Who Has Bought Used Heads?
- Thread starter 90lxwhite
- Start date
-
Sponsors (?)
So what's worst case scenario? Say you bought a set off the online classifieds and you get em and they are junk and they need a rebuild? Say you spent $600 on a set of tfs 180 would worst case scenario end up w like 400 of parts and labor at machine shop? So now you're 1200 in and could've had a new set
check valves, check for flatness and ask how much they've been milled so you know if you have a little room left to flatten them out if necessary.
That's possible...say good valve job $175, milling $125-150, new valve seals $25, $80 in labor to take them apart and reassemble, $75 to tank and clean....of a valve is bad a good valve $20 each..guides are cheap, labor to replace is not...
Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
mikestang63
SN Certified Technician
Trouble is people are asking 800-900 for used heads- with bad valves, etc.. Where are you finding TFS 170's for $600?
Brand new in the box they are $1100 or less. If you buy them used for 600 and spend another 400 to fix, is it worth saving the $100? Now , if they came with RR and/or were fresh with good springs and didn't need more than a quick once over IMO it's worth the risk. I am very leery about buying used heads, superchargers, motors, etc. unless I can see them first. Too many scammers.
Last edited:
I just threw that 600 out there as a rough number, I haven't really shopped em yet. If they're running 900 no way would I do that. Honestly I don't think I'd pay 600 used. I'm w you leery bout buying anything from a private seller over the net. I'm always wondering why are they selling them
Realistically you wont find used aluminum heads for under $1000 bucks. I'd say most of the time they are completely fine to bolt on and go, but to be safe you'd at least want to get them looked at, and worst case scenerio you need to drop a couple hundred more bucks to "rebuild" them and then youll be kicking yourself for not just buying new ones. Is it worth the risk? I'd say if you shop around enough and find someone with a lot of good reviews on corral I'd go for it, but if you have the money to spend just go new.
greenlantern
Member
What's your end game? What kind of miles are on the lower end? How aggressive is you cam? In most cases I'd suggest sticking with new heads. Buying used heads most times is ok but its still a roll of the dice especially if their aluminum heads. At the very least I'd have them checked. Hell I have new heads checked now, I bought a set of world Windsor Jr Iron heads once and they needed valve work right out of the box.
Bottom end has maybe 10k miles if that. The cam has .512 lift on in and ex with I think 281 duration. If I'm going to spend a grand I'm gonna buy new. Oh and end result with car well she's just a cruiser really. It's not the 90 in my avatar but a 95
I'm not sure mine count as unseen, but I bought them from a friend who pulled them off a "600hp dirt track car". They both had a bent exhaust valve each but the port work was thorough enough that I gave $260 for them. I then put $450 worth of new valves into them, bringing the total to $710. For that money I could have had some very nice gently used aluminum heads that are lighter and flow better. The only saving grace is that they look bone stock, nobody expects them to be anything special, not even GT40's because they don't have the bars on the front. They also make pretty respectable numbers and are right on par with most combos I see. My tuner even said he had tuned several aluminum head strokers that made less or about the same power. The one thing that really sold me on them was the guy who did the valves was really old school and used to do a lot of hand porting, and said he hadn't seen port work like this in years and was very impressed, so that made me feel better about throwing money into them. Either way they perform well enough that I'm not in any hurry to buy new heads, I'd just assume put that money into a bigger stroker and then buy new heads for that. The down side is if I ever crack one of them or do unfixable damage, I can't just replace the one head like you could with aftermarket heads.
I did, about 8-9 years ago now. Performers w/RRs installed for around $850 shipped, I think it was. Perfect condition, looked nearly as good as new. No problems of any sort.
Bought a set of eddy Vic jrs used off the corral. Lets just say they weren't as represented and after a dispute gave them back and got my $$ back. Never again for meSimilar threads
