Hey everyone, after a long day yesterday I finally got the motor apart and the heads off. The oil was white with water in the rocker area but I think it's just from condensation (visibly forming on rockers) dip stick is pristine as was coolant in passages, after lots of cranking for compression check.
Low compression on most cylinders, from 50 to 131.. stuck valve = 0 psi obviously, but at least I know what the deal is now! That piston has a slight mark but seems to be okay.
So, that leaves me with these gross heads - they're majorly rusted underneath and I think the valves aren't seating correctly at all which is causing the crappy compression numbers. The cooling passages are ~30% blocked with crud, and.. well.. they certainly look all of 2 decades old.
Should I just trash these and get a set of Edelbrock Performer RPM Marine heads? ...or should I get these redone, and buy a cam kit with new timing chain, new lifters, and buy a nice set of rockers and pushrods. The casting number seems to indicate these were the vortec heads actually.. so I probably won't see TOO much of a gain in flow, which means I might be better off spending the money on nice valvetrain components and a nice cam.
Does anyone know what cam or compression these 454s ran back in 1993 when Donzi replaces the Ford 460s w/ these? Details are sketchy to say the least. I'm trying to figure out what mods I can do and what kind of power it will give me - she came with a Torker II intake manifold, Holley 800 CFM, and SMI headers already (plus MSD blaster ignition). If it was running correctly before with a stock rating of 360hp (I think that's what it was) then I should easily near 400 with those mods.. hopefully rebuilt heads, nice valvetrain, and a cam can get me a nice bump in power as well.