Thread: newbie says hi and has a problem

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hi to all . i picked up a 89 1500 short bd. witha tired 5.7. after tearing the motor down ive found out both heads are cracked in the exhaust valve seat and port areas. ive gotten annother set of earlier model heads from a buddy but they are not the late style center bolt cover ones. so to keep my tbi set up ive got to modify the 4 middle intake man. bolt holes (which are at a different angle than the outer ones) so the manifold will bolt to the early heads. it looks like it can be done but i dont know if i can do it right. has anyone tried this before?

hi welcome to CHR and there should be somone around here to help you soon or should be

I am answering because few others have so far. Drilling the new holes at an angle is probably possible but tricky. You could try it and if you ruin the manifold you might try to purchase an afermarket manifold for the early heads?????? Usually this problem occurs when later heads are put on an early engine and in that case Edelbrock makes a manifold for the late heads on the early block, but you are doing it the other way. Frankly I do not know if the early manifold will fit with the early heads on the later block, but before you drill maybe you should check out some aftermarket manifolds that might solve the problem. On the other hand, if you mess up the present manifold you will have to find another somewhere. Another suggestion might be just to buy new heads because they are less expensive than aftermarket heads. The Vortec heads are supposed to be very good and not very expensive so why go back to earlier heads except in extreme economic limitations? In my experience you can make a few telephone calls to manufacturere of manifolds and if you allow for them giving 80% correct information you can figure out the solution with a few phone calls; Edelbrock will answer e-mail questions.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

thnaks guys i guess i might look into the vortecs.