cleaning new heads

[akart]

Hello,Bought some new Summit 72cc iron heads they were on sale. What should I do prior to installing? Thinking of just blowing them out w/air. I hate vortec heads.

[SunSoaked]

Gotta ask; what's your issue with Vortec heads?

[Mattchu60]

I put these same heads on my sbc 2 years ago - nice heads. pretty similar design to the vortec chamber if I remember right, but does not have the funny bolt pattern.

[akart]

Originally Posted by SunSoaked

Gotta ask; what's your issue with Vortec heads?

GM only made them for a short time.That tells me something. They are prone to cracking.They are prone to cracking. They can't take much valve lift. You have to buy another manifold and those lame valve covers w/the bolts in the center. Valves are smaller. CC too high for pump gas w/my pistons. And all you Vortec fans seem to want to ram them down everyone else's throat and make your mistake. A lot of better heads out there for my money. Like the Summit 72cc iron heads.

[SunSoaked]

You sound angry? I guess I would be too if someone were ramming something down my throat. I just asked a question. I don't recall claiming to be a
"Vortec fan"?

[xrcr]

spray them down with lacquer thinner and blow them out.

[Mattchu60]

I would note - the vortecs were only run for 4-5 years because the SBC was retired at that point for the new LS based vortec re-design - not because it was a poor design. I believe all the new higher end GM SBC crate engines use the vortec heads currently. I wouldn't run them down.

If I hadn't use the summit heads on my build (same ones you have) I would have used vortec heads. i just didnt want to deal with getting a different intake setup.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by akart

GM only made them for a short time.That tells me something. They are prone to cracking.They are prone to cracking. They can't take much valve lift. You have to buy another manifold and those lame valve covers w/the bolts in the center. Valves are smaller. CC too high for pump gas w/my pistons. And all you Vortec fans seem to want to ram them down everyone else's throat and make your mistake. A lot of better heads out there for my money. Like the Summit 72cc iron heads.

Lift issue can be fixed with a hand drill at home and a single tool. Valves are as big as any came from GM without being a hi-performance option, and they flow more then the old big valve heads anyways so that's a mute point. Pump gas is boring

We wouldn't be having this convo except for the whole "I hate vortecs" at the end. Its like those old math problems in school where they test you by telling you way too much info that doesn't matter. But since its there, fair game right? lol.

[LT7A]

There's good info here once the misplaced emotions are dispensed with. I follow Gregski's Restoring Rusty thread pretty closely and I think he went through multiple Vortec heads, all of which ended up being cracked. Granted he lives in the heat cauldron of Sacramento, but still. They also were used though, and if someone was to buy new ones and keep the engine from getting close to overheating maybe they'd be fine? I'll be looking into these Summit heads. I would be very happy to run a reasonably priced set that had Vortec's advantages and used old school bolt pattern and intake.