Im a big fan of TSPs products, always had good luck with them.
But I think all theyre heads also have bronze guides. They say theyre compatible with stock rockers, but I have no experience with them.
I do know they are cast and machined in the US though.

 

Those don't look bad on paper, not far off from my Mamo heads and a LOT cheaper lol. No experience with TSP stuff though.

 

There are some complaints about TSP stuff out there if you search, but considering the volume of stuff they sell it's probably a much smaller percentage of overall sales than just about anyone else as far as short blocks and heads go.

 

If OP is going to rebuild the TF heads, I'd send them to Tony Mamo. His specialty is reworking the TF heads to his own recipe, for lack of better terminology.....

 

At this point might just try to sell them with the new set of rockers I have.

 

I see Texas speed has a service too for 8-900 to send in your castings to get ported re done etc. they don’t need ported just new seats and valves. Not all of them but might be better to start fresh. If I can get rid of them for 1300 I would just call it and get different heads. Not sure if that’s a crazy price to ask. If it is just gonna put them on a shelf to remind me to look better when I first receive a product lol.

 

New set from TEA is $2700 really depends on what price is for repairs.

I’m interested in those canted heads BTR is supposed to be bringing out. who knows if they will.
BTR said they should be ready first quarter of 2025.
I did run a set of TSP heads from 2014 no issues. Still have them on my old engine. Waiting for a vehicle to fall into my lap, that’s missing an engine and transmission.

 

I got quotes around 700 lowest new seats and some valves. TF said guides were ok when I talked to them. I keep looking at the prc heads

 

How do you know the seats are bad?

 

Well I’m assuming they are since the height difference. The numbers I got were just a few shops over the phone saying new seats and valves. Trickflow never sent a report just said the valves were burnt up needed new valves in a few areas. I’ll send the pics of which ones they marked

 

 

Too bad you don't have the tools to disassemble and take some measurements. You would then be able to measure the valves and determine if they're burned up and if you actually have worn out seats and excessive guide clearance. My guess is they gave a visual look at them and gave an opinion.

 

So I have good mic set and some bore gauges etc. but would I need a spring height tool all of that? I just have to get the time to disassemble then actually read up on how to take measurements myself and draw conclusions based on those measurements. I can pop all of them out and do that. So the seats could still be fine but maybe guides or the valves themselves junk you mean?

 

Well from what I've seen when ordering the Trick Flow valves the 2.00" intake valve length was 4.900" and the 1.6" exhaust valve length was 4.915 so that tells me the tops of those valves should line up or be within 0.015" of lining up. If the exhaust valves did get burned up to the point that the valve diameter was reduced then it would eventually sink further down into the valve seat which would cause the tops of the exhaust valves to sit higher then they should. You won't know any of this without pulling them apart and taking measurements.

 

And yes the valve seats could also be damaged but those can also be verified once you get the heads apart. Could be as easy as purchasing some new valves and lapping them in and you're up and running again. Won't know what you got until you get into them.

 

Tools needed are a valve spring compressor, a caliper gauge, micrometer, dial indicator and valve spring height checker tool.

 

If he has a hammer and a socket, he can disassemble those heads.

 

Yes he can but you cannot assemble them with a hammer and socket.

 

I have the tools for the heads besides a spring height checker. I see Amazon has a cheap one. I rebuilt / set of 243s well just new exhaust valves re lapped them in had the checked and they were good. I I’ll just order the spring height checker. There’s one on Amazon not sure if it sucks. The only thing I don’t have is a mic big enough for the valve heights only a good set of calipers. I’ll get some time and tear them down

 

Hi Lxjoshxl, we’re very sorry you didn’t have a better experience with your engine build, or our cylinder heads.

We put a great deal of effort into our customer service, and we want every customer to be satisfied with the quality and performance of our products. Our small CS team are racers and engine builders with many years of experience that care a great deal about the success of our customer’s builds. We asked questions and listened carefully to understand your concerns and home in on potential root causes. The issues were also forwarded to the engineering team for review and consideration. We understand that you noticed aluminum in your oil, pulled the rockers, and noticed the tip heigh difference and failing rockers (for a second time). As we attempted to discuss root causes and suggest possible areas of concern, it seemed that you were unwilling to consider that there could be a problem with the engine build or tune that could have contributed to both the rocker and cylinder head failure. In fact, we issued 3 separate call tags to have the heads returned, 2 of which were wasted.

When the heads were finally returned to us, our engineering team, quality team, and engine builder/port developer very closely inspected and measured these heads. We found multiple bent valves (5 intake/6 exhaust), worn guides (bent valves destroy guides very quickly), and extremely accelerated exhaust seat wear with the exhaust valves sucked into the head about .040”. It was apparent that the exhaust seats had softened and deformed due to extremely high EGT’s (exhaust gas temperatures).

The only times we have seen our valve seats fail in this way is when EGT’s are elevated to 1600-1700° F for extended periods of time, which is not remotely close to a normal or acceptable operating condition. We use premium quality made in the USA CHE hardened ductile iron valve seats, selected for their excellent toughness (not brittle), machinability, durability, and wear properties. The material properties also reduce the potential for float due to less valve bounce off the seat. Our seats have been dyno durability tested, as well as street and track proven to be very durable - even on severe power adder racing applications.

How did the valves get bent? Why did the rocker arms fail twice? Why were the guides worn? Why were the exhaust seats melted on an NA street car?

Like anything, there are limitless opportunities for failures to happen, but here are a few of the most likely root causes we can determine without having the engine in our shop. Cam timing issues could cause excessive exhaust heat (a cam advanced too far could open the exhaust valves too early while combustion is still occurring). This could also cause piston to valve contact and bent valves, which would in turn cause rapid guide wear, and could cause premature rocker failure – all issues present on these heads. Bent valves don’t seal well, which would further allow combustion gasses to heat and soften the seats. We strongly recommend checking for correct cam timing and piston to valve clearance. Over-rich air fuel ratios can also cause excess EGT’s for extended periods due to unburnt fuel continuing to burn in the exhaust. Delayed ignition timing could also contribute to excessive EGT’s. An inexperienced tuner may think he has a safe tune with rich (safe) AFR’s, and conservative ignition timing, while he’s torching his exhaust valves and seats gradually over 10,000 miles due to the excessive EGT’s.

Our seat and guide bore tolerances are controlled to extremely tight tolerances during initial machining, and guides are later finish sized and 100% measured and gauge pin inspected for dimensional accuracy and straightness. Our valve jobs are performed on state of the art CNC newen equipment, boasting outstanding machining finish, concentricity, and consistent valve drops. A small degree of tip height variance is OK. We allow a maximum of .010” of valve tip height out of the box, which is actually pretty tight considering the tolerance stack up of the machining processes and components (valve lengths, valve margin, and valve drops). Our valve drops are measured during our valve job process, and controlled to very tight tolerances. We also closely monitor our valve job concentricity to very tight tolerances during our valve job process. All of these steps result in very consistent valve sealing right out of the box, as well as minimize guide and seat wear, contributing to exceptional performance, durability, and longevity of our cylinder heads.

Check out this video from JAMSI (Jims Automotive Machine Shop) for an overview of how our heads are machined and assembled to see some of this machining and inspection in process, as well as their assessment of the quality of our machining:


Only after we declined your warranty claim due to improper installation and abuse did you bring up a concern about a tip height issue when new or mention the burrs. When we asked you to send your data logs for review, you declined and asked us to return your heads.

We do want to acknowledge that the burrs are an issue. We hand deburr our heads, and while they are subjected to multiple visual inspections at various stages of our process it looks like it was missed during our final inspection. It is always our goal for them to be perfectly machined, deburred, clean, washed and bolt-on ready right out of the box. And to clarify, we didn’t suggest that street driving is abuse, or that our products can’t be used on a daily driven car. To the contrary, we have thousands of customers running our LS heads on their daily driven cars for hundreds of thousands of miles. We went through the expense and effort to obtain a CARB EO for that reason. But, yes, street driving for thousands of miles can cause more wear on a set of heads than a few hundred 10 second passes at the track – particularly when there are cam timing or tuning issues producing extreme EGT’s. What’s harder on parts – 1600° EGT’s for 10 seconds at WOT, or for 2 hours of highway cruising? The latter.

We rarely deny warranty claims, and it is not a decision we take lightly. When we can’t warranty a product due to very apparent signs of abuse or improper installation, we attempt to take steps to help the customer solve the root cause of their problems to ensure the failure doesn’t occur again, and minimize the cost of repair or replacement of the failed parts. In this case, the heads need completely rebuilt with new guides, seats, valves, and associated machining, and Lxjoshxl declined any further assistance.

Josh – if you change your mind for any reason, please reach back out to us. We want to see what we can do to help you resolve your issues, and get you back in a set of quality Made in USA cylinder heads. We would repair the damaged deck surface at no charge in good faith, discount labor charges, and your heads would come back like new with all new components.

If you choose to run another brand of heads, or have your heads repaired somewhere else, we understand. But please consider our precaution – check your cam timing and P to V clearance, fueling, and ignition timing. We never want to see a fellow gear head battle the same issue twice.