How do these heads look to you guys?
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...2/photo1-3.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...2/DSC_0311.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...photo2-1-1.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...2/photo4-2.jpg

 

It's hard to say by pics. The head says 4.8 what is the actually casting #?

 

person told me 862 by gtp but i dont know
http://m737.photobucket.com/profile/lilpb1mr2
heres the rest of the pics
LS1 - GTP Stage 2.5 Ported 862 'Truck" heads
Comp Cam dual valve spring kit .650 lift
upgraded Manley valves. 2.02 int. 1.57 ex.
milled to 59 cc chamber

 

First pic looks like a CNC port of the intake runner

Bowls look untouched or lightly smoothed

Exhaust port looks to be done by hand. Maybe it was CNC'd and smoothed over (roughly). A machine definitely didnt do the finishing touches to it

If the heads are a good deal Id buy them unless theres a glaring issue. I wouldnt count on them having the original flow numbers anymore though

 

well hes asking $275 for them he said they where cnc but that they tried getting rid of all the marks

 

don't have high expectations. i had a set of stage 2 patriot 5.3 heads a few years ago that made less power than my out of the box 243's. the patriots looked good, but they just didnt work.

 

So it would be best to just save another $200 and find some 243 heads

 

after going through what i did, yes i would buy a nice set of unmolested 243's. thats actually what i did... lol

 

243's or 799 heads.

 

Preferably 243's..put some good springs,do a clean up pass with a mill,bolt on and go.799 heads can be found easier/cheaper..Id suggest the same but they are abit rougher due to casting process than 243's from what Ive seen side by side.Nothing a quick port/polish cant fix and you got some decent heads to work with.

Diggler Im surprised about your patriots..they look to be a good head?Do you think it underperformed for your dollar..or just design of the 5.3 heads having valve shrouding..or so Ive heard? Tech is hard to gauge fact from fiction lol

 

Personally, I would pass

 

my heads were some of the earlier patriots, and its possible they could have worked on their cnc program over the years... but they were at least 20rwhp down compared to a stock set of 243 heads.
the guy that had those patriots before me made the same exact power my car did up to the peak where his aftermarket intake went a little higher and made another 7hp or something like that. our graphs overlaid each other almost perfectly.

 

Companies advertize CNC porting but not all CNC machining is the state of the art. There are grades of CNC machines. I don't know if the link will come up on page two which where I think the info that relates to this thread is.

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Arti...es.aspx?page=2

 

Diggler.Hand and fist fit from the kind of valve job that was done to the cam profile matters in porting.Key point here is to have the cam grinder aware of what was done to the heads in detail.
It is not that I am defending Patriot because they have been black listed in our shop after proven poor QC in my mid western friend's distribution business with a huge lot of cracked heads which they wouldn't give him credit for.

 

Could it also be the casting process of the heads?Im always skeptical of an aftermarket head thats cnc'd..supposed to flow killer numbers like a ported afr..for half the price or what it would have cost to buy stock heads and have them built up. Then to hear horror stories such as making less power..intake leaks or head gasket leaks..broken spring seats etc and no warranty at the end because you must have been "abusing" the product beyond their specs for it to break.

 

Nope.The ones they wouldn't take back where virgins. 2000 pc order with about a 1/3 of them sold in the field before he found the problems and he needed to cover their replacement with more expensive brand name. Lack of a better term it sucked.

 

one thing is that the patriot LS heads are cast overseas.
next is the cnc program they used on the heads. consider how much time nascar/f1/etc teams spend in the wind tunnel, and then think about that same situation going on inside each of the ports of the heads. it takes alot of time to develop a good cnc program for a given cylinder head. you could write a program that would simply go in there and make a stock port look cnc'd while just barely increasing the port size. you could also cut a port that will be turbulent or wont flow very well, and still look nice and cnc'd.
a faster cnc program might make rougher cuts, and this will show as larger steps in the ports. may or may not make a huge difference on overall flow numbers, but finer steps would be better than coarse steps.
valve job and bowl area is extremely important to a good head as well. everything has to be right.
a great cam won't fix a crappy set of heads.

 

Diggler where did you find out about the Patriot LS heads being cast over seas? First ive ever heard of it.... Maybe this is recent?

Patriots BBC heads? Yeah im pretty sure they are over seas

But factory LS head castings through GM were cheap as hell for years. Even 243's could be had for the longest time for 250-300pr assembled if you knew where to look. I dont see the reason Patriot would cast their own...

 

http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/sh...hlight=patriot

they were once a hot topic back when i bought mine.
i bought the patriots used for somewhere around $1k assembled, and i bought my 243's new for $700 assembled.

reason for using chinese cast heads would be getting them for the same price or cheaper than good used cores, much better availability (at the time), and they would come in clean and ready to toss in the cnc machine. used cores would need heavy cleaning and possibly blasting before they were clean enough to put in the cnc.

 

Where can i find a deal for some 243 heads?

 

Interesting Diggler thanks. I had always thought they were simply new GM castings. For instance when the Vortec cyl head came out for the sbc I could have bought as many pairs as I wanted for $100pr. Most of the local machine and perf shops gobbled them up of course. I figured it was very similar with Patriot but I guess i figured wrong. Not that i care really they do make good stuff

SickRs you just got keep your eyes peeled and search around. Im not sure whats going for what right now im presently only playing with LS3 head stuff and those can be had again very cost effective around $250 ea assembled with LS6 yellow springs and hollow valves

 

That is great prices. Look around ls1tech or where?
Since im new to the lsx world just bought a car from a member on here.

 

Yeah keep your eye out over at tech. Check out the sponsors they have deals from time to time. Scoggin Dickey, Patriot Performance, or Texas Speed usually have decent prices all the time