I believe you can only tell with the heads off the motor by valve size.
I believe you can only tell with the heads off the motor by valve size.
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Stage 2 heads are wildly different from the other heads and are header only, no exhaust manifold will fit them. the dogleg in the exh port is milled off so the gases have a straight shot out. Stage 2's were only available over the counter or dealer installed, so there are very few of the old factory castings in the wild. they are probably outnumbered by TA's Stage 2 aluminum heads.
as Bob says, between standard and Stage 1 heads you have to look at the valves.
http://www.buickperformance.com/455hdcompare.htm
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The stage I heads used normal castings for the year of the engine. As they already said, the heads must be off of the engine to tell the difference. The Stage I heads had heavier valve springs.[I believe they had a green stripe on them] On the GS motors, they had swirl polished stainless valves, and on the B,C, and E cars, they were the same size, but not stainless or polished. Just for information, the Stage I cars had a different carb # and one of it's features was the secondary fuel pullover ports were under the secondary air valve and all others were above the plate, giving a little quicker fuel feed for the Stage I. It's that tiny hole above the secondary air valve, or just below. When junkyarding, a quick way to tell the larger Quadrajet carb used on the Buick [and some others] from the smaller version, is th put a penny in the top of the primary side and actuate the throttle. If the penny falls through, it'd the big one. [Don't try it on a running engine, as it makes a lot of noise. Trivia of age.
Doug
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