Thread: Best head casting #?

So I'm in talks with a guy that's going to get some cylinder heads and port and polish them for my 02 grand Prix n/a. But we're stuck on what casting number would be best to get because I guess from what he says some crack easier than others.

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Just the luck of the draw here, some people go through 3-4 sets of heads before they find ones without cracks.

But the thing is, I bet more than half of the 3800 heads out there on just normal everyday cars have cracked heads.

The cracks show up between the intake and exhaust valve, its a weak spot there, its such a small crack that you wouldnt even know its there and seems to never harm anything.

So what would you say just get whatever the guy can find that fits and have the guy inspect them before porting and polishing?

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You'll have to have him magnaflux the heads to find the small cracks.

I was just under the impression that I needed head that fit and then he brought up the idea of the casting number but are the small cracks really that big of a deal when you port and polish heads because I'm not anywhere near him he's in Michigan and I'm in New Hampshire.. I thought you just needed head that fit and had no issues from the previous car and then you start to work.

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Well you do need to find either some L36 or L26 heads, those are the only 2 that can work.

If the car they came off of ran fine, then yeah go ahead and start to do the work on them. If the heads he finds are kinda iffy, it would be wise to have a machine shop check the heads and do tests on them to make sure they arent bad.