Just thought i would post a "WARNING" regarding the problems i had with these flakes. sent my heads back to them, because they were soft and the valve seats { among other things} , were moving , ie. sinking into the head. well they had them for a month plus and i heard nothing. on week #6 i faxed them a note. surprise, surprise, they answered me, but could not explain the 6 weeks i heard nothing. to cut to the chase, they sent them out and had them hardness { brinel} tested. well they got the same answer i did , when i had it done. they claim when they sent to a dealer they had been heat treated, but could not tell me why they arrived soft in the box to me. the owner of the company could care less about the whole thing. said they would rebuild them. at first i said hell no, as i bought new heads. i then said fix them and reimburse me all the money i am out . well as true to their shitty attitude, i've got nothing, zero, zip. no heads or $$$$. all i want to do at this point is to do free advertising for them, so pass the word, that "buyer- be- ware" if your dealing with these flakes. who knows how many sets are out there that are like mine and how many others have been blown off. i've had to borrow money, to find another set of alum. heads,{ not their's} just to get my engine back together. it has screwed up my whole schedule on getting my car back on the road. it's meant a 6 month delay in my project, which has had the dominoes effect on other projects i was into. well enough of my ranting, but warn others please.
That just sucks when the company doesn't give a shit AFTER they get your money.......it is so frustrating. Since you giving them some FREE advertising,might want to post what city/state they are located in.
what a joke...Here's the blurb off their website !!! " All Canfield aluminum Cylinder Heads are cast from the finest A356 virgin billet, and are heat treated to a T6 condition. Canfield Heads are machined on the latest precision, computer controlled machining centers It is not our intention to be all things to all customers. It is to give the customer a great value in the applications we fit. We regularly recommend our competitor product. Customer is KING at Canfield, we appreciate the opportunity to furnish you with your cylinder head needs. In fact if your not satisfied, please call 1-330-533-7092 and ask for John, as they say "The buck stops here." Sales 1-330-533-7092 Fax 1-330-533-7063. Thanks, John,George,& Staff "
sounds more like a poor machine job on the pockets that hold the valve seats than a heat treat problem, they are trying to pass the buck. if the counterbore the seats sit in, is bored to the wrong size, or possibly too big of a radius at the bottom corner, the seat can gradually settle in the bore.
Ray: it was not a machinging problem. all the tests done on the heads indicated that they were either not heat treated or someone heated them to a point that they became anieled, so they ended up so soft that even the intake runners were getting bulges in them as the seats sunk into the aluminum. the owner of the company is their biggest problem. his statement to me on the phone, when called and indicated they appear to be soft, was that my statement was "bullshit". he kinda set the tone for all of what has happened. guess he thinks his shit does not stink . the company is located in Canfield Ohio. i'll be filing complaints with his state as well as with the attorney generals office here in oregon. doubt it will help much, but one never knows. in the mean time, i'll keep doing my advertising in various locations for the next year or so. all i ask is that no one buy their products.
thanks for the warning, sounds to me like they might have had lots of other problems and they are playing hard nose thinking most people wont presue it , if it were a isolated incident i bet they would warrenty them and try to figure out what happened to just this one pair.... i might put them on e-bay, with a hi reserve or with a buy it now for the price you paid, with your whole story, and sell them as boat ancors or wall hangers...... dont say anything slanderous...that might get you in trouble, just the facts....HOWS THAT FOR ADVERTISEMENT!!!!bad news travels fast,you never know some canfield guy might choose to buy it now to get rid of you???? did you see that cycle some one posted on e-bay, that was funnier than hell, if you looked at the counter something like 40,000 people looked at it. not bad for about 10 bux at least you'll be heard by someone???
Lakes, I work about 1/2 hour away from Canfield. If you'd like I can make a personel visit to this place and see if I can get it resolved. I am a pretty good nogotiator and could get some results over this. It's bullshit this place won't make this right one way or another. Please pm me and let me know exactly what you would like to have rectified along with the transaction history and your name and I will visit these jerks. Petejoe
Well for you guys who have been following this saga. I visited Canfield heads today. I visited with both the owner of the company and the service rep named Ken, I believe. I was expecting a big corporation seeing how they have been in the business for so long but found a small well equipped clean shop with a small sign at the front of the building. Here to find out this place has been in business for twenty years. I talked with the owner trying to follow up on Modifieds concerns and found that they also found his heads soft after they were returned. The indicated that they batch 48 heads at a time during heat treating and did not find any other hardness issues with the rest of the batch and can prove it. He said his only guess is that the heads were heated and made soft when the installation of the guides was done at a facility (Lakes Modified) outsourced. He wanted to make it right and still does but doesn't feel its their responsiblity for the problem. He has offered, as said by Lakes modified before, to re mill the heads at his cost of 300-400 at no cost to the customer. He claims its very important that his customers are happy and with his twenty or so years of being in business, has others who will vouch for them. I was hoping I could help Lakes Modified out more but I don't really think these guys could afford replacing a total new set of heads even though they don't feel its a problem they've created. Lakes I PM'd you.
Pete Joe: I PM'd you. Thanks for your visit to them.We need to talk tho. Now for them to talk to me, would be nice.
"He said his only guess is that the heads were heated and made soft when the installation of the guides was done at a facility (Lakes Modified) outsourced. He wanted to make it right and still does but doesn't feel its their responsiblity for the problem" Well stiff cactus my friend! DO THEY HONESTLY THINK THE CUSTOMER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CANFIELD'S TIER 2 SUPPLIER. Hey its all part of THEIR process. So their next step is to cough up with a new set of heads or whatever and go after their subcontractor for the bill. I bet their purchase order has an agreement to cover this. If not they are bunnies. Consumer affairs would love this one. DADSEH
[ QUOTE ] He said his only guess is that the heads were heated and made soft when the installation of the guides was done at a facility (Lakes Modified) outsourced. He wanted to make it right and still does but doesn't feel its their responsiblity for the problem" Well stiff cactus my friend! DO THEY HONESTLY THINK THE CUSTOMER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CANFIELD'S TIER 2 SUPPLIER. Hey its all part of THEIR process. [/ QUOTE ] Dadseh, No you misunderstood due to my explanation. Sorry, To my understanding, Lakes Modified had bought these heads from Canfield without the installation of any of the internals.Just heads and machining was paid for. Not the finished product. Lakes, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I understood from the visit with Canfield.
Rick: No, i purchased their heads from one of their dealers {Power Performance Parts Inc.} Their dealer gets the heads from canfield {with what i assume} with valve guides and valve seats. the dealer installs the valves & springs to the customers specs and supplies the guide plates. the heads i got had the wrong springs and screwed up guides as well as being soft, i.e not heat treated. if my only problem was the guides and springs, i would have just delt with the dealer and not canfield. with the heads being soft, that was my main issue. the guide and spring issue became secondary at this point . the heads were junk from the get go, once we started having problems with the valve seats sinking into the head and moving around. it appears if you bitch about anything, you just get ignored, like i have. their communication with this customer has been zero in trying to resolve the problem. i'll call you tomorrow to get a feel of your conversation with them. thanks again guy's.
The Jalopy Journal
