Need some opinions and questions answered about some aluminum heads? New,thanks

[c.j.souders]

Hey guys, I'm new to this site and full of questions and looking for some good helpful answers from some of my new friends in the older chevy trucks world. Gotta say I may be 20 and I drive something older then me but I jus can't get enough of it. Not a big fan of the new styles but there nice. But I'd rather stick with my old school Dailey drivers. Anyways I have a 383 I'm eying ready to drop in my new truck and wanted to upgrade my cylinder heads. I have the stock 194 heads with the swirl ports but I grinded that out for better glow and polished them a little. But I wanted to add some aluminum heads to it. Last night I jus went and picked up some transam tpi heads that are aluminum from a 93-97 350 motor and was wondering what you guys think I could be getting hp wise??? Right now the motor is set up with a scat 383 1pc crane , 5.7 rods , 3.750 flat top pistons , 194 stock cast heads ported and polished , hi rise aluminum intake , roller cam out of a vortec 350 and some roller rocker arms. Wanted aluminum for a little less weight on motor and to see what kind of hp I could add with them. What do you guys think?

[mike357]

Do some research on those heads.
The 93-97 Trans ams had the LT1 and not TPI. The earlier TPI heads will work, The LT1 heads will not work without a LOT of work. Like some welding and drilling. IF I remember right, you'll end up with water in the lifter galley if they are not welded right. Then you have to do some drilling to get the water to go thru the intake.

Like I said do some research. I'm fairly certain it is not a bolt on and go type of deal.

[Captkaos]

None of the water passages will line up.  You are better off with Vortec heads.  Aluminum sheds weight depending on the source more flow, but it's biggest advantage is it allows for more compression.  Bolting them on a stock motor isn't going to yeild alot of results in my opinion.

[Irish_Alley]

when you build a engine you want all the parts to complement each other. like said look at how much you wana spend what you want to do with it and go from there. if you have a budget we can help you build a engine but we need to know what your working with

[LeftysRodandCustom]

LT1s also were designed to run a reverse flow water pump. Run the vortec heads. Theyll be fine with the cam you are running now but keep in mind a factory vortec head will only support up to .475" of lift before spring bind. If you want any more than that you'll need to have the spring seats cut for larger springs, any shop worth its salt will know exactly what you want there. The vortec is hands down the best factory casting that GM ever made for the SBC flow and combustion chamber wise. And that is including several versions of the "bowtie" gm performance head in an as cast over the counter condition.(though if ported by a good head man they will stomp all over a vortec)