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C6 Corvette ZR1 & Z06General info about GM’s Corvette Supercar, LS9 Corvette Technical Info, Performance Upgrades, Suspension Setup for Street or Track
Contacted a local machine shop that says they can fix LS7 heads. The guy that actually does them wasn’t there but the guy that works with him says they’ve done several.
Doing it local is appealing to me. Alternative is going with AHP heads which I’ve been reading so much about but I don’t like the hassle of shipping and the downtime. Also I think it’s going to save me money. I own a shop and once I get mine done, I want to advertise to get this done for all z06 owners in the area and it would be more profitable to get it done local.
So question is - is there anything else I should get done to the heads while it’s at the machine shop than just valves and guides?
AHP has core sets available so not really much down time. AHP has done hundreds of LS7 heads and does first class work that is proven on the track and on the street. I looked for the cheapest route first like you did and contacted many local machine shops. After talking to many other members on this forum and talking to Kohle @ AHP, I decided that experience and reputation give me more confidence in the work than saving a few hundred bucks. Just my 2 cents.
Although I did my own labor using AHP heads, I'm not opposed to the idea of paying another shop to do the work. However, you better believe that they would be installing AHP heads. But, in the same breath, I'm not sure if I would hand my Z06 to a shop that has just done several. But back to your question, If you plan to do cam down the road you may want to upgrade head internals, porting heads, trunnion etc...Doing these now will save you $$ from having to take them off later and doing the supporting upgrades
AHP has core sets available so not really much down time. AHP has done hundreds of LS7 heads and does first class work that is proven on the track and on the street. I looked for the cheapest route first like you did and contacted many local machine shops. After talking to many other members on this forum and talking to Kohle @ AHP, I decided that experience and reputation give me more confidence in the work than saving a few hundred bucks. Just my 2 cents.
They come with upgrades if you pay for them. I opted not to do a cam in the future so I passed on the trunnion upgrade.
My bill on parts alone. This would be a basic head fix
Package 4 heads. $1358 + 150 shipping.
Head gasket kit plus ARP head bolt kit $429 (You can't reuse the OEM head bolts)
Oil plus coolant (Under $100)
According to Kohl at AHP a tune is not needed for basic head fix
My extras
Head porting-street $550 (Tune needed)
Head milling .020" , no charge (Tune is needed)
Shorter pushrods $120
While I had it opened, I added B&B headers $993.99 (Tune is needed)
ESC Tuning $149 (I know a Dyno tune would be better and will do one down the road $600+) but right now she is running great
You need to find out what their “fix” is. If it doesn’t involve polishing the Ti valves, guide replacement, valve job etc. I wouldn’t even bother.
^This..."fix" means different things to different shops. What do they do for intake valves...inspect and treat, or? What guide material do they use...bronze, manganese-bronze, PM, MS90? What do they do for exhaust valves...inspect/replace OE, solid, hollow-stem? Do they measure for seat runout, and if so...what's their target spec?
Another nod for AHP, had them on my '09 Z, and now on my '07. They have a tried and true recipe, not that others don't as well. With their cores, there's hardly any down time, and the swap is super easy if you have basic hand tools and a place to do it (you said you have a shop, so you've covered half the battle already). Have them send you cores, and you can do the swap for the other Z's in your area.
As far as upgrades, they'll do just about anything you want for an additional cost. The only upgrade I did was PSI 1511 springs.
When you go with AHP for your LS7 head fix, you are buying into their experience and knowledge base that they will get the problem fixed. In addition, they are the only source I could find that has the willingness and experience to install the Moldstar90 valve guides in the heads that they repair. This is what I was looking for and found at AHP for my car. Their customer service is second to none, IMHO.
Another vote for AHP. They've investigated the problems and have incorporated the fixes into their product. A local machine shop can do what tasks you ask, but they may not know what it takes to resolve the LS7 ills. The local shop may know how to clean up or refresh standard heads, but ours has specific defects.
I went with AHP. Little waiting with the core program, but the shipping is 150. each way, got surprised by that.
OP: We are one of the Top (if not the Top) LS7 head reworking shops in the country/world.
We do 300+ sets of LS7 heads per year and have been doing so for 5+ years now!
We have customer that send in their LS7 heads from not just all over the United States but from all over the world (Germany, Spain, Holland, Iran, Australia, etc...)
OP if you have any questions at all feel free to give us a call we are always more than happy to answer questions:
310-326-2399
or shoot us an email: HP@americanheritageperformance.com
We can either rework your existing heads or you can go with one of our core sets of heads so you don't have any down time when you do the swap (simply send you old heads back after the swap for your core deposit back).
We charge $150 to ship our heads to the lower 48 states (less for California) with full insurances Via FedEx. Customer is responsible for the return shipping but our packing that you will receive your new core heads in is fully reusable so it makes returning them simple.
Shipping to us can be found for as low as $65... The $150 we charge for shipping covers the time and materials to safely pack your new LS7 heads as well as the actual shipping cost plus $3k (or more) worth of insurance on the package.
Here is a video one of our customers made of him unpacking his new AHP LS7 heads just to give you an idea of how much pride we take in our products and our safe shipping of your parts:
AHP has core sets available so not really much down time. AHP has done hundreds of LS7 heads and does first class work that is proven on the track and on the street. I looked for the cheapest route first like you did and contacted many local machine shops. After talking to many other members on this forum and talking to Kohle @ AHP, I decided that experience and reputation give me more confidence in the work than saving a few hundred bucks. Just my 2 cents.
I absolutely could not have said it better than you. AHP is a no brainer for LS7 head repair!
Kohle linked my video above. I watched it again for the first time since I published it and I felt a bit jealous of my former self. I was so happy to have those heads done and 100% confident that they were done right. I still am and I just want to experience the satisfaction of upgraded speed parts all over again. Kinda like when you look at your old Christmas morning videos and wish you could unwrap that video game system all over again.
Say...that reminds me...Kohle, I will be sending you my intake and throttle body to be ported as well this winter.
Anyway, my dad has always used the "local machine shop" to do his work and shops like that typically do good work. BUT....that was on a standard Chevrolet small block V8 . Not to knock the family owned speed/machine shops around the country....but what is important here is the fact that the LS7 engine is special. No, I am not saying it was touched by god and all that junk. But..it isn't a typical Chevrolet V8. Whoever you choose to work on it absolutely must know not only what they are doing, but understand the consequences of treating it as such. That kind of understanding is only gained from extensive experience and very critical procedures. If your local shop cannot explicitly cite that they have that experience and knowledge, I'd respectfully consider AHP as a first choice. Do not take any risk of having someone say "Shoot...sorry...I thought it was a regular ol' 427 engine." You just don't want to take the chance of paying a little now and a lot later.
Exactly, well said! This isn't a 'tune up' or refurbishment that is typically done. It is a fix to a defect that does not occur by normal wear and tear but a defect in manufacturing that the local shop won't know to look for and standard refurb won't resolve.
OP be sure who you go to is knowledgeable with the specific issues on the LS7!
11-07-2018, 11:41 PM
Local machine shop to fix heads
