"Stealth" Edelbrock Heads
In order to get a "factory" look from Edelbrock heads, they require a little more work than the steel units. The physical shape of the casting is somewhat different than a Pontiac head, but you can fool 99% of the non-Pontiac people with a few simple mods. The fact that the Edelbrocks do not use freeze plugs at the ends of the head like Pontiac used, and the fact that Edelbrocks use 45 degree spark plug openings, will prevent you from ever being able to make a carbon copy of a Pontiac head, but you can get pretty close. Start by grinding the Edelbrock logo off the middle exhaust ports with a Dremel Tool (or equivalent). This will take some time because the logo casting is very thick. Do not leave a ridge, and obviously do not grind below the level of the surrounding area. The ends of the heads are shiny aluminum, and have the Edelbrock logo ENGRAVED into the head, so grinding off the logo here simply won't work. The solution here is to do the same as we did to the "Stealth Pontiac Heads" described previously. Take the forked end of a hammer, and gently tap it repeatedly into the ends of the head. This will put tiny little hash marks in the aluminum. Rotate the hammer occasionally so all the hash marks are not in the same direction. It will take hundreds of little "taps" to eliminate the Edelbrock engraving, but it really only takes about a half hour per head. No sense doing the back side of the head that faces the firewall (no one sees that anyway), so you can leave that end alone. As for the rest of the head, same technique. Gently tap on the outside of the exhaust ports with the forked end of a hammer. Don't forget the area under the valve cover rail, and the areas in and around the spark plugs openings. When finished, paint the heads. Painting aluminum heads does NOT change the heat dissipation qualities significantly. At best, the head temperature may be raised 1 or 2 degrees. Once the paint is applied (you can apply it a little thicker on the ends), it will look very close to factory Pontiac head. Same technique (JB Weld) can be used for applying casting numbers (see the previous "Stealth Pontiac Heads" for more info). On cruise nights, be prepared for some head scratching the next time you pop your hood...... |
