I am looking for new heads for my 5.9l that I am rebuilding. I bought remanned ones but was unimpressed with where I saw they attempted to fix cracks. Decided to take the hit and buy newly casted heads. I will attach pictures of the ones I've decided on. I messaged the shop that sells them. They say they are a private casted heads that are thicker where they are known to crack. Wouldn't tell me the company that makes them. From what I've read most aftermarket heads probably come from the same factory. These heads definitely don't look like magnum heads. No casting numbers anywhere that I see. Thoughts on these heads? They were under $300 a pop as a bare head. Thoughts? Seem legit? The shop that sells them seems trustworthy

 

Odessa/Clearwater cylinder head sells new casting heads in about that price range, and yes, they ARE better castings than stock. Personally, If I were tearing down a magnum engine, with high mileage, I wouldn't even bother having the stock heads checked, I would plan on replacing them.

That said, I think you can get fully assembled heads for not much more than the 300 bucks they are asking. (stock) Another option would be to go with the EQ monster magnums, which flow quite a bit better than the stock heads, even with the standard valve sizes. (they are also available with 2.02 intake valves....) Those would likely need a custom tune to get the most out of 'em though.

 

The heads I am looking at getting are aftermarket heads that are said to be casted thicker where they are known to crack. They are only $240 a pop but they are bare heads. I'm ok with that as I need to replace the springs for my cam anyway. Do they heads I posted pics of look good?

 

They look nice in the pics, but, that really doesn't mean anything. Are there any sites that have reviews of them? Or the company you are thinking about buying them from? That would be a better indicator.

But yeah, I think all the 'aftermarket' "new casting" heads come from the same foundry.

 

cant find any reviews unfortunately. And I would be buying them from an engine shop. For the price I don't think I can pass them up. If they show up and suck.... then my gamble didn't pay off. But if they show up and are actually nice then I'll be happy. I'll have my machine shop look them over to be safe.

 

If you are buying from a local shop, and you don't like 'em, at least you can go and talk to a real, live person about it...... That's the kind of insurance I like.

 

I'm trying to figure out why you buy heads that you don't know who makes them. I would stay away from ebay unless you know exactly what you are buying. I believe there is a thread here somewhere about aftermarket heads. And the problem with the EQ new castings(Odessa/Clearwate makes them). Have your machine shop check the heads real well! People buy the EQ's and they think they are ready to bolt on with the valves etc installed, But that's not the case. It says this on their site...
"Assembly of bare cylinder head casting should be done by qualified machine shop"
Because further machining needs to done IE the rocker post's need to be machined.

 

I bought EQ heads fully assembled from their ebay for $550 for the pair for my "budget 408" that is sorting in my garage not even started on it yet lol

 

Arh, another parts collector
I can relate.

 

I constantly change. I want to twin turbo the 408 night all the parts but halfway through decided to Hemi swap it (which is almost done) but now I want to Hellcat swap it and bought a Hellcat crate motor lol.