I know I was one of the first to get a set of the TFS heads. I have had them for sometime now. Would be nice to actually be able to finally use them. I have not heard anything back from TFS.

 

UPDATE: Heads and possibly the whole combo are going back to TFS. Hopefully somthing will get resolved here somtime soon. They tried a set of TFS rocker arms/studs with no luck. Hopefully I will have a running car buy winter. Speed INC has been held back well over a month buy these heads.

 

quick question... Do your TFS heads have "TrickFlow LT1 195cc" engraved on the front faces of them? I saw pics of someone else's that did. Mine were a very early set and do not.

I didn't pay that close of attention to the rockers when I put them on and have only started the engine twice since it has been completed. I hope they are sitting flat, but will have to pull a valve cover to be sure. They did seem to line up fine with TFS guideplates and ARP studs... I just didn't look at how the roller tip was seated against the valve

 

Mine do not to the best of my memory have any engravings, but it has been months since I have seen the heads myself do to all the problems. Mine were a early set also. I didn't notice the issue when I first checked my pushrod length. Speed INC noticed it though when they were lashing the valves. They are a little more thurough then I was I guess. Wonder how many are running with the same issue as mine and don't even know it.

 

I have seen ALOT of TFS heads and only the ones that came through in the last couple of months have had the engravings in them.

Lloyd

 

Ditto, I have only seen ones from the 2nd batch where they did not say that on the front. They say something else though now ;-)

Bret

 

bought them about a month ago, and they are on the motor now. Had no problems w/ the rockers but I am also using SA rockers.

 

Maybe they redesigned them and now engrave them...either way I would pull a valve cover and have a look. It was not very noticeable unless you are at rocker level looking under the roller tip. Its not an issue with sitting over the valve, it doesn't sit flat on the valve.

 

Well I got another call from Artie at TFS now that they have inspected the heads the second time. Once again he is telling me that the heads are fine and that they could not duplicate the issue that Speed INC is having(and I saw with my own eyes) with the valvetrain. They are assuring me that everything is ok and told me to run the heads as they sit. I am very nervous about doing this and Speed INC is not recommending I run them. This puts alot of pressure on me and I really do not know what to do. If its not the heads it almost has to be a issue with the block deck....any suggestions on how to rule this out? This is very frustrating and I was supposed to have this car back by May/June. What do I do now????

 

No what you said makes sense...TFS gave me the impression that they checked all of this out. I would hope that would be something they examined/ruled out. Here is the latest email from the shop regarding there convo with Artie at TFS.
Yes..Jim spoke with him and said it makes no sense. We will run them if you o.k them as TFS has…we do not want to be held liable for these. There is no way the deck would cause this issue..so we will leave this out. I can video the car for you or try to make it when you can come down. We will begin working on the car again in a couple weeks

 

have you spoke to the person that machined the motor?

Also does speed have another LT1 block laying around that they could try the heads on?

 

I agree. Don't know what to tell you, but having the TFS rep say that the deck is causing an issue that they say they do not see is BS, anyone who has any experiance building motors will tell you that the block is not at fault - this is a machining issue on the heads.

 

Thats what myself and Speed INC are thinking. Now the issue is how much more time/money do I spend getting this figured out. Artie at TFS told me that on their test engines everything is perfect, he even said he shipped the heads back with the wear pattern on the valves from their testing. He also said all of their machines verified the heads are correct. I am just stumped as to what I should do seeing the combo is in another state and I have very little free time with my father in the hospital.

 

You could try asking for a refund and cut your losses right now.

 

This reply is From Bill McGhee, Manager of TFS:

TFS has spent a significant amount of time checking the LT-1 heads in question due to the fact that there has been a large amount of time and money invested in them by the owner and TFS, and we cannot duplicate the problem.

As has been stated, these were purchased bare, but that doesn't change the actual machining program as it is the exact same part as our ( TFS ) assembled head. As I am the management ( Bill McGhee ) of TFS, and have spoken with Speed Inc, Lloyd Elliott and Randy to try to put closure to this chain of postings, I will reply with the following information:

All the machining of the angles in the part in question have a designated tolerance. For example, the valve angle is 23 degrees +/- 15 minutes or a 1\4 of a degree off the deck surface. To go even deeper, the stud angle is 11.64 degrees +/- 15 minutes. These angles would be from looking down the head from end to end. With that being said, if looking at the exhaust flange of the head, the valve guide, stud and pushrod will be 90 degrees form the deck surface +/- 15 minutes. The tolerance of the deck surface from end to end has a tolerance of .0025". The surface for the rocker bosses run parallel to the deck surface within .0025.

Now with all the ideas that have been posted I have not seen anyone speak about the parallelism of the trunion on the rocker to the flat for the polylock, the angle tolerance of the threaded bore in the polylock to the flat that the rocker rests on, the bore in the rocker for the bearings to the bore for the axle or the bore in the axle to the outer diameter of the roller. If you take and stack all the tolerances that I have described the wrong way the rocker wouldn't touch anything but the very edge of the valve but a tolerance stackup such as that is impossible. The postings of deck surfaces being inconsistent between the blocks being used for mockup are not relevant to the fitment of components above the deck surface of the head.


TFS has reviewed this particular problem so as to avoid any problems to the engine builder, the owner and especially any bad feedback such as this to the TFS product line. TFS has determined that there is not a problem with these heads from a machining standpoint. TFS does not assume any responsibility for any of the finish machine work I.E. valve job, porting, component choices, or assembly done by any other companies or individuals.

We feel as there is nothing in these heads that will negatively effect the longevity of their use.