[dlotz]

Ok

Many of you have asked for me to reveal this vendor so that you do not have the same experience.

***************WARNING WARNING WARNING****************
The following post may be seen by some as DRAMA, but I am going to post THE ENTIRE story with emails just to avoid the “well that’s just your side of the story” excuses. If you are not interested in this info then please just pass it by and do not comment, but I now feel that I have to defend my side of the story. The emails show how this vendor treated me as a customer and how he tried to discredit me, my engine builder, other forum members who posted comments and everyone else who agreed that his work was not acceptable. Again, if you don't want to read or hear it then please just pass it by without comment. Others may be interested on the vendors comments.
************************************************** ******

I bought these heads from Keith Craft back in October of 2006 for right around $2000 after seeing them listed on ebay.
I contacted Keith over the phone for the sale because the heads did not sell on ebay. We discussed my intended use for a very rare STD Bore side-oiler and many other vintage std/std parts. He assured me that these were in great shape and ideal for my build, and that I would not have any issues running these heads.

After receiving the heads I media blasted the paint off of them to make sure there were not any issues that could be hidden by the paint. I found a small crack on the #2 exhaust ear and sent the following email chain:

From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Keith
We cleaned off the black spray paint this afternoon and discovered a crack in one of the exhaust port runners by one of the spark plug
holes(I have attached a few pictures). Not sure if it needs to be fixed
but it did raise a concern. Any thoughts?

From: Keith Craft
Date: Tuesday, October 31, 2006
This is nothing to worry about and will not cause a problem. You can drill a little hole at each end and grind a little small groove along
the crack and then fill in with JB weld. When dried just flat file and sand it and it will look like new. Thanks, Keith Craft

From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Keith
I don't like the idea of JB weld. Weld yes but I don't like JB
stuff. I am going to have a shop here look at it and determine a cost for repair. Maybe see if it might be a good candidate for a spray weld. However I will look at getting this repaired professionally and with that
there will be a cost. Are you willing to cover the cost for repair to a
reasonable extent? Let me know your thoughts.

From: Keith Craft
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2006
I am sorry but I forgot that I did see the pictures that you sent
over. If you will send the head back I can stitch the crack up with
a cast iron plug system that we use all of the time on cracks like this. I
can do it in one day and get it back to you the next. Thanks, Keith

From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2006
Keith
Head is on it’s way to you today

From: Keith
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006
Not a problem, we will get it fixed as soon as we get it back. Sorry for
the problem and delay.
Thanks, Keith

After receiving the head back the crack was repaired. Now you might say 2006! Holy crap that was 4 years ago, anything could have been done to those heads? Well, shortly after (approx 3 months) getting the head back for the crack/weld repair I was deployed to Iraq for six months between February and July 2007. After returning home I continued collecting more parts for the build until 5 months later when I was AGAIN deployed back to Iraq from December 2007 to November 2008. After returning from my second deployment I again continued to purchase/budget the remaining parts for the next year and we finally began building the motor in October 2009. I went to a well known and very accomplished FE engine builder here locally in the Detroit area. Without dragging his name into all of this I will just say that he has been featured in numerous magazines, engine masters challenges and noted as one of the top builders when it comes to FE’s.

There were a few months there that were taken up by block machining, crank inspection, ordering the custom pistons/rods etc etc. So when he came to the heads I asked my Engine Builder to tear the heads down and give them a good cleaning and inspection because I did sand blast them and wanted to make sure there wasn’t any media in the heads. When my builder looked over the heads he was concerned that all the valve stems were at different heights which would cause ordering all different push rods and would just not really be an ideal set up for a high performance engine. After informing me of the issue I called Keith on the phone. I knew it had been a few years since I purchased the heads, but I explained that I had been deployed to Iraq twice since that and they we were just now starting to get under way with the build. He was cool on the phone and didn’t want to take another builders word on his craftsmanship as he believed that the heads were still useable (this was prior to the margin being cut down when the only problem was unleveled valve seats), but he agreed to look at the heads himself. And started this email chain:

From: Me
To: Keith Craft
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009
Keith
Thanks for calling me back so promptly and taking my call. I
appreciate your understanding that I am not an expert in this realm which is why I try and make sure to do my business with shops that have high reputations and credibility such as yourself.
Please understand that I am not discrediting your work by any means,
nor is my Engine Builder for that fact. I completely understand you wanting to see the heads and not take someone else’s word for it as I would expect the same if it were me. I think the confusion may be in how I understood the heads as described on ebay when I purchased them. Yes you did advertise them as being in “great condition,” and “will make a great addition to restoration project, bid with confidence", which I am sure they are useable in most applications.
However, since I am using them in a high performance build with some pretty valuable original components I want to make sure that there are absolutely no issues of concern, which is why I bothered you with so many questions where we discussed my build in detail before purchasing the heads to begin with.
After talking with you I had the confidence in your word that I would
not have any issues with these heads for my build. When I reiterated those build plans to my Engine Builder, I told him my goal was for him
to build a solid/bullet proof motor built for longevity. Below are the
items which my Engine Builder was concerned with.
1- The seat heights relative to the decks are all at different heights.
2- Some of the exhausts are really sunken into the head, while other intakes have had seats replaced and are pretty "high".
3- The relative tip heights are all at different heights – geometry and/or pushrod length would be a mess.
4- We can re-use the valves themselves, the guides appear to be OK,
and we can likely re-use the springs and hardware.
5- Recommend we should at least get new valve seats for all of the exhausts and at least one of the intakes just to get them into a consistent workable condition.
Again, my Engine Builder had my specific build in mind and made these recommendations in regard to my specific build intentions. So I would like to send the heads back to you, unassembled as we discussed, for you to take a look at them. When you receive them, please take a look at them and let me know your thoughts/opinion on how well they can/will fit my application and/or what we should do to them to make them the best fit. Thanks again for looking at these and I apologize for the long delay, but those multiple deployments prevented me from starting the build sooner.

From: Keith Craft
Date: Thursday, November 5,
Not a problem, I will check them out when they get here and let
you know what I find. I will check the valve heights and go from there.

The next week, when I didn’t hear anything back from Keith, I called him on the phone to inquire about the status. He had already started the work to fix them and said that he had already put just about 6 hours in to the job and was almost finished. I was worried that he started the work without a quote and approval from me. He said that he would only charge me for his labor at $300 to install all new seats and swirl the bowls. He then said that he wasn’t sure if these were a set of heads that he received in as a trade that they didn’t inspect very well or what, but he would have them out to me in the mail that week. I thanked him for understanding that I am not a heads expert and ensured him that I or my engine builder, were insulting his craftsmanship, but more that I was holding him to the original item condition as described and advertised when I bought the heads from him. I understand that things happen, but glad that he was willing to help and fix the heads.

When we got the heads back my Engine Builder called me to look at the heads as they came back from the shop and we found new problems that were not there before:
1-The guides were all cracked, possibly from resetting the thin wall guide depth to adjust for the new valve job and pressed them in with too large of a punch, or too far?
2-The valve margins were cut down on the exhaust valves to correspond to the valve seats.