In this day and age of absolute crappy lifters on the market I would not even recommend any FTH lifter options.1980Ttops wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:45 am Thank you for the info. Looking at them I thought 3/8's holes would leave it way thin, hadn't thought of using 5/16. Hate a leaking header. I'll bolt manifolds to them, grind a point on manifold bolt and use it as a punch to mark them. That should center them as close as possible before I put them in the drill press. So the 7k3 heads, which of my cams would work best? The ram air 4 041, the bracket master 292, the xe 284? The street master 295 may be higher in the rpm range than I want. If there's a better choice, I'm all ears, I'd rather have it right the 1st time. I'll buy another HFT, roller for pontiac is quite pricey
There is a nation wide shortage of good quality cam cores and lifters to even go that route.
Now for a HR kit I have used some Howard's cams Pontiac 4-7 swap HR cams in the last year and had very good luck and good power results.
They are an 8620 steel cam used in conjunction with a polymer distributor gear from Butler perf.
Both were 455 builds for mild street use averaged about 520 HP 450Tq. not bad for a smoother running street engine with a TH-400 trans stock 2000 stall converter.
REM-FLEX header gaskets are the only way to go on Pontiac engines.
They never burn out and will seal the ugliest header flanges ever made. With your header fastener issue they will be a better option then any copper/aluminum or paper gaskets on the market.