Vortec Heads
- Thread starter BigRob
- Start date
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Razincayne
New Member
I was able to find some information you requested. Looks like it can be done but you will need to find a few things to make this work. I didn't look to see just how much horsepower you would gain, maybe someone will chime in that knows a little more about this. Good Luck...Hope this article helps
It would be great if all we had to do was bolt on Vortec heads, and the engine produced extra power. But, it is not that simple. Because the intake ports are much taller, a standard intake manifold will not cover the intake port inlet. When the cylinder heads were first introduced, many people thought that a standard intake manifold could be modified to work but were soon convinced that it would require extensive welding and reshaping to fit correctly. An aftermarket manifold needs to be purchased along with the heads.
Not only are the intake ports much taller, but the intake-mounting-bolts are also a different size. The traditional small-block heads use 3/8-16 course thread bolts, while the Vortec heads use 5/16-18 course thread bolts. There are also fewer bolts, with 16 on the traditional intake manifolds and only eight bolts on the Vortec intake manifolds.
The topic of increasing the performance of the TBI engine often comes up around here. We would guess it comes up often with the people at GM Performance Parts as well, because they have introduced a special aluminum TBI intake manifold (PN 12496821) that adapts the TBI fuel-injection system to the Vortec heads. The manifold has a special water passage under the plenum to keep the fuel vaporized -- remember, the Vortec heads don't have a provision for an exhaust heat crossover passage. The drawback to installing the Vortec heads and the new manifold on the TBI engine is the need to plumb exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold to the EGR valve. GM recommends using the '96 exhaust manifold (PN 12557828), EGR pipe (PN 10220275), and EGR valve (PN 17052693).
It would be great if all we had to do was bolt on Vortec heads, and the engine produced extra power. But, it is not that simple. Because the intake ports are much taller, a standard intake manifold will not cover the intake port inlet. When the cylinder heads were first introduced, many people thought that a standard intake manifold could be modified to work but were soon convinced that it would require extensive welding and reshaping to fit correctly. An aftermarket manifold needs to be purchased along with the heads.
Not only are the intake ports much taller, but the intake-mounting-bolts are also a different size. The traditional small-block heads use 3/8-16 course thread bolts, while the Vortec heads use 5/16-18 course thread bolts. There are also fewer bolts, with 16 on the traditional intake manifolds and only eight bolts on the Vortec intake manifolds.
The topic of increasing the performance of the TBI engine often comes up around here. We would guess it comes up often with the people at GM Performance Parts as well, because they have introduced a special aluminum TBI intake manifold (PN 12496821) that adapts the TBI fuel-injection system to the Vortec heads. The manifold has a special water passage under the plenum to keep the fuel vaporized -- remember, the Vortec heads don't have a provision for an exhaust heat crossover passage. The drawback to installing the Vortec heads and the new manifold on the TBI engine is the need to plumb exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold to the EGR valve. GM recommends using the '96 exhaust manifold (PN 12557828), EGR pipe (PN 10220275), and EGR valve (PN 17052693).
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