Camel hump cylinder heads (casting numbers 186, 187, 291, 292, 461, 461X, 462, and 492, among others); also called double hump heads, fuelie heads, etc. etc. were a good cylinder head in their day, but that day is long past. Compared to today's castings (even OEM Vortec heads) the old fuelie heads simply do not offer good performance for your racing dollar. Even the smallest-runner RHS Pro Action heads will outflow them by a wide margin -even if you spend a big chunk of your hard-earned money having the fuelie heads professionally ported.

If you factor in a halfway decent porting job backed with documented flow bench numbers from a reputable shop, you are probably looking at close to (if not higher than) the price of a new set of unported RHS aluminum cylinder heads -with nowhere near the horsepower gain and no weight savings to show for it. As this disparity in performance and value goes for many factory cylinder heads (especially some of the legendary" older castings) when compared to a new set of RHS heads, it is wise to think twice before spending a lot of money to resurrect an old set of factory castings.

Performance issues aside, most older factory castings stand a very good chance of having multiple flaws associated with years of hard use and indifferent maintenance -cracks, eroded valve seats, valve guides that are worn into the surrounding casting material, and deck faces that may require irreparable material removal in order to achieve a proper head gasket seal are all potential problems that may mean anything from additional rebuild costs to scrapping the head entirely due to excessive damage.