Beware this post is a bit long winded.

This is the 1st engine I've ever worked on. I consider myself as somewhat knowledgeable with motors but no expert by any means.

Last year on one of the other Pontiac sites I answered an add from an engine builder in Ohio for some #48 heads he had for sale to install on my 350. He talked me out of these heads since they were big valve heads & suggested some #46 heads.

He worked up a package deal to rebuild the heads that included enlarging the intake valves, light porting, elongating the push rod holes for future 1.65 rockers, 3 angle valve job. Basically everything needed to rebuild the heads.

We agreed on the price and he proceeded and completed the work after a couple of months. He did email me through the process suggesting to leave the exhaust guides & that they were in such good condition that he would not replace them.

I installed a new cam & installed the heads. The engine ran strong but found the car smoking after it warmed up. I called him and he offered a few things to check. In the mean time I had a hip injury that held me up from working on the motor for a few months.

Well after recovering from my hip injury I ended up removing the heads & had a local machine shop go through the heads to see if they could find anything wrong. They found a couple bad exhaust valves, all the exhaust guides were bad & the heads were not surfaced. They ended up going through the heads, repairing everything that needed to be done.

I installed the heads & got the motor running once again. Everything is perfect car runs great no smoke. I couldn't be happier.

In the mean time I decided to install some Comp Cams 1.65 steel roller rockers to see if I could gain some performance. After installing the rockers I see the push rods are rubbing the heads. At this point I'm really pissed & call the engine builder to here what he has to say about the head issues. He basically says that the heads could have been damaged during shipping & might explain the smoking. As for elongating the push rod holes he says that maybe he didn't elongate them enough & that he may give me some money back. He charged me $20.00 to do this, so I'm not sure what he would be willing to do.

My question is what would you do?

Would you start bad mouthing the guy if anyone asks?

Just let it go? & call it a lesson learned.

Try and recover some money from him, even though he's out of state?

Thanks for reading, Brian

I would post his name as a bad head restorer and then just forget about it. Recourse would be difficult at best. At least you have your heads. Most guys pay and get nothing in return.

i would not be happy ! i would post a beware of this shop.

Agree!

Post his name and the experience. Do it on the PY site as well.
What state is he in?

1) why wouldnt he like the bigger valves? when I bought new heads for my 400 I was looking for the bigger valves...
2) I didnt install roller rockers ,but went with 1.65, and my guy who also shaved some off the heads to get CC around 90 told me I needed to enlarge to push rod holes ,and get new push rods.....
doesnt sound like a good engine builder there

The heads were going on a 350: small bore means clearance issues with large valves.

The other shop may have padded the bill a bit as well, especially when looking for "anything wrong". It sounds like a difference in opinion about when exhaust guides and valves need replacing. I know shops that do everything whether it's needed or not ("not new" = needs replacing), and others that will help save the customer money when possible.

A set of exhaust valve seals might have solved the smoking, and the pushrod hole length needed will depend on the total lift. Likely the new cam already had 0.450" lift (a 10% increase in lift over the typical Pontiac cam) and caused problems when the total with 1.65 rockers went over 0.500" lift.

I'd like to hear both sides of the story.

Thanks Brent! I learn something every day! Good...thanks...

as my step dad used to say :"a day you didnt learn something new ,was a wasted day"!

1st off, they shouldnt of smoked PERIOD!, which means he didnt do something right, ie; guides and/or seals.
2nd, he didnt elongate the push rod holes enough. Pontiac guys take into consideration max cam profiles that can/will be used.
3rd, if 48 heads are to big, why puting larger valves in the 46 not?
Agree, the cylinder bores should have scallops(think thats what thier called), which can be added, to may full use of added intake flow.

I'd like to know who also, cause theres two shops there i wouldnt advise using.
But be careful, these same ones dont take bad public reviews well either.

I'll wait to see if he comes back with anything before I start trashing his name.

I learned you can install bigger intake valves up to 2.07 without any shrouding problems. I went with 2.05's

He failed to enlongate the holes at all.

my understanding th 1969 350 h.o. used 400 c.i. 48 heads. along with 67 cam for automatic & 68 cam with 4 speed !

Yes but the 350 blocks had valve reliefs to keep the 2.11 valves from hitting the bores. I believe the 067 cams also had a lower lift profile as well.