Rebuild heads
 

Could the group recommend a quality place that will rebuild heads?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

Dave,

Where do you live? :)

Craig Garrett, or cgarr on the forums here. Nice work, great price, fast turnaround time.

Yup cgarr is good--and I know another guy in the Northeast too---

Southwest, Supertec Performance.

In Austin Brooks Elliott.

Mike

German Precision, Ted Robinson, out in Northern California.

Dave, it would be helpful to us give you a good recommendation and save you a ton of time if you were to us more about what you wanted in "quality place". There are some really good ones for Porsche air cooled engines, many are members of this forum group but like everything else, each shop has its strengths. The names that you have been given so far is a great place to start, I used Bob Hirsch at Anchor Atlantic in NJ and I was very pleased with my experience with him.

+1 for Bob at Atlantic. He did my 3.6 RS spec heads. Really need to know where you live as to whether you have to ship or can drive and drop.

In Florida or anywhere else: Xtreme cylinder heads. Contact Us

Bill does the best head machining and CNC porting in the USA that I know of.

Ollies Engineering in Arizona. A price list is available on the site.

R/Dave

AnchorAtlantic Enterprises......
 

My last three (3) engine rebuilds that needed cylinder heads machining were done by AAE owned and operated by Bob Hirst (856-371-6061). I was completely satisfied with my other machine shop but was wondering why so many people were recommending Anchor Atlantic. So out of curiosity, I tried AAE's cylinder head rebuilding services and was totally amazed on the quality and craftmanship of the work. A 4th set is going to AAE this winter. If you are shipping your cylinder heads to your chosen machine shop, you can't go wrong choosing Anchor Atlantic. One less problem for your engine rebuilding project.

Tony

Hello Dave...come in Dave...where are you currently residing, as far as home base???

And ++ on Anchor Atlantic here in NJ.

Case closed. Period.

Not again......

I am sure that cgarr does fine work. But there are many great options out there so don't do a "case closed" post like there is only one......

+++ for Anchor Atlantic.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1477330730.jpg

If you're totally stupid with money, go ahead.

If you can't spend your money fast enough, other shops are your friend.

Now you are just being ridiculous!

No more ridiculous than telling someone what they can or cannot post on a forum in which you have no moderative control.

Workboat(dave),
Look for the closest shop to you that works on air-cooled Porsche heads. Why won't you share your location? Shipping these heads with insurance is pretty costly. The money you save on shipping to and from your location can be spent on other "while you're in there" issues.

I drove down to Kelly-Moss Motorsports in Madison, WI and was very favorably impressed with their facility. Prices were very competitive. Work topnotch.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1477345827.jpg

How many sets of heads have you had done and where?

You were being helpful. Now what are you doing? We get it. Craig is a regular contributor and has a great product. Ball's in Mr. Workboat's court...

Why don't you call out the one who called me out 1st?

I will always be helpful, but if I get called out, expect me to retaliate. If it's online or in the actual, physical world.

Total surprise........
 

Tippy,

Not sure what made you respond this way but I highly value your posts and totally caught me by surprise that such a comment came from you. Chris Garrett is an excellent machinist but he is not the only person in this world who could do good jobs. There are countless individuals across the country that are as good or better than your guy. Take a deep breathe and look at the mirror. And relax. We all get into this mood.

Tony

Here is the reason I called him on his post here:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-engine-rebuilding-forum/925495-getting-ready-rebuild-my-engine.html#post9241661

I have no issues with him recommending cgarr. I do have issues with his comments.

Dude, you're hilarious. Your comments are always abrasive and condescending, and you're calling out my comments?!

Get a grip bro!!

And Tony, I should have put a smiley face on the "stupid" part, I was just putting emphasis on my words..... :) :)

I find it very amusing that one of the rudest members of the forum takes issue with anyone else's posts.


*** Ha ha - sick minds think alike, Tip - cosmic! :)

Took the words right out of my mouth.

I'll always vouch for Craig. Weekend turn-around, lots of communication, and cost less than a fine dinner.

Stand up guy!! :)

Is it the angle of the photo, or do these seats look really low. Flow over the seats is severely reduced when the seat is sunk and the seat angles and shapes compromised.

Look good when all clean and shiny but flow like """"""

oops, referring to werk 1 post # 20

^^^pretty much an optical illusion. Size of photo, reflection of machined surfaces, angle of shot make the seat look more recessed than it actually is. The heads look the same as the pic posted above it for Anchor Atlantic.

I have some heads to rebuild.

Is shipping w/insurance a significant cost ? Also worried about shipping damages which favor a local shop.

pmax, packaging is very important. Remember the packaging has to survive both the trip to and from. Heads should protected in such a way that they are not damaged from hitting each other or from external forces. In terms of cost, I shipped a set of 930 heads to "cgarr" in nearby Michigan (central Wisconsin to central Michigan) for approx. $50, each way, insured for $2000, each way. The heads were not complete, only valves. No springs or shims.
BTW, highly recommend "cgarr". He's an upfront guy and does excellent work. Couldn't ask for more from a machinist.

Workboat(dave),
"Look for the closest shop to you that works on air-cooled Porsche heads. Why won't you share your location? Shipping these heads with insurance is pretty costly. The money you save on shipping to and from your location can be spent on other "while you're in there" issues.

I drove down to Kelly-Moss Motorsports in Madison, WI and was very favorably impressed with their facility. Prices were very competitive. Work topnotch."



__________________http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500822197.jpg

Please tell me that's not their finished product, if so, I would have sent them back. No cleanup cut on the mating surface and they didn't even bead blast them??

Definitely not the only one out there who does this type of work....but I recently had Craig (cgarr) rebuild my 3.0 heads. Great work, price & turn-around time. Highly recommended.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500825050.JPG


regards,
al

boasted1879,
They did only the work I requested. I only wanted new guides put in, matched to the valves I provided (existing intake valves, new exhaust valves). Head sealing surfaces were "touched" just to true up surfaces. I was still on the fence as to whether to flame-ring Ni-Resist heads and cylinders or use C2 Turbo head gaskets. The pic shown is before I decided to go with C2 Turbo head gaskets since the only problem I was dealing with was the famed C2 head-to-cylinder weeping issue.
Since I posted that pic that you illustrated above, I went through hell trying to get a commitment from Kelly-Moss to do the work I requested for the sealing surfaces. Since I'm not a big time racing team with deep pockets, they were extremely slow in responding to emails(several days), returning phone calls. The business manager/project manager didn't even know what a flame ring was!! Totally PO'd, I talked to cgarr about the work I needed. Knowing the outstanding recommendations Craig got from other Pelicanites, I had him machine the sealing surfaces .5mm for the C2 turbo head gaskets. Fast turn around and excellent communication skills. I'm sold on him.
Bead blasting, really? You judge the quality of machinist work by the bead blasting they do? Bead blasting only removes surface oxidation and carbon buildup. Once the engine goes through several heat cycles, your pearly white, bead blasted heads look just like they did before. The heads were thoroughly cleaned in my parts washing tank, then over to a local machine shop for their washing process, then off to Kelly-Moss for guide work. There's no carbon buildup anywhere and the fins are free of any grease, dirt buildup. I'm building an engine I'm going to be driving, not a coffee table. :D

I judge the total job. I expect the heads to come back looking like the day they left the factory or better. I would not put heads that had not been bead blasted on an engine that has had the cases, cam carriers and everything else cleaned so it looks like new or better. Why bother even cleaning up the case then since it will eventually look like it did before.

I also used cgarr and was very happy with his work.

Well good for you. This is a top end rebuild, total rebuild done back in '04. Turbocharger failure necessitated top overhaul. The the highly reputed dumb-ass that did my heads didn't replace the valve guides, even though I told him to do so, knurled the guides instead. Oh, btw, he bead blasted the heads and they looked so-o-o-o nice. A lot of good that did.
Engine pic below from rebuild of '04. Nice purdie parts, but lurking inside are guides that are going to wear out after less than 20K miles. That's what they call in the machinist world, "repeat business". :rolleyes:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1500844452.jpg

Some work done by Craig last winter........
 

Tippy,

I had several works done by Craig last winter (2016) and his work was remarkable. Instead of driving 40 miles one way to my current machine shop to drop off the parts and another 40 to pick them up, I was saving time by just shipping them to Craig. Right now, I have two very good and reliable machine shops for cylinder heads. Anchor Atlantic is basically for cylinder head rebuild and very good. Craig Garrett offers more additional machining capability for your rebuild. Plus he sends them back to you so quickly even before any payment is made!!!!!

You can not go wrong choosing these guys for your rebuild needs. Bob Hirst and Craig Garrett are just the best guys you want in your team. And of course a dozen more across the country.

Tony

Finding the guys who do good work can be expensive and frustrating. I was rebuilding an old 250 Chevy inline 6 once and the crank had to be ground 10 under. It was in a boat (Break Out Another Thou) and marine duty is tough. I was busy with my day job then and decided just to drop the short block off at the machine shop and have them take care of it. It ran great, for about 20 min. then started knocking. I tore it down again to see what happened, the dumb a$& never cleaned the crank out after grinding! He took care of it and after I picked the short block up again I inspected it very carefully before assembly. He had the #2 and #5 rod caps switched! back to the shop.. As it turned out the shop owner had some flunky doing the assembly. A little while after that I went to another machine shop for a head job and the same guy who worked at the other shop was now there. Needless to say I turned around as fast as I could.