Use Existing Heads or Buy New ones?

[masospaghetti]

Just wanted to give everyone an update and close this thread off.

Long story short I ended up reusing my existing heads and had some local machine shop rebuild them. They might or might not have done a good job on it since I now have an oil consumption problem it seems.

However, the heads I bought from King weren't good at all. They sent me a total of 6 heads. The last two weren't damaged HOWEVER the heads didnt fit at all! The dowel pin holes were way TOOOOOOOOOOO small to fit onto my engine. I asked my local Ford techs about whether or not these engines came with a variety of dowel pins and they didnt now. Thus I came to the conclusion that the cylinder heads were cast/machined wrong. Just a tip to anyone redoing their cylinder heads, DO NOT BUY new ones if your old ones look fine. Just reuse them because if you buy new ones they DO NOT FIT!!!! If you guys have any questions let me know I will be happy to answer them!

I am in the process of installing new heads from Promaxx (previously Alabama Cylinder Head - I think?) due to a head crack. So far everything fits like it should but I haven't started it up yet.

 

[weasel318]

Did your heads drop right in? The heads I got refused to go into the dowel pins. I used my calipers to check the clearance, lo and behold, the dowel pins were larger in diameter than the dowel pin hole on the heads. Mine were from King but they ship from the manufacturer which was Alabama Cylinder heads as well. Might be they got a new batch from China with better machining LOL. I tried 4 different heads and each head I tried on both sides of my engine and it didn't fit. Ruined two of my graphite headgaskets I got for it since the heads wont sit onto the block and rocked back and forth.


OH also forgot to tell you guys, with the new heads INSPECT the valve stem seals. I got 1 head that had a valve stem seal that was not seated properly at all. there was a 1/8 inch gap on it straight from Alabama cylinder heads. Just a heads up! If installed into the truck it will definitely burn motor oil.

 

[weasel318]

Here are some of the defects on the heads I received. The valve spring one if you look into it you can see the valve stem seal not seated properly.

 

[masospaghetti]

Did your heads drop right in? The heads I got refused to go into the dowel pins. I used my calipers to check the clearance, lo and behold, the dowel pins were larger in diameter than the dowel pin hole on the heads. Mine were from King but they ship from the manufacturer which was Alabama Cylinder heads as well. Might be they got a new batch from China with better machining LOL. I tried 4 different heads and each head I tried on both sides of my engine and it didn't fit. Ruined two of my graphite headgaskets I got for it since the heads wont sit onto the block and rocked back and forth.


OH also forgot to tell you guys, with the new heads INSPECT the valve stem seals. I got 1 head that had a valve stem seal that was not seated properly at all. there was a 1/8 inch gap on it straight from Alabama cylinder heads. Just a heads up! If installed into the truck it will definitely burn motor oil.

Yes they dropped right in and the dowel pins were the correct size. I asked Promaxx if they manufactured these in-house and of course they don't (and as you said, almost certainly come from China).

I wish I had inspected my heads more carefully before installing them after seeing your pictures!