4.6 DOHC Head porting

[Nitrous Al]

What shop does the best 4.6 DOHC head porting? I'm buying a Mark VIII engine very soon. I want the heads ported and to switch to a '96-Up Mustang Cobra intake. What shop does the best 4.6 Head and intake work?

[Technick]

In my experience with the 4V 4.6 head I found that Sean Hyland does really good work, you will pay for it but they specialize in 4V 4.6 engines. One down side is they are in Canada. I am sure that there are many other reputable places out there that can do a very good job. Check references! I mean REALLY check. Do not take even my word for it. Remember the advice you get on the internet is usually worth what you pay for it! So do your own homework (this is a start). For the cost of these heads you do not want some one messing them up.
Another point to consider, WHY are they being ported? They flow like gangbusters stock. Unless you are going to make massive H.P. it may not be necessary at all.
Keep in mind what the end result really is. If it is a street car you really do not need to mess with the heads. For the money you will spend you may be better off applying the $ elsewere.

In my opinion, DO NOT deal with Power Heads based out of California. I have and the experience was TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
They messed up a set of 5.0 heads so bad they had to be thrown away. What a waste of $700.00
If you want the particulars e-mail me and I will be glad to "share " my experience with them in detail. All documented!

[429mustang]

Technik, what did they mess up on the heads? You don't have any pics, do you?

[Technick]

I took digital pic's but don't think that they would show anything usefull in this format. So here is the story: 1st off a disclaimer to keep from getting sued for lible: this is my "opinion" of what happened, your results may vary! I took every effort to resolve this with Power Heads and was rebuffed at every attempt. I purchased a set of E7OE 5.0 cylinder heads from Power Heads to install on a '70 Mustang. At the same time I installed a Edelbrock Perfrormer RPM cam kit, Ford Motorsport 1.7 roller rocker arms, Edelbrock double roller timming chain and gear set along with JBA headers and new 2 1/2" dual exhaust. The car already had a Edelbrock dual 4 bbl intake with 2 Edelbrock 500 cfm carbs, along with a MSD distributor. As with ANY new hyd. flat tappet camshaft you must pre-lube the cam and when the engine is started you must take it to at least 2,000 rpm's for the first 15-20 min. so as to break in the cam as it is lubed only by "splash" on the cam lobes. So after pre-lubing the engine with a drill to ensure that the engine had oil pressure, I started the engine and took it to 2,500 rpm's for the cam break-in proceedure. I have installed hundrededs of cams this way. Not ever a problem. Anyway 5 min. into the break-in proccedure the engine starts running rough, in the first 5 min. we had set the ignition timming, verified oil pressure with a mechanical gauge, watched the coolant temp, looked for leaks ect. you know all the stuff that you should do. As the engine started running rough I noticed that the valve train was getting a little noisy, another min. goes by and the engine runs even worse and the valve train makes even more noise. So I shut it off thinking that maybe a couple of the rocker arms have backed off. After pulling the valve covers off I found that 4 or 5 of the rockers are complely loose. BUT not from having backed off! The valves were stuck in the guides and the pistons had bent the valves as a result. So off come the heads and back to Power heads they go after a conversation with them. 6 WEEKS later, 6 WEEKS!!!!!!! I get another set of heads from them. Not wanting to take any chances I take the heads to a VERY repuatable machine shop. I mean these guys do nothing but race engines 90% of the time. Mostly NASCAR Winston West engines. Saw one of their 351W race engines on the dyno. 9.5:1 compression, 355 cid, 750cfm carb. 714 H.P. @ 8,400 rpm!!!!!!!!!!!!! These guys know how to build an engine! Yea it cost $44,000.00! Anyway they look at the heads and show me that they are just CRAP!!!! ALL of the intake valve guides had been installed off center so that the valve was not in-line or center as they should be. SO when the roller rocker arm is installed the roller tip is touching only on the edge of the roller, not across the face as it should. Next ALL of the valve springs were weak. I could colapse the valve spring between my hands. I mean these things should have had at least 90 psi closed pressure if not up to 120 psi, these things tested out at 45-60 psi closed! ("closed"means installed height) In other words the valves would have "floated" at about 4,000 rpm! 3rd, when Power Heads did the valve grind they ground thru the factory flame hardened seat in order to fit in a 1.6 exhaust valve. Now the exhaust seat consisted of just good old cast iron! It would last maybe 10,000 miles IF you are lucky. Should have had a Hardened seat installed instead. 4th, the valves they used were "stainless" valves alright! Except the stems were NOT chrome faced! I found out that Ford used this type of valve back in the early 1960's but had abandoned it because of wear problems. The up side for Power heads is that the valves are cheap to buy, about $3.00 each! So I call up Power Heads with my "findings" and they tell me that since "someone other than Power Heads has touched them (as in assemble/disssasemble) they WILL NOT WARRENTY them!!!!!!!! Even though NO WORK WAS DONE TO THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They refused to let me ship them back unless I sent them another $700 first. They claimed that the machine shop was incompetent and did not know what they were doing. Of course this was a suprise to the machine shop as they had been doing quality work and race engines for over 20 years!
I will say this about Power Heads, the CNC work in the ports is GREAT! Even the machine shop said so, especially if used on a street car. So If y ou MUST have Power heads, see if you can buy the heads bare and get just the CNC port work done and then pay your local machinest to get them set up rignt!
This is the "highlights" of the whole afair.
Enough said!

[429mustang]

Godd*mn, what a mess. I don't think I've heard of them, but I'm glad I know about that now incase I ever had a reason to deal with them (which will never happen now). SO what happened with the heads/your $700. Did you ever get your money back? I don't understand why they would need another $700 before they would accept them back first, they could have taken them back and inspected them, then sent you your money back. ANy, it suck you had to go through all the bullsh*t. How does your car run now?

[Technick]

The reason they would not warrenty them is because they said that they had already warrenteed the first set of heads and so had lost money already on the deal. They wanted another $700 so they could send me a different set of heads. They were convinced that the set my machine shop had inspected were damaged or otherwise made unrepairable by the machine shop dissasembling and re-assembling them. This despite the fact that they had not even looked at them yet. Even told me they would refuse shipment if I sent them back without another $700. As far as what happened to the heads, I spent $1,100.00 on them! Above and beyond the original purchase price. I had the machine shop install hardened seats, new valves, guides, springs, retainers, keepers, they tried to fix the guide alingment but could not as the guides had been pressed in crooked and so now the guide hole in the head was now crooked and any subsequent guide would also be crooked. It would have taken a guide of such large diameter to straighten out the hole that it was not practical. One last thing that I forgot to mention, The heads were also warped, they had to be milled .015 to straighten them out. Now mind you, the $1,100.00 I spent was on premium parts and included a set of Comp Cams roller tip rocker arms. With just a roller tip and a conventional trunion the rocker arm could actually sit crooked and line up with the valve. I sold them to a guy who was basically building a very mild street engine that would not see over 5,00 rpm and he had the whole long sad story related to him so he knew what he was buying. As far as the 70 Mustang with the dual 4 bble carbs. It now has a set of Edelbrock Performer RPM heads on it and it runs quite nicely and has not had a lick of trouble. I sold the Power Heads for only $800.00 as I just never could have gotten my money out of them and would have felt guilty charging anone that much money for them. Plus I just wanted to get rid of them and the whole experience. Also if something went wrong with them I would not feel bad as I had showed the guy the recipts of how much total ($1,800.00) I had spent on them and he knew he was getting a killer deal. Left a real bad taste in my mouth, enven now every time I see add of theirs in National Dragster or Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords ect. it just bothers me. I should have just scrapped them, BUT the CNC port work looked so good it was hard to just throw away.

[MiracleMax]

Originally posted by Technick
The reason they would not warrenty them is because they said that they had already warrenteed the first set of heads and so had lost money already on the deal.

Heh, heh... what a load, thats not a valid excuse in my book. If it takes one dollar or busts the company. warranty work is never a money making deal. Its just good business to stand behind a Warranty. Evidently these guys have never heard of the 10/100 rule, especially with the advent of the internet. Its the great equalizer.

I'vee seen the ads, but IMO, I didn't by the whole deal looked to good to be true. Again IMO, unless you've got a stock cylinder head that flows right up there with a good set of aftermarket heads before porting, ain't no amount of grinding or cutting is gonna work miracles. That said, stock heads can be ported to perform nicely, but thier potential is limited.

They should have been good enough to say, "Well send the heads back and we'll look at them and while were at it, we'll send you another set of heads".

Now, what would they have accomplished.

If you got a set of heads worth a damn, you might be on here saying. It took a coupla times to get good heads, I don't plan on going back with them, but at least they didn't jerk me around.

Instead what do they have. 1 machine shop that probably uses power heads as code for laughable work, and a former customer that wouldn't drink a glass of water to put the place out if it was on fire.

things or so cheap in the 5.0 world and big in volume, that probably like tires (because they can't help but make money with tires). You get what you pay for and the manufacturer makes thier money of of volume, not the margin on the product.

[Technick]

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN,......................... been there done that, ain't gonna do it again, and will try to prevent it from happening to others. That is why I shared the experience.