i tore an engine apart yesterday,i was amazed at two mistakes i found.the engine was built by a high quality shop so i guess anyone can make mistakes.

[QUOTE=mike tkach;4311303]i tore an engine apart yesterday,i was amazed at two mistakes i found.the engine was built by a high quality shop so i guess anyone can make mistakes.[/

What u find

very bad alignment of the rocker arm on the valve stem,did not have adjustable guide plates and the rocker studs were .750 long on the head side,even on the exhaust.i am suprised it did not break the stud boss.also had street hyd roller lifters instead of endurance lifter.this is a 565 pro charged engine that came to me for a refresh and to up the power.i am going to raise the compression and go with a solid roller.it is for a 26 ft cat.

I planned to stay out of this one, but since we are into the technical part I guess my .02 might possibly be helpful to someone. I purchased my first set of AFR heads way back in like 94 for a SBC Tune Port engine. They worked great, withstanding many a 200hp nitrous shot. I then upgraded the ECM to the newly released Accel DFI system, and dropped a valve grenading the engine on the test drive. No other engine changes besides the ECM and wiring harness.

As a new dealer for AFR they were very helpful in isolating the issue and repairing the head with half a valve stuck through the combustion chamber. I felt the failure was due to weak springs they used. Something caused it to float out and pop the keepers, obvious by where the valve stem broke. After a bit of back and forth discussion they ask for the cam profile and RPM where it let go. When I said it let go at only 7200R's they instantly said there's your problem... I'd been RPM limited by the stock ECM to like 6500 since the engine was built. The DFI system removed that rev limiter. Seems those early hydraulic roller cam profiles were never designed to exceed 7000. AFR backed it up with good documentation, tested all the other springs, and sent me back a head looking good as new.

I sold a few more SBC sets for them, but switched to World Products on our race car. Even those needed seats cut to match the new cam and spring rate setup we used to spin 9000R's. Last I knew that old set of AFR's was still running on a small block in a boat spinning 5k daily. Morale here is don't take for granted the springs on anyone's heads. Pay close attention to spring compressed rating and clearance called for by the cam manufacture. Then check and recheck it before ever bolting them on an engine. And by no means just bolt heads on out of the box no matter how pretty they look....

Having worked in a prototype/engineering enviornment it was amazing how much assembled hardware was returned to the vendor due to out of tolerance machining or sub-assembly piece parts. The uniqueness of many of these engine builds would qualify them as first article inspection which means a 100% teardown and QC inspection versus accepting the suppliers/builders reputation.
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Ok guys , I had my builder check the valve guide clearances on my new AFR 315's . Clearances were .0018 and will be opened up a bit . Now for the kick in the azz , my heads were assembled DRY Tim bought his heads about the same time I did sooooooo come to your own conclusion . I posted this because it was the ethical thing to do to maybe save another brother from heartbreak . Also checked the coding on my springs when I received the heads simply because there was ZERO documentation that they were changed out to what I ordered , they were correct . What the hell's going on at the AFR plant that they would ship out a set of $3100.00 + heads assembled phucking DRY . I tend to leave NOTHING to chance but did not expect this !!!!!

Mine are dry also. I've seen this trend not only with AFR's also Brodix.

Pretty sure all box heads that way... From what I know

Yeah I don't even think you get any lube with the $20,000 heads either. Actually if you think about it they might have to ship differently if they did....

Deep, maybe that is how they set guide clearance now. Just wear in the correct tolerance on start up... LOL.. I've been out of the biz far to long to add anything else useful. But in the day I learned the hard way too. A local machine shop got me when they forgot to wash the heads after bead blasting. I bolted onto a fresh bottom end and it came back smoking few days later. Evidence was stuck to the rings. They covered the costs but ultimately it was my failure to catch it. So your right on to point out their problems. I'd be on the phone with them if they arrived to me like that. Possibly they sub out the assembly now. Who knows...

PS, make sure that engine is right. I might wanta buy that ride off ya one day..