What is everyones opinon on useing 882 heads. Are they worth rebuilding or should I pony up the dough for aftermarket?

for a street motor that will rarely see the up side of 6000rpms they ere fine especially for a 350 or smaller engine..........Dan

882 Heads are extremly prone to cracking. It has dual heat riser passages and thiner walls. For a Street Machine I would not recommend them nor do any of the pro's. This was a lesson I learned the hard way myself.

Bill

Me and my friends and family have run probably a dozen pairs with no problems-----the info I have says they were used on 74-80 350-400 engines---which should have been before the thin castings of the mid to late eighties----they have 160cc intake runners and 60cc exhaust which is not too bad for a factory cast head---I'm still of the opinion that if you have them use them but I wouldn't pay a whole lot to get them if I didn't...........Dan

I've got a pair of 882's sitting on my shelf, my new Vortecs replaced them. They served me well for 4 years on my 350. I had no complaints with the power band of the combo I was using. I had those heads combined with an Weiand action plus intake, Edel. carb, headers, and an "RV" .420/.443 cam. Ran well up to about 5200RPM, then fell flat.

Sounds about right for that cam---those heads will actually flow pretty good witha cam closer to .500 lift---should go on to 6000 that way.......DAn

Thats Strange, cause everything that I've ever read tells me for performance stay away from them. One thing I did notice is that they were produced from around 1970 - 1980. In or around 1975 GM lghtened this casting. They now have thin decks prone to warpage as well as distortion and cracking problems. Repeated thermal stresses can cause valve-leakage problems as well as seat & guide wear. Add to this a inferior exaust port design and dual intake heat crossover passages. These heads were considered "Light Duty" and used on engines making 150 - 180 HP compared to the 441 Castings that were used on engines rated between 250 & 255 HP. Maybe there's 2 versions of the 882 casting heads. As for me, I'll never take a chance and use them again. Yes, I too was hard-headed and thought I could get away with rebuilding them instead of buying a set of Eldebrock or TrickFlows. How wrong I was. Its pretty bad when you've got your headers off and your turning your engine over by hand, watching the valve guides go up and down in the exhaust port.

Bill

I never replace valve guides except in aluminum heads---its costs about the same to replace the valves with .015 oversize stem valves instead andn I've had fewer problems that way----yes you do add a couple grams to the weight of the valve but I sleep better............Dan

When I was a student at the local Tech School, the Diesel Instructor had a complete engine machine shop. All it cost was the price for parts and alot of hard work. A friend of mine kept telling me those 882's were too light. In any case, IMO if your going to take the time and trouble of rebuilding a street engine or any other for that matter, you might as well use a set of decent heads. Once they're bolted on it 'll be a pain to upgrade them. The engine's ability to produce horsepower will be limited by the 882 heads. One way to determine if your engine combo will produce your desired results is to use a engine dyno program changing out different componets untill the desired outcome is achived. This will alow you to compare cams, heads, ect...

Bill