Head work

[Guest 1sweet3.4]

What I'm looking for is someone to do a 3 way valve job, port/polish and possibly mill the head. You can't mill the 3.4 heads too much but it can be done. Anyone know of a good shop to do this or anyone here on the board that does it? Also prices would help too. Thanks!! btw, this is for the whole upper end. plenum, runners, base adn heads.

[Guest 1sweet3.4]

BTW I was just parousing the local 60 degree forums and it has come to my attention that you might be able to put new aluminum 3400 heads and intakes on the old 3.4 camaro engine. Has anyone ever head of such a thing being done? Someone said that if you did that it would jack up the comp. ratio to 11-12:1. I have never heard of this until now but an all aluminum upper end sounds promising.

[Nitrousbird]

I honestly can't understand why you would want to dump money into that motor. Thousands of dollars later it MIGHT be on par w/ a bone stock LT1, that you could have swapped in for less money.

 

Throwing some nitrous on it is one thing, but paying good money for head porting and other internal motor work just isn't worth it. WWAAYYY too many other options out there (LT1/LT4/LS1/LS6 swaps, GEN-1 SBC, SB2.2, have seen BBC swaps and turbo Buick motor swaps as well).

[Guest 1sweet3.4]

because v8s are graemlins/gay.gif just kidding. on par with a bone stock lt1 tho is not that difficult. I have two friends with 4th gen lt1s and they are running 14.4 stock auto and the 6 spd with SLP loudmout runs 14.5. Besides, why join the crowd of v8s? there is nothing wrong with the 3.4, and where are u getting this obscene amount of money? As it goes, I'll have about 1200 dollars in the motor when it goes into the car. rebuilt with forged pistons. And when I go nirous it's another 4-500 dollars. that's 1700 total. I can't even get a used v8 for that, let alone the computer, tranny, rear end that it's going to need. You show me where someone has an lt1 laying around with tranny/comp adn rear end for under 2000 dollars and i might consider it. even then I won't get the gas mileage that I'm currently getting. and no one will believe that my car is a v6 when they here the distinct rumble of a v8. I have my reasons, I may be eccentric too. This is an untapped sector of camaro motorsports and I intend to tap it.

[Nitrousbird]

Originally posted by the voyeur-ager kid:

because v8s are graemlins/gay.gif just kidding. on par with a bone stock lt1 tho is not that difficult. I have two friends with 4th gen lt1s and they are running 14.4 stock auto and the 6 spd with SLP loudmout runs 14.5. Besides, why join the crowd of v8s? there is nothing wrong with the 3.4, and where are u getting this obscene amount of money? As it goes, I'll have about 1200 dollars in the motor when it goes into the car. rebuilt with forged pistons. And when I go nirous it's another 4-500 dollars. that's 1700 total. I can't even get a used v8 for that, let alone the computer, tranny, rear end that it's going to need. You show me where someone has an lt1 laying around with tranny/comp adn rear end for under 2000 dollars and i might consider it. even then I won't get the gas mileage that I'm currently getting. and no one will believe that my car is a v6 when they here the distinct rumble of a v8. I have my reasons, I may be eccentric too. This is an untapped sector of camaro motorsports and I intend to tap it.

Perhaps your friends need driving lessons. My car with nothing but the Ram-Air hood w/ airbox (just like a stock WS6), an air filter, Flowmaster catback (SLP loudmouth would definately be a better performer) I ran a 14.5 the first time EVER down the strip, and that was spinning like a mad man. Low 14's from then on. And that was at heavier than stock weight.

 

I'd love to know how you figure you'll get away with only $1200 in the motor. A decent port/polish, valve job (which means you'll probably want new valve, and valve springs to go with it) is going to cost AT LEAST $800, if not more. Hell, I have $1500 wrapped up in my heads, though they were new castings, which added a bit to the cost. And that was bought "used" (guy purchased new castings, had them ported, then ended up selling the car and never installing them).

 

Forged pistons alone are going to be around $400. There's at least $1200 right there. And then you are going w/ forged pistons but sticking w/ stock rods.....wanna know what the weak point will be in your bottom end??? Then you have gaskets, new bolts all around. And why would you waste the time/money doing headwork and leaving a stock cam in there?? You aren't going to see crap for gains w/ the stock cam. Better add a couple hundred for a cam. But then you need to reprogram the PCM. And that's assuming you still want to stick w/ the stamped steel rockers, which IMO isn't all that great of an idea. See where this is all adding up??

 

Then your N2O kit. I'm sorry, but $400 won't buy you jack, unless you go used. But that's going to end up being nothing with it. No window switch, no bottle heater, nadda.

 

Then we go to the LT1. You should be able to pick one up for around $1500 w/ PCM and no tranny. If you plan on using your stock tranny and rear end for a "worked" 3.4L w/ nitrous, then it should work for a stock LT1 as well.

 

The 3.4L is a slug, plain and simple. In the end, you can toss an assload of time/money into it for some high 13's. The weight difference is negligable. In all honesty, the cheapest way to go would be to sell the car and just buy an LT1. The next best would be to swap in an LT1....or an LS1. Because you are shooting yourself in the foot trying to go fast in that 3.4L.

 

So in the end, all this extra time/effort/money is to do what, be the fastest 3.4L?? Even the serious V6 guys don't waste their time with that, they all run the 3.8L motor, so if you want to be the fastest V6, you'd have to be in the 11's.......not exactly a task I'd want to try with that motor.

 

Sorry to be blunt, but that sure is a lot of money you will be dumping into something that was meant to be an A to B motor, not a performance motor.

[Guest 614streetsII]

The Iron head with 1.72 1.42 has a rough estimated cc of 50. The Aluminum are around 28.

The Aluminum head swap has been done before but with 3400 pistons. A 3.62 bore with stock 4 eye brow flat tops is probably past street octane when the gen heads are used.

 

The vain or bump of the intake tract on the iron heads should be left alone other than general casting flash. The vain provides a 23-27% increase in flow(iron head gm 6/60 only)

Smooth the cc chambers flash and polish , concentrate on the exhaust side.

 

You can use sbc z28 springs on the heads and delete the factory cups. SBC roker arms work on this motor , however the narrow body must be used with the larger true rollers.

 

Stay away from mantapart.

 

Also with a v6 platform stay away from v8 convesions. V6 is better on the 7.5 , handles good, and doing a v8 swap to a v6 car when a v8 is factory availble is costly , and not the right way to go about it.

 

Few links

http://www.ammperformance.com/V6Main.htm

 

http://www.schneidercams.com/shop.htm

 

http://www.lazercams.com/Chevy6_60deg80_92App.html

 

http://www.60degreev6.com/phpBB2/index.php

 

Check out the f-body v6 forums and especially tiagos camaro on stock internals his 3.4 puts out over 320 hp at the wheels.

 

I have good pictures of bob mccray heads from steve spoor if you need a guide for port work. Remember some people dont know how to correctly port v6/60 heads.

[Guest 1sweet3.4]

most helpful reply ever. Nicely done tricycle, you seem to know alot about the 3.4! I knew the difference in heads, I'm still kicking it around. The port/polish work I will prolly be doing myself, and for nitrousbird, i don't plan to be the fastest v6 camaro, i plan to be the fastest 3.4 camaro. I think tiago's prolly got one of the fastest.