pro maxx fe heads

[fryedaddy]

has anyone tried the new fe promaxx heads.i know the are made in china,but i heard they are high end china.are they worth fooling with for a stout street fe,or should i stay clear of them?

[machoneman]

Hah! I'll let folks like Barry, Brent and other builders fill you in.....it won't be good.

[blykins]

They may be the best China that you can find, but it just really bites my butt that they copied an Edelbrock head.....which is essentially what they did.  I had a set of them here to look at, and with all the (really nice) available heads out there, I just decided to box them up and send them back. 

So, I've never used a set. 

[fekbmax]

What makes the China made Scat crank such a good piece but nearly every other speed part from China is labeled as junk ?

[cjshaker]

Just my opinion, but you have very few options with a crank, unless you go billet. And I think Eagle is Chinese as well, aren't they? With heads we have several options now, a few American and one S. Korean, and they're all unique and have their place. China is breaking all copyright laws and copying everything these days, but that's another story and probably doesn't need discussed here.

[fryedaddy]

i still believe you get what you pay for. these heads are so cheaply priced,almost to good to be true. this is what i tell all my chevy buddies,you know why its so much cheaper to build a chevrolet.you got your cheap crap at a cheap price,you get what you paid ford.

[fekbmax]

I have wondered if they do any kind of testing on those parts at all  or just copy them and sell them. I'm talking more along the lines of engine and drive train parts. I'm thinking they don't do much testing.
 As far as the dress up parts go I don't think it's quite as much of an issue, . a $100 pair of fabricated valve cover's that looks just as good as a $300 pair doesn't concern me to much. If I got to do a little grinding on a bolt hole to make it fit and can use the $200 saved to put towards more important and critical quality made parts then that works for me and my tight budget..
Please don't miss understand, I'm very pleased with both my Scat cranks, . where are the RPM cranks made ?

[jayb]

You can really tell the difference between the RPM and Scat cranks.  I believe that the Scat cranks are cast in China but machined in the US; RPM cranks are cast and machined in China.  The Scat cranks are much better...

[thatdarncat]

Barry R. has said it best in the past - it's not that the Chinese can't make a good product, it's just that most of the time they are only ASKED to make the cheapest possible copy by the companies selling this stuff on the internet. They are not asked to make the product to the same specifications as the better known name brand item. And since they didn't have to do any research & engineering they save on those costs too. The problem is some of those engineering specifications are pretty important - heat treating, how a valve seat fits in the casting, etc. matter. Some of these parts have more of a potential to destroy your new motor than others, for example rocker arms, but lately I've been reading numerous reports of those fabricated valve covers not even having the bolt holes anywhere close to being in the proper place, so even seemingly simple products become another headache you get to solve. 

[blykins]

What makes the China made Scat crank such a good piece but nearly every other speed part from China is labeled as junk ?

The Scat lumps come from China but are machined in the US by guys who know what they're doing.   Callies will advertise that their journals are ground +/- .0003".  I measure every crankshaft that comes through the door and I don't see Scat's tolerances off any more than that (on the grand scheme of things....every manufacturer has a few odd balls every now and again).

You get cylinder heads in from Pro Comp, Speedmaster, etc., and they are direct copies of MSD, Edelbrock, CHI, etc., because they stole their ideas.....then you see daylight through the valve job, the seats fall out, the castings are porous, the guide clearances are all over the place, the holes are drilled wrong, the bearings fail in the rocker arms, the distributors come apart, etc.....that's the difference.  In my mind, it's bad quality combined with bad business ethics.

I don't have a gripe with ProMaxx except for they are direct copies of Edelbrocks stuff, which put a bad taste in my mouth.   Companies like this are only willing to see what companies thrive in the US, then copy them so they can sell them cheaply.

[NIsaacs]

Same topic:  http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=3309.0

Nick

[4twennyAint]

I used to work in the steel industry and ended up in China for a week.  Business culture and government mindset (oversight provided daily by CITIC, who over-ruled everything) will cut every corner - beyond being efficient - it was being cheap.  It was in everything from their plant construction, machine construction (process equipment) process plan - certs for materials, heat treat process (controls and records) ...just everything.  In my opinion, if it doesn't have a trusted brand name on it, you should check it for cracks, porosity, hardness and of course dimensional, before utilization.

[preaction]

The OP used the term High end China, what does that even mean ?

[fryedaddy]

The OP used the term High end China, what does that even mean ?

some of their best junk!