Hey Guys

I just want to share my experience with some heads I purchased recently...its not a good one.

So I bought a set of dart pro 1 platinum 200cc heads assembled. When I got them, they looked allright so I got them flowed and the guy flowing them noticed that the spring coils seemed a little close, so he measured the seat pressure at the installed height and it ended up being 135lbs on the seat, 1.65" installed height and the springs were binding at 0.450" lift...well under the advertised 0.520", 110lbs seat pressure and 1.70" installed height. So I called up dart and asked why they had a 15 and a 60 thou shim under the springs and why im not getting the right seat pressure etc, they honestly didnt seem to care and just said they'd "look into it".

So before pulling all the springs off i decided to see how the pushrod clearance was...well the intake pushrods on #1,5,4,8 cylinders were hitting the intake runner. So again I called them, they said they moved the intake runners...however theyre website and summit racing and jegs says the intake runners are in the std location...and that i should use iksy adjustable guide plates and if that doesnt work I should clearance the heads. So I argued this and said that I shouldnt have to put hundreds of dollars into these heads etc and that they should have come with the isky guide plates then....they didnt seem to care. Anyways, the isky guide plates didnt work because they moved my rocker tips off the valve stem too much.

So....i was fed up, darts customer service sucks and i returned the heads. This issue has set me back about a month on my engine build, im gonna probrably try a set of brodix or edelbrock heads now...hopefully I'll have better luck. I wouldnt suggest buying dart pro 1 platinum's after this experience.

Wow, that doesn't sound like Dart. In any case have you also considered GMs Fast Burn Vortec heads?

i had world products sr torquers before and wanted to go aluminum so vortecs were out of the question however, gmpp fastburns are an option.

Honestly I was really dissappointed with the Darts, I saved up for them for a couple years cause they always got great reviews in the magazines and were a decent price. I thought my experience with them was going to be alot better.

8) Dart used to have a great Tech Dept. a few years ago! Did they change hands? I know just about every company that changes hands gets worse as far a product and service. Seems to be a growing trend as the dollar becomes the bottom line! :(

I bought a set of Edelbrock RPM Performers last year. Bolted them on, straight out the box, with no problems. I have no experience with Dart, but the performance of these Edelbrocks has impressed me! 8)

update guys...i bought a set of brodix ik200's, bolted them on and they fit with no clearance issues. The only thing that i wasnt happy about was that they cnc gasket matched the intake runners and in a couple runners where the cast surface met the cnc machined suface, there was a slight lip, so i had the intake runners gasket matched to a felpro 1206 gasket along with my intake which cleaned everything up nicely. The best part about these heads were that they are cheaper than the darts and with the port work they are about the same price. The brodix ended up flowing a little less than the darts...but flow doesnt really matter i guess if the heads wont let any valve train compenents clear. I'll hopefully be dynoing the 350 next week and will let you guys know how it turned out.

200cc intake runners might be a little big for a 350, they might not give you optimal performance on a 350, but would work nice on a 383 or 400. Still, Brodix makes a nice product and I'm sure you'll be happy with them and you can always slap them on something bigger when the time is right. Let us know how things go.

yeah i know that 180cc would be better for the 350, but i would like to do a 383 or 400 block with a solid roller cam in the next couple years. So hopefully i can just slap these 200's on and not have to worry about airflow then.

I bought a set of Dart Pro1 Al. heads 215, but I had a valve machinist go thru them and set them up for my application. Believe it or not ALL of the aftermarket heads and even stock heads need to be gone thru and check for manufacturing irregularities. None of them are even close to being ideal straight out of the box.