If you could share your take on the casting quality as well as the guides, heli coils?

Id not expect the casting or the guides to be much different on the small block heads.

Before they jacked them up I was getting the cnc casting for like 8 a pair and using good parts was under 1500. Ive run my street racer hard this past year but didnt see a reason to pull it down over the winter to check.

But on a different low rpm build ive got nearly 8500 miles on a set and so far so good.

Clearly not the cream of the crop but it seems to be they are better then they used to be.

In your opinion would you use a preped set over an old iron head?