[mgarblik]

Just a little "heads up" for the Speedmaster head guys. Had a student bring in a new set of Speedmaster heads for a big block Ford last night. Took them apart to inspect. All the intake valves were very tight. Only .0005" clearance. Exhaust were pretty tight too. .001"-.0015". The valve job was just horrible, worst I have seen on Chinese aftermarket heads so far. We lapped some for a look. Intake seat was very wide, .070" and placed way down on the valve face negating about .090" of the valve diameter. The exhaust was a decent width, .055" but also extremely low on the face, all the way off the face toward the stem! Although they would bolt on and run, probably giving up 30-50 HP from the awful valve job. We are going to hone and fit the valve guides and re-cut all the valve seats to at least make a decent set of heads out of them.

So my advice is to disassemble your new Speedmaster heads and lap the valves to at least verify where they cut the seats for placement on the valves. The Pontiac set we checked a couple weeks ago were much, much better but the work may be inconsistent. Check, don't guess.

[Formulajones]

I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about the seat material when you do the valve job. I'm seeing a few others complain about the seat material being used as too hard and hard on the cutters. Some material china is using that isn't as nice or as good of quality as some of the name brand heads out there
I forget the name of it at the moment.

[steve25]

These reported problems mirror what I have found and the same with a local machine shop / engine builder I talk with..

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about the seat material when you do the valve job. I'm seeing a few others complain about the seat material being used as too hard and hard on the cutters. Some material china is using that isn't as nice or as good of quality as some of the name brand heads out there
I forget the name of it at the moment.

I will be happy to report back when we get into the valve job. It will be toward the end of January however. Class ends Wed. next week and we don't resume until January 13. Long break. Then about a week of classroom work when we resume.

[Verdoro 68]

You get what you pay for...and usually end up paying more than if you'd just ponied up for the good stuff in the first place.

I'll admit that these heads get pretty tempting during their annual sale, but then I'm reminded of these quality issues and of course the lingering issues around copying IP.

[tom s]

My machine shop is VERY picky.In checking out my SM heads he hated the valve job.As I bought them years ago and wanted to know what I was dealing with I had him pressure test them and virtually check out everything relating to the valve train.For my latest build I needed Dports so I went with the 87cc E Dports.FWIW,Tom

[P@blo]

Originally Posted by tom s

My machine shop is VERY picky.In checking out my SM heads he hated the valve job.As I bought them years ago and wanted to know what I was dealing with I had him pressure test them and virtually check out everything relating to the valve train.For my latest build I needed Dports so I went with the 87cc E Dports.FWIW,Tom

Can you provide more detail to what needed to be done? Like new seats guides ect. I assume the heads were bare and if not everything that SM used for parts were junk?

The E heads were that price for a single head and they knocked 10% off the regular price for Black Friday. I would not run an out of the box set of E heads either.

[tom s]

I bought the SM heads complete.He did not have to replace anything for the selection of cam I used.Just touch up the the valve job.My Eheads will be here today and they will go to the shop on Monday.Will see what he thinks of the Eheads.His shop did all the machine work for the late great Joe Sherman.Dont have a cam picked out yet so dont know what we will do for springs.They are set up now for HFT cam and I will run a HRC.Maybe a SP II.Tom

[scott70]

Who has a cnc program on a edelbrock D port head? Like a 290 cfm version?

[performerrpm]

Originally Posted by scott70

Who has a cnc program on a edelbrock D port head? Like a 290 cfm version?

john gaydosh has a 340 port, i dont know if he has anything less but worth checking

[Skip Fix]

FWIW the CNC versions I got a couple of years ago I check the valve springs as well as my machine shop. I thought thew valve job was a little rough but they felt it was OK tweaked the spring pressure a little more and used a locator/cup vs a bunch of shims(a and 5!) Probably go on a throw down motor.

[scott70]

Originally Posted by performerrpm

john gaydosh has a 340 port, i dont know if he has anything less but worth checking

Looks like butler offers a edelbrock 310 cfm cnc d port and a 290 cfm hand port.

[P@blo]

Thanks Tom.

Word around these parts is the offshore stuff has improved quality and the domestic QC is on the decline (and has been for years). Going the SM route might not just be about going with the cheapest option.

[performerrpm]

Originally Posted by scott70

Looks like butler offers a edelbrock 310 cfm cnc d port and a 290 cfm hand port.

i think butler has a 330 port the edelbrock d ports. i was on the femce at one time to send mi e in just for the port work. i think they charge 795...have to go to a 1.77 ex valve

[performerrpm]

Originally Posted by P@blo

Thanks Tom.

Word around these parts is the offshore stuff has improved quality and the domestic QC is on the decline (and has been for years). Going the SM route might not just be about going with the cheapest option.

i bought my 2 sets of 310 sm heads last year on black friday. the chambers are as nice as my ehead dports, Im sending both sets to randy at pontiac speed shop to set up for solid roller this coming week. he told me the casting is nice all the way through, the aluminum is of better quality than the edelbrocks, the valves are good but the springs and hardware are questionable. he also told me nobody has reported any valve seat problems as of yet. i dont regret buying mine. only thing ill do different if i need a set is buy from him set up how i want them vs sm...

[tom s]

Got my E D ports today,the out of the box intake ports were cleaner on the SM heads than the Es.I had to have D ports or i would have bought another set of SMs.Tom