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Thread: Pro Comp heads--my opinion

  1. #1
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    Pro Comp heads--my opinion

    The add on ebay looks very good and it convinced me to give them a shot. Here is what I experienced:
    1. Upon bolting up one of the heads (right out of the box), 2 of the rocker arm studs pulled the treads right out of the head. I called up the company in TN and the rep says send them back and they will repair or replace. They put in an insert and sent them back. (2 wk turnaround)
    2. The heads require "customizing" of the guide plates. They have to be bent to line them up with the valves. No big deal really. Takes some time. They also require non-stock length pushrods. Not that of a big deal.
    3. Finally get them on the motor, and am very impressed with performance. Gained 10 mph!!!
    4. Exhaust valve broke and cratered the motor at approx 70 hrs on the heads.
    5. Upon removing the non-broken head, I found that the water passage was severely corroded, and would have become another problem very shortly. It was about to leak into the combustion chamber!!

    These heads were 11 months old!!!!
    Note: Recently installed a 100 shot of nitrous. Hit the button 5 times for no more than 5 seconds at a time. Nitrous sys had timing retard, and progressive controller.

    Anothe note: Bought heads assembled and the salesman at skip white assured me that I did not have to replace the ex valves with inconel.

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    more pics

    this is a pic of the severe corrosion at one of the water passages. Again, heads only 11 months old, and well cared for.

    Also, if you look at the 2nd pic, you can see that the Fel Pro gasket combustion ring does not fit correctly on the head. The ring was inside of the chamber. Like this on a few cylinders.

    I wish someone would have posted a thread like this when I was in the deciding stage of building my motor. I made about a 3000.00 mistake with Pro Comp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

  3. #3
    mrfixxall Guest

    Fixx

    just my opinion,

    you used the wrong head gasket's, the head gaskets you used had a steel wire ring in them and your suppose to have the block and heads o-ringed to use those kind of gaskets..i can see the ring around the combustion chamber and that's another reason i say their wrong,,their are different diameter o-ring gaskets to use also..felpro states this when ordering here is a example, read the fine print @ the bottom..http://www.jegs.com/i/Fel+Pro/375/1017-1/10002/-1

    also i would like to see the piston,i also work on race cars and have up to 4 stages of nos on one of the cars i work on, those valves are pretty white which indicates lots of nos and or the motor was running lien which would create allot of heat and could bend the valve and the piston may have came in contact to it and broke off..was it cylinder #8?

    looks like the cylinder heads were not sitting down on the block all the way and that's when electrolysis maw have caused the damage to the heads..

  4. #4
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    fixx is pretty much dead on the money..

    ProComps are from China, their metallurgy mixing has always been suspect

    besides.. have you EVER seen a race car in China?
    Charter Member - WAFNC, SBBR, KWOSG
    1955 Perfect Mate
    1986 Hornet III, 502-415 TRS

    www.donzi.org


  5. #5
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    Not to mention mixing metals in an electrolite......
    Maybe after all the gasketing problems are taken care of, a closed cooling system would be useful.
    George Carter
    Central Florida
    gcarter763@aol.com
    http://kineticocentralfl.com/


    “If you have to argue your science by using fraud, your science is not valid"
    Professor Ian Plimer, Adilaide and Melbourne Universities

  6. #6
    mrfixxall Guest

    Fixx

    Quote Originally Posted by gcarter View Post
    Not to mention mixing metals in an electrolite......
    Maybe after all the gasketing problems are taken care of, a closed cooling system would be useful.

    +1 on the closed cooling when running in salt water.

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    Another note

    I used the gasket that was recommended by the sales rep at Skip White. Purchased together.

    Valve broke on #1. Only 1 piston has "very minor" detonation on one of the edges. But, I agree with you on the valves looking white. The nitrous probably was the killer. I am new at this---I did not know that you could kill a motor so quickly on the juice. The first time I pulled a plug was 10 minutes before the valve broke. The plug looked lean and I was actually heading back to the ramp to put the boat on the trailer when it broke.

    I guess this is what you call trial and error. Mostly error.

    Non Flying Tomato

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    Skip White in Kingsport, TN ??
    Charter Member - WAFNC, SBBR, KWOSG
    1955 Perfect Mate
    1986 Hornet III, 502-415 TRS

    www.donzi.org


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    spip white

    yes, skip in TN

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by flying tomato View Post
    Gained 10 mph!!!
    Um...is that with or without the N2O?
    Thanks,
    Michael

  11. #11
    mrfixxall Guest

    Fixx

    Quote Originally Posted by handfulz28 View Post
    Um...is that with or without the N2O?

    he gained 5 with the n2o,,10 with the head,cam and exhaust swap.. =15 mph

  12. #12
    mrfixxall Guest

    Fixx

    How about that pic of the damaged hole?

  13. #13
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    he told you to use the rite gaskets, what you failed to do was the proper machinework.


    nothing to do with the procomp heads that make great power for the money.

  14. #14
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    Most of the racing folks I've talked to call them "ProCrap".

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by tmdog View Post
    Most of the racing folks I've talked to call them "ProCrap".
    that may be true but they are prolly the win @ any cost and bigger is better kind of peeps. let me ask how many of these racers are BOAT racers?

    their performance falls solidly ahead of edlebrocks for boat applications. do the math one time. the fact he gained 10MPH with buggered up heads over XXX is the proof they perform.


    Last edited by Donzi_Dude; 10-24-2010 at 05:14 AM.

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