the early days I never used the screw in studs and never had one pull out. As for the China head being a good head I cannot say as I have not used any but some of my friends have and their cars did not do well with them. I know if there cheap aluminum heads were so good everyone would be using them but that's not the case. After running Vortec's a few races I would put them up against a lot of the out of the box cheapo heads any day. Hope they work out for you.

I've had studs pull at 6000rpm with a similar cam n springs that I'll be using on the vortecs, I'd rather fix it now then get stranded, tow n tear it down later. The design of the china heads is good and I'm not going all radical or expect them to last like a brand name head(check out AFR enforcers or Blueprint heads). No offense to your friends but I see alot of people who have good parts and bad combos or don't know how to make things work. It also depends what your trying to do n what parts will help you do that, in this case vortec are not ideal for my goals. Still I'm far from an expert and only bolting them on will tell.

[rebelyell]

FYI, verbatim/ GM Powertrain's service manual for both L30(M) & L31(R) Vortecs
Oil Pressure – Minimum at Normal Operating Temperature
6 psig at 1,000 RPM
18 psig at 2,000 RPM
24 psig at 4,000 RPM
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FWIW, aside from issues you found with your ATK vortec's rods; my experience tells me those may not be vortec rods.
Those are not the oft-preferred Powder Metal rods (which have smooth beams and smooth cap bottoms).

Typical L31 PM rod

[BOOT]

I got another set with the vortec runners and compared them to the other sets

https://youtu.be/tC3OxGlOrjM

[1980RS]

After running high 10's with a mild ported set of Vortec's this month I am really happy with them for being a production head. Let us know if the new heads have the raised runner port.