When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So little over a year ago had motor built. Got the trickflow heads had to get rockers to support them. Ate threw the rockers in no time preload was good valve tip height a little off was told it’s ok. Fast forward to 4 months ago pulled the motor. Noticed all the rockers were completely smoked. Harland took care of me says he’s never seen it something was off on the heads. Put a flat bar across the top valve tips all over the place. Call trickflow said send them in. Guy starts blaming me saying looked like I was running boost nitrous mind you this was in a pickup with a small truck cam. Guy proceeds to tell me over $1400 to fix them as they’re pretty much junk, after spending 2800 on them a year and half ago. What could have caused these things to smoke rockers and throw valves out of wack. I’ve heard of numerous complaints of seating issues guide issues you name it with these heads. Hindsight’s 20/20 but curious who else is running these or can recommend another company as I’m not putting a single cent into these junk heads. Couldn’t even take the time at the factory to take down the machining burrs
Yeah looks like they were getting pushed left to right right out of the box there was a variance in valve tip height so not sure. Got them back yesterday deep scratches all over the deck not cosmetic ones you can get with your fingernail.
Where did you buy the heads from? I guarantee someone swapped the valves and put wrong length ones in. Your builder is ******** for putting it together abd giving it to you like that. Truck Flow isn't perfect, but no way those left them like that.
Got them Direct from summit. There was a small variance between the two but preload was fine with the ls7 lifters. yeah in hindsight they should have been sent back then. But clearly something went wrong with the seats during break in and caused them to sink even further the heights are the same out im pretty sure. To me it’s like the guides or seats were wrong from the jump. The variance you see in that picture is after 10k miles on the heads. Guy at trickflow said it’s more abuse using them in a daily driven car versus one that gets launched down a track which is insane to me. Talked to another shop who builds his own ls heads says he’s seen nothing but problems with a lot of them same with the rockers but at least Harland took care of it. Harland said they’ve never seen anything like it.
Got them Direct from summit. There was a small variance between the two but preload was fine with the ls7 lifters. yeah in hindsight they should have been sent back then. But clearly something went wrong with the seats during break in and caused them to sink even further the heights are the same out im pretty sure. To me it’s like the guides or seats were wrong from the jump. The variance you see in that picture is after 10k miles on the heads. Guy at trickflow said it’s more abuse using them in a daily driven car versus one that gets launched down a track which is insane to me. Talked to another shop who builds his own ls heads says he’s seen nothing but problems with a lot of them same with the rockers but at least Harland took care of it. Harland said they’ve never seen anything like it.
So the Trick Flow guy is basically telling us not to use these if you plan to daily the car, only if it lives at the track.
Got them Direct from summit. There was a small variance between the two but preload was fine with the ls7 lifters. yeah in hindsight they should have been sent back then. But clearly something went wrong with the seats during break in and caused them to sink even further the heights are the same out im pretty sure. To me it’s like the guides or seats were wrong from the jump. The variance you see in that picture is after 10k miles on the heads. Guy at trickflow said it’s more abuse using them in a daily driven car versus one that gets launched down a track which is insane to me. Talked to another shop who builds his own ls heads says he’s seen nothing but problems with a lot of them same with the rockers but at least Harland took care of it. Harland said they’ve never seen anything like it.
It is harder on guides, lifters, and rockers to let a car idle, than to run it at high rpm. Limping an engine around doesn’t get as much oil to critical areas. Valvesprings don’t get oiled well at idle, etc.
The TrickFlow guy definitely is right about that. Camshaft closing ramps dictate how soft the valves sit back down on the seat, regardless of rpm.
Yeah I would have liked to see the tear down report too. But they said they need to be fully rebuilt. It wasn’t much idle time per se it would be like 1000 miles a month about of mainly open roads and highway driving around here. I know lugging any motors bad but honestly that wasn’t the case and on the other end I wasn’t beating the **** out of the motor. I just can’t believe the bill of $1400 to fix them after having them installed for less than a year. Guy also said was probably tuned all wrong and I’m like I have logs and logs of data during that year where fuel trims coolant temp etc. was all normal. I really just wanted to know what caused it and what actually was all wrong too not oh you must of “ran this thing boosted or with spray”
I'm sorry to hear of this. I'm in LS7 head land, so I feel your pain. But even my LS7 heads never looked like this! So, is Trick Flow saying that you can't run 10,000 miles on the street with their heads, or you’ll wind up in this situation? That there heads are for racing only? I have no experience with Trick Flow. @Tony @ Mamo Motorsports I do know that if I was going to buy Trick Flow heads, or having my Trick Flow heads rebuilt, I'd be calling Tony Mamo. I assure you that when they leave his shop, they'll be right on the $$$$. I know hindsight is 20-20, but at this point, Tony would be the guy I'd be talking to. You'll never find better customer service anywhere. I'll also say in my over 50 years of working on, and being around engines and heads, I've never seen heads that looked like that at ANY mileage. WOW!! Are you saying you didn't abuse the engine in any way? That no Nitrous/power adder was in/on the engine? That you just drove the car around on the street, with occasional WOT? If so, it looks really bad on TF...
Most parts will say they are for off road use only. I guess that’s their way out of any liability. I still call bs that having too much idle time caused this issue. I don’t have enough info to blame this on trikflow yet either. Just the claim that their heads aren’t for street use and street use caused this issue enough to make me look elsewhere for heads. Safe to say most of us here are building cars for street/strip use and do street drive regularly.
Hey BC yeah the cam was the summit stage 3 truck cam. , 222/232 112+5, .550/.550 Nothing crazy. The cam lobes look not bad from what I can see through the valley. Yeah Trickflow pretty much said it’s more abuse using it as a street vehicle. It goes through 10 qc checks before it’s to me they endurance test them blah blah. I told the guy too I’m like I don’t want to ship them in to have you guys push blame. I know at first the VE table was weird but tuned that out right away. So to me them saying it’s burnt up. Could a seating issue etc cause them to burn up that quick? I thought with these heads you just double check everything around 20k miles. I got them fully assembled too to avoid any issues if I or another machine shop put them together.
and grinder11- no boost no spray totally mild NA just drove around on the st didn’t beat on it first 3k. Break in oil Joe Gibbs br 30. Fuel trims within 5percent etc
Last edited by Lxjoshxl; Dec 12, 2024 at 11:26 AM.
To say too much idle time caused this issue is bs. My truck has 190,000 miles on it and sits idling for long periods of time in the winter every morning to warm up.
Yeah I mean the rockers were checked installed right Harland says they’ve never seen them get eaten up like that only back when the oil changed to a low zinc formulas.
Do you have pictures of the tops of the valve stems, rockers, pushrods
are those powdered metal or bronze valve guides?
I also wonder about the length of the pushrods if they are all the same.
Last edited by jasons69chevelle; Dec 13, 2024 at 07:03 AM.
Pushrod lengths 7.500 in ls7 lifters with 85 thou preload on the low sides. Rockers were the sls17 Harland sharps which Trickflow recommends with the bronze guides. I wondered as well if the Pushrods were off because I have red that but they all measured same. I know they say calipers are to be used to measure length as the cup difference etc. but I was just measuring overall lengths.
6 Common C5 Corvette Failures and What's Involved In Repairing Them
Slideshow: From wobbling harmonic balancers to failed EBCMs, these are the issues that define long-term C5 ownership and what repairs typically involve.
Retro Modern Bandit Pontiac Trans AM Comes With Burt Reynolds' Autograph
Slideshow: A modern Camaro transformed into a retro icon, this limited-run "Bandit" build blends nostalgia with brute force in a way few revivals manage.
Top 10 Greatest Cadillac V Series Performance Models Ever, Ranked
Slideshow: Cadillac didn't just crash the high-performance luxury vehicle party, it showed up loud, supercharged, and occasionally a little unhinged...
Coachbuilt N2A Anteros Is an LS2-Powered C6 Corvette In Italian Clothes
Slideshow: A one-off sports car that looks like a vintage Italian exotic-but hides a C6 Corvette underneath-just sold for the price of a new mid-engine Corvette.
Trickflow really let me down 
