Indy Head/Bad Rap

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skybolt

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turk31 said:
To Bad Indy did these Heads, I would'nt trust Indy's work.

good luck on the sale.

turk
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This is a quote by Turk31 from "Indy SR's CNC'd FRESH!" for sale post.

My question is have you (Turk31) had a bad experience with them? Has anyone had a bad experience with them? I haven't dealt with them yet but am planning to.

Member "7172 duster" has this bad *** little yellow Duster with an Indy Head 416 that might change your mind and he lives in Kentucky also. Does anyone smell a match race?

Turk31's profile states that his car is a 500" Demon. I am going to pm both members to make sure they read this post.
 
I have a set of indy sr heads.the problems not the head but customer service. The more money you put in there face the more they will talk to you.They clame horsepower out of the box,so I bought the sr heads.Looking at the ports and bowls there was no horsepower gains.I called indy they told me If i wanted the heads corrected send them back and they would do them right.Oh for the cost of a nother $1800.00 bucks.I bought the hole kitand doing that with indy would have sent me well over $5000.00.A guy around me has a head service shopand it,s called spyder prep head service.He told me that out of al the heads for the bigblock mopars the indy heads wrer the best if they were done right.Spyder prep did my heads better then indys c&c job for the fraction of the cost{$550.00}.If I had to a engine for me or anyone else I mould recamend the 440source heads.440source wasn,t making heads when I got my indy heads.They thve bad customer service like so many of the high dollar companys that got you by the balls.I for one can name a few.Just look in your wallet see how much money you have then make your choice. I agree with skybolt If I can,t trust that you say I wouldn,t trust your work. Mark
 
Indy's customer service is non existant, although I spoke to a newer employee Sam at Carlisle and he was decent to talk to. At least he didn't treat me like a lower life form which is std operating procedure. Indy heads need the same stuff Edelbrock, 440Source, MP, Brodix, etc all need. They need to be checked and the valve jobs corrected. The last set of Indy's I had in hand needed seats recut (out of round by .009" in one case) and several tight guides. In an older se tof SRs I had a 1/4" aluminum shaving stuck in teh assembly lube in one intake port... OOTB is not the way to exploit any of these heads. My advice would be t find a good ICH vendor and deal with them. Bob George Racing in PA and Porter Racing Heads in VT, Muscle Motors in MI, Modern Cylinder Head in MI... Those guys will ster you right. The heads flat out work. but like anything else, need some tweaking to be ready to install.
 
Thanks mopar,
Was thinking of a set of Edelbrocks hand ported by Indy Head. Your thoughts?

moper said:
Indy's customer service is non existant, although I spoke to a newer employee Sam at Carlisle and he was decent to talk to. At least he didn't treat me like a lower life form which is std operating procedure. Indy heads need the same stuff Edelbrock, 440Source, MP, Brodix, etc all need. They need to be checked and the valve jobs corrected. The last set of Indy's I had in hand needed seats recut (out of round by .009" in one case) and several tight guides. In an older se tof SRs I had a 1/4" aluminum shaving stuck in teh assembly lube in one intake port... OOTB is not the way to exploit any of these heads. My advice would be t find a good ICH vendor and deal with them. Bob George Racing in PA and Porter Racing Heads in VT, Muscle Motors in MI, Modern Cylinder Head in MI... Those guys will ster you right. The heads flat out work. but like anything else, need some tweaking to be ready to install.
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I bought the Indy 360-1 kit years ago by mail order all CNC spent about $5,000 and like has been said the customer service sucks. They really just don't care about the common customer. I went to their tent at Vegas and kind of just felt like a fly on the wall.

Heads are great if you know what you want, and don't need any help or advice. I would recommend their products for high end race equipment. Probably a little overkill and expensive for the street.
 
I agree with moper about nonexistant customer service. I wonder how long a company, even with good products, can exist in tough times with terrible customer support. I dealt with them only once, and learned my lesson. There are too many other things to deal with in life, and I do this for fun.
 
I wouldn't let indy port a set of 273 2 barrel heads.

Buy the heads in raw form and have a good known porter work on them, either with a good cnc or hand porting. cnc'd ain't great if the program tape is bad.... garbage in, garbage out.

If you have an issue with the castings, don't expect to get any traction with indy on reimbursing cost for work performed by your guy. Even if you bought direct, it will be your fault.

Don't EVER buy anything direct from indy. As moper mentioned, buy through a dealer, Bob George, Shady Dell, because if a problem arises, you may get some assistance.

There are plenty of indy horror stories out there, complete assembled hemis with so much garbage/shavings in them they turned into doorstops within 30 minutes, heads with porous area/bad seats, etc.

Just be careful.
 
Well everybodys got there own opioion, I got a set of 360 heads from them over 3 years ago, I called them gave em my engine specs. asked me my gear ratio how much racing i did, I went with what he recomended 3 seasons of racing heads have never been touched, I would buy from them again been trouble free, But i've heard good things about 440 source also. At the time i bought my indyheads they were the cheapest out there also,
 
Thanks to all. I only live about 60 miles from their shop and thought this would be convenient but like to be treated like a valued customer. Guess I will look elsewhere. Thanks again.
 
They suck, I have a thread on here with my story I just had never revealed the company I was doing buisness with. I did finally get the proper springs but i had to put them on myself or pay someone to do it, they would not cover the expense. Same old thing they were nice when I was ordering them but when I called back with issues they were crappy.
 
If you're looking for a great head package in the RPMs, get them from Jeff at Modern. I've seen his std port RPMs make past 600hp on pump gas 4.15 stroke big blocks with medium sozed flat tappet cams. Hand porting is much more $$. Indy CAN do good work. The issue is they tend to feel they can rush and it still qualifies. I had a 438"/500hp wedge they sold for $9500. It was nothing special, hydraulic cam, SR/EZs. It never made more than 450hp (except on thier dyno where they ran the A/F at 15.2:1 to make 508hp. No dyno could repeat that) It leaks, it pings, it's a mess. For $9500.
 
moper said:
Indy's customer service is non existant, although I spoke to a newer employee Sam at Carlisle and he was decent to talk to. At least he didn't treat me like a lower life form which is std operating procedure. Indy heads need the same stuff Edelbrock, 440Source, MP, Brodix, etc all need. They need to be checked and the valve jobs corrected. The last set of Indy's I had in hand needed seats recut (out of round by .009" in one case) and several tight guides. In an older se tof SRs I had a 1/4" aluminum shaving stuck in teh assembly lube in one intake port... OOTB is not the way to exploit any of these heads. My advice would be t find a good ICH vendor and deal with them. Bob George Racing in PA and Porter Racing Heads in VT, Muscle Motors in MI, Modern Cylinder Head in MI... Those guys will ster you right. The heads flat out work. but like anything else, need some tweaking to be ready to install.
Click to expand...

WOW! I never had Indy do any machine work myself, I have a local guy that does all my work and after reading this I am thinking it was a good thing. I had enough trouble with JE Pistons, BDS and Edlebrock all of which have no respect for their customers at all.

I do how ever know Sam Wilson personally, he has worked for Indy for about two years now and I can say he will do what ever he can for his customers. He use to work for Hawkins speed shop and owned it for a short time. I bought most of my stuff through him at the speed shop and he went to bat for me several times with JE and BDS after they tried to leave me with bad parts. Sam is one of few that I have met that does care about his customers. From what I am reading maybe Indy needs to take a few pointers from him.
 
Sorry to hijack the thread but I thought this question was pertinent.

Bobby,

Is there a diffence in cost for porting a set of iron heads as compared to aluminum heads due to aluminum being softer and easier to remove?

Jack
 
No not really, as the same amount of work is still needed. The only difference is the wear and tare on the body. ( arms, shoulders and neck) Aluminum will go a bit faster, but you don't pay for how fast it's done but for what is being done. Aluminum is nicer to work with and you don't get as dirty with them and they generally have most of the flashing gone when manufactured. Other than that the machining cost and hand work is the same.
 
Also, you dont taste rusty iron in your mouth for the rest of the afternoon... :D

And yes, that's wearing a dust mask...lol.
 
Ive dealt with Indy when i ordered my stuff and never had a issue with service or all the questions i had asked. its been a couple of years since ive talked to them but id still use them if i had to.
 
Indy has a good product line BUT as for customer service I've found them to be nothing less than arrogant butt holes. I spent just shy of 15 grand for my Willys motor, had a crank flange issue, they did not care to rectify the issue, as a matter of fact, after dealing with their (Ken and Russ) attitudes,
I wouldnt trust them to fix the problem, I got it straightend out locally,and of coarse, without any help from Indy. NEVER AGAIN will they get as much as penny of my hard earned money
 
I hope companies like that,that treat there customers like flies go bankrupt.
Without us, they dont have squat.
 
Bought a $4500 engine block from Indy. Came with zero documentation. Turns out that the Indymaxx low deck block is built for an RB distributor. Would have been nice to know before I bought a low deck distributor for my low deck block:rolleyes:

I went to the Indy tent at MATS. Talked with them about a couple of issues I had heard about their blocks. They looked at me like a f***ing idiot for daring to question their engineering. They convinced me I didn't need to worry about top end oil drain back, or pinning the cam bearings. I took their word for it and had my engine assembled without addressing those issues. Since that day I have heard of several people spinning the "factory installed" cam bearings and others who have had problems with oil drain back. What would have cost very little while the engine was apart would now cost a whole lot of $$$ to correct.

I can't understand how a place like that can stay in business in todays economy.
 
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