Since this would be the second time returning them, you might be best served getting your money back and going a different route.

 

Some of the casting flaws don't look like issues. A few could be problematic. Mike PM the details on those heads please.

 

Id like to know who they are aswell. I've been looking at purchasing a set of heads, supposed to be new castings. If thay aren't, i'll take my business elswhere. PM me who sold you these if you could.

 

You could probably go through his posts and figure it out. He said in one of his post. "I took a chance a purchased a set of heads on Black Friday". He listed the link. And if that's the vendor he purchased them from, I agree, you wouldn't think they would be used...

 

I figured it out.

From what I see, there's absolutely no mention of them being used or new castings. At the price, I'd assume used.

Either way, it's just a few of the gouges I wouldn't be happy with. I'm willing to bet they step up and make it right though. That's good folks over there.

 

I don't see anything that would be problematic, except maybe that photo of the spark plug hole, but I doubt it. It all looks cosmetic to me and most it you'd never even see when they're bolted on.

It is common practice for companies to buy "blems" at a discount, and usually the flaws are no worse than cosmetic issues like this. The functionality of the part is not affected, it's just not as pretty.

 

nothing in the pics you provided will have any effect on performance, and most castings that go though any porting cnc or by had get little nicks and gouges here and there.
I don't know the experience level of others giving advice on this thread, but I've been building stuff for 24 years, I've seen castings that are flawless (not that often) and I've seen well worse than this from all the biggest names in the business.

so to directly answer your question of "is this damage typical", yes. like others have said it's 1k to just have your own cores ported. they will be fine.

 

As I said above, you paid $1100 including the casting. truly good careful quality work can easily be $1000 for just the labor and in that case you get something with CNC'd chambers and fully deburred all gasket surfaces freshly milled. You chose to save a buck and for a company to save a buck to pass that savings along this is what happens. They accept less than perfect cores and expect the people handing the parts to do so quickly moreso than carefully.

 

I think i figured out who it is. I guess to be sure, i'll stay away from vendors offering "new" castings. Guess i'll have to source a set of 243/799 heads and have TEA do them.

 

This is what I say too. You can try all day but even straight from the foundry they may not be perfect. 99.99% of people would never notice those blemishes on their car so the structural integrity is the only issue at hand. Whose to say what blems they had even when they were brand new?

 

A set of heads I recently received from AFR are the picture of perfection.

I'm pretty sure the OP is gonna be able to have this straightened out with the vendor.

He'll update the this thread on Monday.

I admire Mike's patience and being an adult in the matter. There are plenty of people that would lose it over things like this.

 

So, who is the vendor ?

 

I think it's best if the vendor remains un-named, for now.

Let's give them a chance to make good on these heads. I wouldn't want anybody jumping to conclusions about an otherwise good vendor and often helpful forums participant and contributor.

When this wraps, they'll be reveiled. Until then, if anybody knows, don't post it.

 

So why is the vendor an issue when this can happen to any of them? Not that anything "happened".....

I mirror the feelings of KCS, nxfirebird and 01SSreda4. Whose to say these werent there from the start? And in order to pass along a savings in a very competitive market to those who arent going to cough up the coin for "perfection", this is a bi-product of what you should expect.

There's no obvious issues related to integrity or performance, so what's the problem? I spent "X" and my money is special, therefore I deserve "Y"? Seems like a petty issue, IMO...

 

I don't think its a matter of perfection, but the standard of acceptability. The spark plug hole defect is off the scale, I wouldn't want it at any price. I see casting defects in the pictures he doesn't mention, heads could leak coolant etc.

 

The chamber damage by the sparkplug looks bad but realistically if it is deburred isn't going to hurt anything. If you disagree exactly what problem do you think it will cause?

Far as leaking which pic do you see those casting flaws in?

I wouldn't buy this product before seeing these pics so I am not trying to defend some choice I have made, I am just saying that most of this comes down to harsh handling likely before the vendor machined them and a good deburring will take care of this stuff and make it functional.

 

you could prob have someone weld in the missing chunks by the head bolts and the rest could be fairly easily smoothed out, BUT...

You will never sell those heads when you are done with them, thereby reducing their value significantly.

Lucky it was only $1100

edit: Btw, I don't like the way that retainer is lined up on the valve spring. I would pull that off and check the spring diameter against the ID of the retainer. It might be off

 

I looked up the listing and it sounds like stock LS6 springs which I can't see being useful with ported heads anyway. Aftermarket cam that is most likely to be used in conjunction needs more spring.

 

The company he got these heads from I would think that they would use new castings.dont no how good the port work is but this is a company that sells a lot of Oem parts

 

New OEM castings in good shape are going to cost likely over $500 wholesale leaving not much for the CNC work. For $1100 if the castings were new they were blems which can be fine depending on what the blem was. Like the one head, the chamber gouge likely was the blem.