How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

Might be going to look at some 03 heads tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, sometime near.

They'll be bare, as in no cam or valve train I believe.

How can I tell if they're good? Are there any signs I should look for?

I believe Dstang03 was his S/N, he's the one sellling..

I have no reason not to trust people, but i dont really konw what i should be looking for..

he says about 30K miles give or take a few from when he took them off and upgraded

should i be looking at casting numbers? any tags? just curious

thanks

RE: How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

I'm retarded, didn't read it correctly, nevermind.

RE: How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

only way u can check if they are ok is take them to a machine shop and have them run tests with the proper equipment to make sure no warpage or cracks

RE: How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

Yeah, there is no way to just look at them and know they're good. I know with cast iron they need to dip and magnaflux them to check for cracks, but not sure about procedures for aluminum. Lots of times the cracks are too small to see with the naked eye. A good straight edge and some feeler gauges should suffice to check for warpage on the suface. Chances are if the heads aren't warped they won't have cracks (if the heads got hot enough to crack they are usually warped too).

RE: How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

+1

RE: How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

Whew man, that sounds like a hard one. Get this dude to guarantee that this head is good. You are correct, some people out there will do the right thing.

If you have any kind of suspicions, take it to a machine shop

RE: How To Tell If a Head is Good?
 

Yea, I talked to mark99gt and he mentioned that the straight edge on the mating surface would be one way to check for any warpage.

As for trusting, at this point, I'm about willing to just say screw it and hope things go alright after having looked at them.

He's from maybe 2 hours away, so I had asked to send some pictures so I could glance things over, but he said basically it'd be a waste of his and my own time since things can easily be hidden in a photograph.

So we were going to meet today to just look at them since he was driving through about an hour from here, but I got to thinking that it might be a waste of our time.

So instead I'm going to try to arrange a meeting either this weekend or next where I can have the cash on hand and take them from him if they appear alright.

225 for a pair of '03 heads sound alright? bare I believe, no cam or valve train,

i'll still need romeo valve covers though..any takers ? lol