GT40P Cylinder Head Sources

Edited this post so the list of sources is in the top post.

These are shops that people on CCF have used:
- Clearwater Cylinder Head - website - Phone: 1-800-572-1963

- Tri-State Cylinder Head - no website yet - Phone: 812-421-0095

Others on eBay:

- Odessa Cylinder Head (also in Clearwater FL) - e-Bay Shop - Phone: 727-299-9058

- J&C Enterprises - e-Bay store - Phone: 800-266-5599

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original message:

Is Odessa Cylinder Head on eBay the same as Clearwater Cylinder Head in Florida?

I'm trying to price out GT40P heads.

They have this one for $510 free shipping.

I know people also talk about Tri State. They don't seem to have a website. Is this them? Tri - State Cylinder Head 812-421-0095

I've also found this on eBay: J & C Enterprises for a total of $494 including shipping.

Tri-State may be gone, I couldn't get their site to come up a few weeks ago, but had no trouble a few months ago. There's still some numbers online if you wanted to try and call them.

From just doing this, the stock GT40p springs are a little weak, but not a lot. I'm not really sure they wouldn't handle the RPM's a boat turns and unless you're constantly running around at WOT you may not ever notice.

Cool, the extra cost is only about what the springs themselves run.   I did my own just to learn, but you can expect
It to take at least an evening unless you're familiar with the process and have a nice spring compressor.   I used a vise with a pressure gauge and one of the cheap screw down spring compressors, lots of turning things, takes about 10min a spring once you get the hang of it.

I got a set from Alex's parts, found him on the Corral.com.   He was a little cheaper than the drop in Trick Flow set and the only thing extra was shims. I think it was about $100 delivered. I sent them the cam specs and they sent everything and some details on setup for the P heads.   A bit different than CR specs, but the cam was for some Performer RPM heads and the P's have shorter valve stems. Looking back on it now, that's why I think the P's might work with the stock springs, I was testin them at the CR closed height and they were very soft, had I known the valves I was using were 1/4in shorter they would have been a lot closer to what I was looking for.

By the way take everything you read over there with a grain of salt, they're doing something different building drag motors. We seem to be building truck and street car motors, I think a lot of parts they don't like would probably work well here if they turned the right way.

Yes, if you look at the eBay link it says "$60 additional for 351 for drilling 1/2" holes". I called them and they said it just adds an additional day. I'll check on the valves and springs.

Tristate has always installed larger valves, done a higher quality valve grind and upgraded the valvesprings on the P's. At least since the P head conversion talk started 7 or 8 years ago. From all reports, they seem to be a little bit better than the run of the mill head refurb shop shipping these out the door for $400.

I grabbed a set from Clearwater a few months ago and I was very happy with the price. No extra charge for brass plugs or to drill out the headbolt holes. Only thing I'll caution you on, is if you're going to do a cam Tri-state may be the better option. Clearwater reuses the old valve springs, albeit they test every one, and other stock components whereas Tri-State upgrades the springs(among other things) to accomodate more aggressive cams. When I added up the extra cost to upgrade the valvetrain on the Clearwater heads it was much more than just buying a set from Tri-State. So I guess price is relative to what you want to ultimately upgrade.

To support what TX said, I've had multiple machine shops tell me the same thing on the Ps. They have tinner coolant passage walls and are much easier to screw up, expecially for these garage guys doing dremel port jobs.

I ordered these GT40P heads from Clearwater in January, fast service, good price. Hoping to finish my rebuild next week.

Hey guys - I've got a chance to get GT40P heads locally for $200 to be rebuilt. Besides something visually obvious, is there any way I can check for cracking or other problems before I drop them off for magnafluxing and machining?
I obviously don't want to buy cracked heads...