I saw someone mention Alabama Cylinder Head in a post not too long ago and took a look at their website. I'm looking at

these heads

as replacements for my '89 3.0 L. I'm curious to know if anyone has any direct experience with them -- good or bad?

I'm wondering if this head is "fully loaded", i.e. comes with camshaft, valves, VLAs, rocker arms, etc.? I ask because they also have

New head blank

I did e-mail both their contact info e-mail addresses asking questions, but received no reply, which always makes me a bit suspicious when it is a company I have not dealt with before <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Thanks!

Eric W.

For the 2.6L, the ones that say NEW come complete with camshaft, valves, HVLAs, etc. The ones that say NB, are just a bare head. I would assume that the same applies for the 3.0.

Guess it's a moot point anyways... I called them up and they don't have any of the 3.0 L heads, and despite what their website says, the guy told me they would only have remanufactured ones anyways. He *did* offer to rebuild mine, but I can get that done locally without shipping them back and forth across the nation.

Bummer.

Eric W.

What about clearwater? http://cylinder-heads.com/details.cfm?itemid=2132

Yeah, I thought about that, but since the price for two heads is over $500 (plus whatever shipping would be to CA), I'm probably going to have a valve job done locally on the existing heads.

Eric W.

Eric,
I recently bought a used Alabama head for the 2.6L I4. While the casting looks good, everything attached to it is not the best quality. It was also put together very poorly. The valve spring height was not within specs and the retainers hit ALL the valve guide seals, breaking them. The rear cam plug was also installed dry and coming off. This head had less than 5k miles, and was very clean except for the burnt oil deposits past the exhaust valves.
So it will need a valve job to make sure the valve seats are not high and the distance between the spring retainer and the guide seal is more than the max lift.
Maybe this is not common, but something to consider.

Thanks, Oscar -- definitely good to know! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Eric W.

The Clear Water heads are very good. The Alabama ones seem cheaper build. I have used them both a few times for 2.6l