There's more than 1 current/former engine builders here on this forum. I happened across this video which scared the crap out of me.

I am/was? planning on buying a set of fully assembled AFR210 competition ported heads with the higher spring tension for a 383 roller engine build with the XFI292 cam. So this video has me thinking, since this is my first engine build.

The guy comments on several manufacturers other than AFR. Anyone have comments on pre-assembled AFR cylinder heads?

 

Good to know.

 

I bought my Dart 360 race heads used. Massive amount of porting was done to them but they needed everything else replaced. The porting is so extensive that head bolt sleeves pass through intake ports.

I took them to a local retired engine builder. With the large 1.300" intake valves, to reduce weight, the best way is with titanium valves. That adds a minimum of $800. I opted for a 5/16" stem stainless intake valve with round lock keepers. Doesn't reduce the weight as much as titanium but it's noticeable to the larger stem valves. Exhaust valves were standard diameter but smaller stem than OEM. All the seats needed to be reground and all the guides needed to be replaced which wasn't a big deal since I was going with smaller stem valves anyway. We knew what length of valves I was going to need and he ground all the seats to the same depth so that the valve train geometry would be the same.

I installed and set up my own springs to the install height that I wanted. Spring locators, shims, titanium retainers, 10* locks etc, etc etc.

My heads sitting on the table without the $1500 shaft rockers installed have a replacement value of around $5000 for the pair.

You do get what you pay for but to be honest about the manufacturers, not every set of assembled heads will be that bad. If they had that much crap leaving the factory, they would never be able to stay in business. Then again, those are Patriot heads. Not exactly high up on the quality scale to begin with. Every manufacturer has different level of heads. The higher the price, the better the quality usually is.

If you think these aftermarket fully assembled heads look bad, you really don't want to know how bad an OEM replacement head can be.

 

Always good to inspect parts before you use them. But with AFR, most i have seen are good to go out the box. Do a good visual inspection. Could even pop valves out to inspect seats but they should be good to go

 

Unfortunately since our hobby is just that, a "hobby" i.e. a bunch of playtoys, it's EXTREMELY price sensitive in most cases. Most "hobbyists" will deliberately seek out the ABSOLUTE BOTTOM DOLLAR choice they can, for any given part that has the word they are looking for printed on the box. They don't seem to care what comes out of the box until it's too late. So of course the mfrs, especially the ones with less moral fibre, do everything within their power to minimize their cost, so as to also minimize the price they can charge w/o putting themselves out of business.

It's not just heads... almost any complex part, and sometimes even some real simple ones, needs a bit of extra finishing that it didn't get on the production line, before it's REALLY ready to use.