Well, it looks like I have the Pioneer springs. I was under the impression that I had the PAC springs in my setup. Hopefully they are a decent spring, I guess it's good that my engine will only see about 5300 RPM at the top end rather than 6K plus.

I have no basis other than what my builder told me, but he said the pioneer springs were no good in his experience, and don't belong on anything over stock application. When he thought that mine may have been pioneer he said they had to be changed. I called Bob and he said that they were ordered with PAC Racing hydraulic spring, so I confirmed with AFR in detail as you saw that I posted. AFR went away from them for a reason. When did you place the order for your heads?

Teague marine is an oso advertiser too. He sells Afr heads that are truly marinized and machined. They will sell them bare, or custom to your engine . they are a little more than a automotive head with an inconel valve thrown in.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/n...ine-heads.html

I ordered them in May 2013.

Are you sure of this?

Call them. Ask for Eric.

No thanks, not interested in the story telling. Call and ask him about their welder and their engineered fittings. Maybe you will get the story about all the stainless tubing they have / engineer that gets sent to Japan because Japan doesn't have any stainless mills. Then when you receive their "engineered" fitting that their welder made it has a nice (made in China) stamping on it. I don't know maybe they have a shop overseas as well. they don't have a machine shop. So do they send the heads to their shop in China for machining? I don't know. They very well may have heads with extra work done to them but until a reputable resource confirms this I'm skeptical.

Then yes they were still using the pioneer spring then, believe he said mid 2014(July or August) is when they stopped using them, and unloaded all of their inventory of the pioneer spring september or october of 2014. The only reason I say is, i sent a photo to several people of the my PAC racing spring with the green stripe and simply asked if they thought the stripe was green or blue. I got a 50/50 response lol. And I can see how people would say blue, its kind of a blueish green lol. So was thinking maybe yours may actually be green, but the pioneer was an option when you got your heads. When my builder told me about this situation, if it wasn't the PAC spring we were going to change them, and use the isky tool room spring

Wesseldyk had to fit/hone/ream the valve guides on my brand new out of the box AFR's to what he believes is correct for a hi-perf marine engine---anyway, I'd rather burn a little oil vs getting a valve stuck

This is not a problem with the heads , it's normal procedure to clearance the valve guides for the end users intended purpose . AFR tells us on their website and in the literature that comes with your heads to do this .