FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => Non-FE Discussion Forum => Topic started by: gregaba on October 15, 2023, 05:29:38 PM
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Looks like Summit no longer sells TFS heads for our FE's.
Checked their site and they don't list them, just Edlebrock and reman vega heads.
Since Summit owns TFS it looks like they will no longer be available.
Greg
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They still have them, they are just not currently in stock, with a fairly long back order time.
Even if Summit doesn't have them, I usually can get them, but we are out too.
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Seems that Sumit has had the FE TFS heads on back order for quite some time, as well as other items. When I was looking to buy heads 2 years ago, Summit had the TFS heads back ordered until Mar 2021, then when March rolled around, the back order was shown as August, when August arrived, moved to November, and so on. In the meantime, my local speed shop was able to get me a set of TFS heads from a warehouse closer to us. Same with the slicks that I run, Summit also had those on back order, but my local guys got me a set from elsewhere. You would think that a huge supplier like Summit would be about the first place that the manufacturers would try to supply, but seems that is not the case.
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Since Summit owns TFS, they will indeed be first to receive them. The April backorder date is likely just a peacekeeper. No idea when they will actually get more - could be sooner - could be later. I know that they have been cast in the Edelbrock foundry (same as mine were) and Edelbrock has been going through some real turmoil this past year or two...
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Are bare Edelbrock heads available ??
My apologies for the post hi jack
Ricky.
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There were several times this year (and last) when I had TFS heads and Summit had zero. I think I sold 10-12 pair earlier this year when Summit was showing a 2-3 month lead time. Seems counterintuitive but it’s been like that several times.
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Barry nailed it. The Edelbrock foundry has had a real hard time, with cost, material, and manpower. Not a lot progress, getting product out the door.
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There were several times this year (and last) when I had TFS heads and Summit had zero. I think I sold 10-12 pair earlier this year when Summit was showing a 2-3 month lead time. Seems counterintuitive but it’s been like that several times.
That is likely because of inventory and demand profiles. As an example - vendor "A" makes 75 of something that is is high demand. Motor State might get ten, a few smaller warehouses might get five each of the same item, and Summit might get fifty of them. But, because of their size and need to fulfill backorders, Summit might run out way earlier while parts languish in inventory at a small warehouse. Inventory and supply chain stuff was a big piece of my life for many years....sometimes very counterintuitive.
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I got the opportunity to attend the SEMA show in Las Vegas this year, I stopped at the Trick Flow booth and asked about the status of their FE heads & intakes. They told me that they have NO intention of discontinuing the FE heads, they confirmed the issues they have been battling are the same foundry issues Jay has told us he had the last couple years. They have increased the amount of foundries they are working with, but that often requires new tooling being made to accommodate the new foundry, and that of course takes more time, something Jay has also mentioned he has had to deal with. They think they are back on track, but of course still so far behind it will be a while until inventory builds up to a point that the stuff is in stock on a regular basis. Talking to them I could tell they are as frustrated as consumers are. As far as the intake manifolds, it’s the same situation. They had their FE 2-4 bbl Tunnel Wedge copy on display, and also confirmed they are very happy with the sales on that, when they can get them of course. I took the opportunity to let them know to try and get their 1-4 bbl single plane back in production too, that it had lots of fans, and with the Edelbrock Victor hard to find now too it would be nice to have some option available. They told me part of the reason they sometimes ask retailers to mark the intakes as not available or take them off their websites periodically is so consumers aren’t ordering them, and being charged with funds or deposits held for long periods, when they are still unsure exactly when they can get them delivered.
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There were several times last year when one of my suppliers was getting steady shipments of the TFS FE heads, while Summit was showing months away. We went through one of these same lulls in TFS head availability last year and I was selling heads for a few months before Summit even had any.
Not sure how Summit/A-Tech/Trick Flow is set up, but I would think that the parent company would make more money by selling parts to third party distributors rather than to Summit.
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Wish i'd run into Kevin there. I asked the TFS guy too and he said the same.
Not a lot of FE's there this year but a few. I will make a SEMA post.
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Wish i'd run into Kevin there. I asked the TFS guy too and he said the same.
Not a lot of FE's there this year but a few. I will make a SEMA post.
Yeah, too bad I didn’t know you were going this year, I’d have certainly said hi. I only had two days open to go though SEMA, Tuesday & Wednesday, so as others have said in the past, no way to see everything in just that little time.