Bummer to hear that,
Seems like a lot of places are going down hill with their products
Seems like a lot of places are going down hill with their products
Made in China ? A lot of USA manufacturers moved to China !So I picked up a set of Edelbrock heads when I hopped up the 350 in my '82 a few years ago and even at the time of install I was surprised at how soft the aluminum of these heads were. Case in point I had an issue with one of the intake manifold bolt holes stripping out during initial assembly requiring a helicoil. Cut to 6 months later and one of the (apparently counterfeit) spark plugs I got online needed replacing and the threads on the spark plug hole came out with it. That was a whole endeavor in of itself getting fixed too, requiring the head to come off and get sent to the machine shop.
The last straw though occurred over this last weekend. The Chevy had been running quite well for a while at this point and with the weather briefly warming up I took the car out for a short jaunt to the auto parts store and back and then parked it up again. Then the next day I fired it up to go get breakfast with the Mrs. and heard a tick. Sounded an awful lot like an exhaust leak so I didn't think much about it. Of course during the drive I noticed that the car was definitely down on power and once home, I popped the hood and found that the tick was coming from the engine itself. Turns out once I pulled the valve covers that one of the rocker arm studs had actually pulled out of the head and the rocker was just loosely flopping in place! Bear in mind that all other rocker studs were tight still and the valvetrain hadn't been touched in a good long while.
I don't usually like to badmouth American companies but there are plenty of others online who have voiced their concerns about Edelbrock's quality control and this is the breaking point for me. It kills me that I don't have the time or funds to get the Elco's 6.0 LS ready for the swap yet so it looks like the 350 is getting a set of Vortec heads and will live to fight another day.
Well last I heard they made all their parts in their foundry in Cali, though maybe that's changed in recent years. Either way the whole experience has certainly turned me off of Edelbrock products. Vortec heads, a Jegs Vortec intake manifold, and some different Comp rockers are going to get me back on the road for now.Made in China ? A lot of USA manufacturers moved to China !
I've got some of those, check your casting #'s. iirc, I thought mine were Dart II Sportsman but may be wrong about thatSquag27, damn...sorry to hear about your woes with Edelbrock cylinder heads. Have you tried reaching out to them for customer assistance? I definitely would give that a try since all they can say or do is not help. I hope that is NOT the case and they make things right for you. As for where these heads are manufactured...US or abroad, that is a whole other story indeed! The original castings could be from overseas but if the final assembly is in USA, then the manufacturers can claim "Made in America". Edelbrock is NOT the only company who may or may not do this. Several years ago, I went to AAPEX in Las Vegas during SEMA. At AAPEX, there were a boatload of vendors from China selling their products. What was most interesting is the very same products I saw downstairs were being offered upstairs by American companies under their brand name and in boxes we all recognize!
Others reading this thread...there was a recent episode on ENGINE MASTERS in which the "3 amigoes" dyno-tested 3 sets of SBC low budget aluminum heads: Speed Masters 190cc, AFR 195cc, and Summit brand 200cc. All these heads were below $1000. It was a very interesting and informative episode! What made it interesting for me, I happen to own a set of Summit Brand heads. For the life of me, I can't remember if they are 195cc or 200cc, regardless when I ordered them, I had been told that Summit's heads are manufactured by Trick Flow Specialties.
Bottom line: Buyer beware!
I was running Edelbrock-supplied dual springs for these heads but it suprised me as I've only ever hear of press-in studs having this issue, not screwed in ones. As far as quality goes, it's funny that Edelbrock is under Comp's umbrella nowadays as I haven't heard a whole lot of good from them about some of their products in recent years either.Sorry to hear about your luck bud. It’s never fun to dealing with issue’s especially when it’s something that’s supposed to be quality. Aluminum heads are always a fickle B. Honestly I only use 1/4 ratchets on them because they can be super soft. The rocker arm thing is actually a common problem. Are the valve springs the ones that came with the heads or did you you replace them? That’s usually what pulls the stud out… too stiff of springs. Honestly though, I haven’t been a big fan of edlebrock for a long time. I think their quality has drastically diminished over the years In all their products. Yes technically they’re an “American” company however I bet the materials used to manufacture those “American made parts” are imported junk. Please keep us posted and if you need any help/advice feel free to message me.
Always do. I come from the world of LS motors which all have aluminum heads so anti-seize is a must for me.Did you use anti-seize on the sparkplugs when they were installed?
😄 ELCODUDE (aka "the puzzlemaster") . yep thats it! and now that i see that "Titans of CNC" there has been a few of their youtubes that pop up on my recommended list that i have watched. another is where the guy trains an apprentice and then the apprentice go out behind his back an opens his own shopLooks like this one ...