Rebuild older factory heads or buy bare promaxx heads

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Dan the man

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Trying to decide if I would be money ahead by getting a set of bare promaxx cylinder heads or rebuilding a set of 50 year old heads?
 
Depends on what they’re going on and what you’re trying to do. That being said, I know if I could afford them, I’d already have a set.
 
Can you buy bare heads from Promaxx? I mean, building them is what they do.
 
Ive been trying to decide whether to buy heads or rebuild heads also. I called INDY today about their magnum x heads and they are gone forever. So it it appears there are no low budget performance head options. The promaxx are advertised as a stock replacement.
 
Can you buy bare heads from Promaxx? I mean, building them is what they do.
I meant speedmaster cylinder heads. Don't want to spend a bunch on stock heads and then learn for a few more dollars I could've bought new cylinder heads.
 
well any new head needs to be gone over so i guess it all depends how much work the original heads need.
True, but from the reviews that I've read on speedmaster cylinder heads that they use poor quality valve train components.
 
Ive been trying to decide whether to buy heads or rebuild heads also. I called INDY today about their magnum x heads and they are gone forever. So it it appears there are no low budget performance head options. The promaxx are advertised as a stock replacement.
I wish that afr made cylinder heads for the sbm's. Edelbrock heads are high dollar.
 
Well I'm here to say that I was NOT at all happy with the last set of EQs that I bought back around 2018ish
"Ready to run" yeah that wound up being a load of bullshit. Put them on the 360 in the Durango and with about 4 hours run time with break in and not even 6 miles it stuck the #4 exhaust, and bent it. Machine shop said that they never had a set of heads of any kind that he had to spend so much time and effort Pounding them out, due to insufficient stem to guide clearance. I drove down to their warehouse in Chicago and picked them up from the EQ warehouse myself when I originally bought them.
Got the last one from one pallet and the 1st one from the full pallet of them next to it.
Then I got pissed at it and let it sit in the garage untouched until well after any warranty had expired.
This was the 3rd set of EQs that I have bought.

The 1st 2 sets we got came to us drilled for LA intake, the 1st (bought bare) went on a 318 in a 83 D250 I assembled myself about 2009. Really woke up that truck. Was real happy with the outcome. New heads and cam on the untouched original short block.
Set 2 went on a 76 360 in my son's ramcharger.
Bought ready to run, but my son had a problem with the rebuild so that set went to the machine shop within 6k miles don't remember whether they found issue in the heads or not. (He cracked a ring in install and redid that one into a 408 on the redo. Same EQ heads, after a machine shop check out put onto the 408. Back together and running less than 1000 miles so far.
Not so sure I'd buy another set even if available. Certainly wouldn't bolt em on our of the box again.
 
I like the case made for 1.94 valves and a proper valve job and throat cut. I'm going to be going this route myself. About 2-3 cfm gain going with 11/32 or maybe 4 or 5 going to 5/16 stems. But anything that helps minimize valvetrain mass is a win.
 
For a warmed over cruiser, a set of reworked factory iron heads will work fine.
That's all I run.
I have some Aluminum sleeze blasters...but nothing attractive about running them.
I'll probably sell the things...lol.. 287 cfm intake flow is where i stopped playing with them.
 
Depending on the condition of the old heads, and what the labor charges are in your area...... there may not be a huge difference in price.

Imo, The best bang for the buck is def the aluminum SM assemblies on the Black Friday sale.
Unless you can do most of the work on the stock heads yourself.
 
Was thinking about picking up a set of Edelbrock heads if I come across a deal on them for my next small block build up only because it seems next to impossible to find a set of original uncracked magnum heads(I have 4 magnum blocks here to choose from, for that build)
 
Looking at the Promaxx site....... new unported bare aluminum heads are now $1333??

Yowza!!
 
Looking at the Promaxx site....... new unported bare aluminum heads are now $1333??

Yowza!!
I guess they do sell bare heads. Thats about what I paid for my assembled heads last summer.
 
The thread title mentions “bare” heads, which is why I looked up the price for those.
For assemblies with HFT springs they’re showing a price of $1692.
Might be cheaper at Summit or Jegs.
 
The thread title mentions “bare” heads, which is why I looked up the price for those.
For assemblies with HFT springs they’re showing a price of $1692.
Might be cheaper at Summit or Jegs.
They gave me a discount by going through my business. Not sure what percent. They emailed me a list of the new prices about 2 weeks ago. I guess they think I am a dealer now. LOL
 
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