Heads revisited

[Robyn]

As most of you know I am in the middle of a rebuild on the DaHoooley

Was gonna do a lot but the $$$$$$$$$ issue caused a change in plans.

Yesterday I started getting the heads clean and ready to go back on.
New seals and such.

Valves and seats looked almost new. No signs of the usual pounding in of the seats etc.

Well it did not take long to find a crack that went onto the fire deck from an exhaust seat (Middle cyl and not an end one)

OK, Game over, gonna have to get heads no matter what.

Just got off the phone with clearwater cyl head.

They are now very up front about the fact that the castings come from China.

OK fine, we all had that figured out anyway.

$300 per head now and a 5 year warranty.

$650 for a set to my door.

Damn, that is an exceptional price for a set of heads that the seller is willing to stand behind for 5 years and unlimited miles.

Makes me feel fairly good about these heads even more than before.

CCH sells these heads on Ebay all the time.

Just a thought if your in need of heads.

These are complete and ready to bolt on.

They do not sell bare heads ( I asked) :(

Robyn

[john8662]

One of the biggest problems I've seen lately with the copy heads is that the precups are not made of the same (or better) material as the GM heads were. If it were me, and I couldn't find GM heads (which I can new) I'd take the copy head and knock out the machined precups and buy a new set of Diamond Cups and machine the heads to accept them (the dept could be too shallow, there is a jig to fix that).

J

[Robyn]

I would be reluctant to mess with the heads as they come.
The warranty used to be 3 years and unlimited mileage.
Now its 5 years and unlimited miles.


The stock precups crack badly when used hard. Mine are junk as they are all cracked clean out to the fire rings.

These heads have no more than about 80K if that on them.

I will use the heads as they come, unless I can see a really good reason not too.

The Burb has 40K now on a set and runs fine.

I saw a set of these heads recently that came from a friends wrecked pickup.

They were installed in 2005 and have approx 90K miles now. The heads look perfect.

They pulled the engine apart to scroungs pieces. The truck was hit hard on one side and something hit the block and cracked the water jacket in the center soft plug area.


Best

Robyn

[oldmechanic]

sure wish you could use 6.2's i have 5 new ones i sure need to move
OM

[Robyn]

They will fit as long as the proper injectors and lines are used.

Missy

[JohnC]

I've hadsome direct dealings with Chinese manufacturing. Left to their own devices, they completely ignore the concept of quality control. If it makes it through the manufacturing process intact, it's good enough to ship. The key is having competent people to ride herd in them an make sure the quailty control is kept up to snuff. If that is looked after, they are capable of producing just about anything you'd want.

[Robyn]

Clearwater imports the castings to their Florida facility.
They stockpile used heads and the parts that come with them.

The heads are machined at the Florida shop and the used valves springs etc are cleaned refinished and then assembled into the new castings.

The precups are installed here as well.

The foundary is only doing the casting and not the entire process.

This does keep things to a much higher standard me thinks.

Robyn