1985 Grand National Heads

[cars-r-us]

I'm very new to Grand Nationals, I just bought a 85 with a rebuilt motor, but no heads, ( man could not pay for work on heads and shop sold them), car is all there, put motor parts are in boxes, anyway, I need to know if I will need turbo heads, or will any 85, 3.8 S.F.I. heads fit? motor # looks like FH442990, these are same # on cars vin! If I do need heads for a turbo motor, dose anyone know what #'s on heads I need to look for? The man I bought car from bought it in 90 and let it set outside from 95 untill I bought this year. but t-tops don't leak and inside of car looks good, only thing on body that looks bad are the doors ( rust in corners and on bottom of both). I look forward to being a part of this web site. Thanks Troy

[Keller]

First, welcome!

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/pictureguides/heads/headguide.html
http://www.gnttype.org/general/v6hist.html

No other '85 cars V6 Buick cars were injected. That is not a factor. They did all use the same heads, though. The correct "8445" heads were used for many years, and are also found on carbed V6 cars. So they are plentiful. Just inspect and check for the "bridged" water ports on the end. There are many good sources for porting and rebuilding if you are interested, too.

[cars-r-us]

Thanks, that helps me a lot, I was thinking I would have to buy a special head.

[cars-r-us]

You said look for the bridged head 8445. My block dose not have the bridge on it, It's just a slit. will the bridged head 8445 still work on my block? Please don't laugh at me , i just know they will be different! Thanks

[Keller]

Yes. The bridge just makes that area of the head less prone to flex, which reduces the chance of blowing a head gasket. Given that our cars have more pressure in the cylinders (i.e. boost), that is a good thing,