I wrote this guide as a person frustrated by buying items claimed to be manufactured in a country other than China only to find that an item is indeed manufactured in China, and only marketed through the said other country.  Secondly, building an engine can be a hugely costly and frustrating excercise and you should be fully informed before laying out some hard earned cash on some alloy heads.  More often than not its definately worth the extra 300 or 400 bucks for a set from a trusted manufacturer.

Fitting a set of alloy heads for your Small Block Chevy carries several advantages in weight, heat management and the flow properties usually associated with an aftermarket head.  They are however one of those items that the term "you get what you pay for really rings true."

For some time there have been sets of Aluminium heads for sale called "Procomp" heads claiming some great flow numbers for around 1200 to 1400 bucks Australian.  Doing a search on these heads and perousing information available from people who test them reveals a stark contrast between claimed flow numbers and actual flow numbers, and claims that they actually make less power than stock factory iron heads.  There is also evidence of very shoddy workmanship, with one user claiming that even the location of the spark plug ports varied by up to 1/2 an inch!  Also there are claims that the valves are seated on raw aluminium!  Some people say they are OK after receiving extensive machine work to tidy them up and correct the plethora of errors encountered straight out of the box.  Consider the cost of this machine work to what you will pay for a good set of heads.

The most aggravating thing is that some people claim them to be manufactured in Australia, which is not the case at all, they are cast in China.  Do you really trust a cheap Chinese product with your big dollar American Small Block?  When was the last time you saw a Chinese car with an American V8 in it!

With some research you can still find cheaper but good quality heads.  For example, and no I am not affiliated with any of these people, RHS heads 180cc great flow, cast in Australia.  Summit Aluminium Heads from Summit Racing, reputedly Brodix IK200's re-branded.  Brodix are excellent heads and have an excellent track record in Drag Racing and other forms of motorsport. 

Read this : http://www.boatstoreonline.com/procomp.html if you want more info on Procomp cylinder heads, then do a search on them and work out the ratio of good to bad feedback on them and you you should have your answer to whether you should just save a bit more money and buy good heads.  Hope this helps somemone.

IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, CAN YOU AFFORD TO DO IT AGAIN?