HI all,

Been doing quite a bit of research and still am uncertain on what to do. Looking for other opinions. I'd like to get between 350-400 horsepower out of this 30 over 402 or 408. I currently have a set of 6272292 big block heads. These are oval open chambers 128(i believe) cc heads. I put a micrometer to the heads and the intake exhaust is reading around 208 and 175cc. WIth my old heads my cr was around 7.8 which is obviously low so I need a more dome topped pistons. My question is, do i change out the springs on these heads and get a higher lift cam, i have almost a stock cam(engine was out of 71 220hp wagon) and have the ports enlarged on these heads or go with new heads all together, or maybe it's even an okay option to just leave my heads alone. I'd like to keep this resto project under 2000 dollars and still have rods, pistons, steel crank etc to buy. THe only thing i currently have that I'm thinking of reusing is the heads and the block.

I also thought about going with a 454 but that would blow my budget. The 396 right now seems to be the best bet for the money since i already have the block.

In advance, thanks for your help.

You should look for a set of closed chamber heads - ready to go preferred. If you get closed chambers, you can get stock replacement pistons. If you use open chmaber heads, you will need large domes and the pston availability gets poor in a hurry. Where are you located?

THanks for your response, I'm in Iowa. It's going in a 67 chevelle.

you shouldn't have any trouble getting 350hp with decent compression and a mild cam. are you sure those heads are 128cc? i had a set of 292's a long time ago and i was pretty sure they were in the 110-113cc range. you can save some cash by not going with a steel crank. a cast crank should be fine for your application. you can use cast pistons and stock resized rods as well. do you just have the block and heads and nothing else? if so, i would strongly recommend biting the bullet and just find a 454 block to start your rebuild.