The V8 Owners Forum -

How bad are they?

Doing a engine conversion soon, but budget will be tight,

To fund the build Im selling my current engine

The original plan was full forged 347 afr heads with bells and whistles etc

But work problems means I just need to get the engine in and running on the cheap,

And then upgrade shiny bits as and when

I was thinking of using a second hand iron heads just to have it running,
but I saw these cheap and nasty ebay heads,

Now I know there not going to be amazing, but surely they will be better than a set of 2nd hand iron heads?

And can they be ported, cc'ed etc to a decent spec in the future? or are they as good as a door stop?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270986652826? ... 97.c0.m619

Thanks

Alex

Before I went for them I would get out a piece of paper and list all the bits that you would need to get them working.

Valves, rockers, springs, collets, perhaps checking trueness and the compare to a known quaantity eg edelbrock jnr probably not muchinit

Ian

Hi
190cc heads are large ish ports for a street engine, 200cc on a ford is about as big as you would go and still drive it on a mild road cam, so on that basis, with no flow numbers they are probably OK. I would suspect they are Pro comp or some other make of chinese heads, they will be a copy of someone elses design, for the money, provided the castings arn't porous then they should be fine. Very much on the plus side they are from ebay UK so if there is a problem you can deal with it without the hassels of dealing with the US.
Actually looking at the price they are a very good buy, and as I said above you have comeback if anything goes wrong.
As for the rest of the bits, go for a set of manley or similar valves off ebay, here I would go for a known brand, from what I remembered from doing my bare chevy heads they were about £120 for a set for +.25" over length ones. Springs and retainers I would either go directly to Comp cams or Iskydine and buy off their catalogue, or buy a cam replacment kit (including springs and retainers off E-bay from one of the bigger shope, fast parts, CNC motorsport, northern autoparts, one of the big boys, they do do some very good deals. You could go to Real steel and buy from there but you end up paying alot for handling. I would buy push rods from comp cams or iskydine once you have done your first assembly and know what length you want.
Rockers can either be an ebay buy or from Comp or Isky but don't go mad, as this is a budget build you won't be using a silly cam, therefor don't buy rockers because they look flash and are intended foe a drag race cam! budget roller ones will be fine.
Best regards
Mike

I might buy a pair ready for when I build the Mav 302! As they do seem cheap and knowing my luck when I go to buy them next year (or so...) they will probably be more expensive.

Hi Tom
If you do (and if I had a ford I would be tempted) get them pressure tested and checked out before you put them on the shelf, remember any warrenty will be from the date of purchase!
Best regards
Mike