Stellar AFR valve job

[vortecpro]

Did you see who was setting up the guides?

Heres the bottom line, when they came out with the 290 BBC head they sent me a set to dyno test, these were special select heads, they had problems with run out, Harold Bettes insisted I bring it to their attention, I did, they didn't care. The new guy that took Tony Mamo's place said he was going to fix it, he didn't, thats all I know.

[hoffman900]

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Air-Flow-Research/reviews

I’m sure it’s like a lot of these performance parts places. They want to pay guys $20-$25hr to do precision machining work.

You get what you pay for.

And that goes to the customers. People expect what should be $10k cylinder heads or $1200 camshafts for $1000 and $300, respectively.

[blackford]

I am in the process of swapping ported SBF iron heads with Promaxx Maxx 180s which are probably made in China. I checked the seat pattern on all 16 seats using Dykem and they all looked great. I also had my shop do a vacuum test on all 16 ports and they all checked out fine. Except for the ports themselves needing some additional porting and cleanup (probably the same as the majority of other aftermarket heads out there), the heads looked better out-of-the-box than the AFR Enforcer 185 head that I got to look over a month prior.

Reading this thread makes me concerned about what could happen to aluminum heads after they heat cycle a few times...yikes. I guess my best defense is a very good cooling system.

[1980RS]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Look at Vortecpro, Mark has a video on youtube that shows the same thing on a new BBC Dart head that was out like that. He redid the valve job and all was good. Every set of heads I perform a new valve job on and if you think the heads the OP showed are bad you should have seen my Vortec Bowtie heads, looked like a 5th grader did the valve job on them

I think you're thinking of Headbytes absolutely bashing Dart for like 45 minutes about a crappy valve job. Vortecpro has at least 2 videos showing the issue on AFR BBC heads. I made this thread more to show that you have to check this stuff. The comment about MBE, I know they do very nice work, but I brought that up to show that the Newan machines aren't perfect either. The set I fixed from them was 5+years ago, and absolutely was way off. The exhaust seats were, intakes were fine. He was told about it too, and refused to believe it. And like I said earlier, the absolute most beautiful, and also worst valve job I have ever personally witnessed, came from one of those machines. The worst seat had .020 runout. They use a live pilot by the way. Which I'm not a fan of either. If the guides are new and perfect, and you select the right pilot that fits tight, they work fine.

Headbytes

[Bigchief632]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Look at Vortecpro, Mark has a video on youtube that shows the same thing on a new BBC Dart head that was out like that. He redid the valve job and all was good. Every set of heads I perform a new valve job on and if you think the heads the OP showed are bad you should have seen my Vortec Bowtie heads, looked like a 5th grader did the valve job on them

I think you're thinking of Headbytes absolutely bashing Dart for like 45 minutes about a crappy valve job. Vortecpro has at least 2 videos showing the issue on AFR BBC heads. I made this thread more to show that you have to check this stuff. The comment about MBE, I know they do very nice work, but I brought that up to show that the Newan machines aren't perfect either. The set I fixed from them was 5+years ago, and absolutely was way off. The exhaust seats were, intakes were fine. He was told about it too, and refused to believe it. And like I said earlier, the absolute most beautiful, and also worst valve job I have ever personally witnessed, came from one of those machines. The worst seat had .020 runout. They use a live pilot by the way. Which I'm not a fan of either. If the guides are new and perfect, and you select the right pilot that fits tight, they work fine.

Headbytes

Hey, I picked up some great tips from him, a couple come to mind. The first one, how to port match your exhaust ports with a header tube, a shop vac and some spray paint. And to deshroud your heads for a stock block 4.310 bore bbc, to a 4.625 bore fel pro head gasket. His chamber work is legendary.

[racear2865]

I have 18 sets of aluminum heads in my shop at the present time. Not one set has all 16 seats that will seal. That is why we purchase heads as "Bare" and redo them. Is included in our price.
reed

[1980RS]

I think you're thinking of Headbytes absolutely bashing Dart for like 45 minutes about a crappy valve job. Vortecpro has at least 2 videos showing the issue on AFR BBC heads. I made this thread more to show that you have to check this stuff. The comment about MBE, I know they do very nice work, but I brought that up to show that the Newan machines aren't perfect either. The set I fixed from them was 5+years ago, and absolutely was way off. The exhaust seats were, intakes were fine. He was told about it too, and refused to believe it. And like I said earlier, the absolute most beautiful, and also worst valve job I have ever personally witnessed, came from one of those machines. The worst seat had .020 runout. They use a live pilot by the way. Which I'm not a fan of either. If the guides are new and perfect, and you select the right pilot that fits tight, they work fine.

Headbytes

Hey, I picked up some great tips from him, a couple come to mind. The first one, how to port match your exhaust ports with a header tube, a shop vac and some spray paint. And to deshroud your heads for a stock block 4.310 bore bbc, to a 4.625 bore fel pro head gasket. His chamber work is legendary.

Mark's a pretty smart cookie, he builds some pretty good engines and has some pretty neat stuff.