Are ‘Sidewinder’ Big block cylinder heads a good product?

Was looking at replacing some big blocks heads on an engine and seen these Sidewinder brand big block heads advertised here for just north of a grand. They look to come with valves and look like they would be good street heads and would cost the same as having my old heads rebuilt (1500$). Has anybody here used them? Probably foreign built, but look like a reasonable price point. Anybody using athis brand and can chime in?


http://www.mopartsracing.com/parts/Sidewinder.html

I have heard they are ok, but have no personal experience with them, just make sure whatever headers or ex manifolds you have will work with angle plugs

They are sold by a member.

Who?

Doesn't, didn't, Pro Comp make these heads under the private label of "Sidewinder"?
Or is my memory incorrect

Todd @
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/users/3500/sasquatch.html

Sasquash, aka Todd Marsh, Marsh Performance in North Carolina. Call him up, he'll tell it to you straight. 336-283-0800
Brian

http://www.mopartsracing.com/

I bought a pair but build went with more hp. Sold them to a board member. He is quite happy with them.

Only issue was the push rod holes. Kicked our butt. Could not make the 3/8 push rods work. 5/16 push rods did solve the problem.

Unusual for a Mopar cylinder head to have zero info and been out for awhile now. Is it maybe that people have not found out about it yet? I’m really curious about them.

Not sure what you are looking for. The link I provided has head specs and flow numbers.

Many of us are well aware of these. If I had a need for replacement heads I would be calling Todd and ordering them. His reputation is as solid as they come IMO.

No national advertising I am aware of.I would guess he lets the product speak for itself rather than paying people to push it. Just my opinion.

I'm looking for members opinions that have used the heads to see what they say about quality and performance.

2nd hand info but a friend of mine bought some from Todd many years ago as replacements for some ported 906 heads after he dropped a valve. The car was light and in the 9's with a basic 440, pretty sure he picked up a tenth as Todd had done some mild porting on them too.

Good to know. 👍🏼

I ran a set of them on a bracket car for several years. had great luck with them. Ultimately ended up running 9.70@ 141 at 2850 lbs. Todd was a pleasure to deal with. Last I heard castings had gotten difficult to get but that may not be an issue any more. Call him and ask.

The crazy thing is Procomp is now Speedmaster and I port a lot of small block heads for guys. The castings are very nice and of course come from across the pond. Speedmasters big block head is the copy of a Victor head. They Dont offer a standard run of the mill Edelbrock head. I talked to him for 30 minutes and he’s looking into this as they used to offer one.

ok kids time for a bedtime story..........
Sidewinder cylinder heads have been on the market for almost 10 years now. While there are several different companies that do sell the same castings that we use, the difference is that we build each set per the customers request. You can order you hamburger pretty much any way you like. When we started, I was tired of taking brand new heads out of the box and changing and fixing them. So when I had the chance I wanted to give the customer the chance to provide input and receive a truly ready to run cylinder head put together with good parts and checked out by guys who know heads. We have sold hundreds of heads and I am very proud to say that as of today, we have had ZERO returns. We have had an odd issue here and there but nothing of any major issue.
When I first started selling them, people wanted to know what they were. So I gave them a name. If you buy them elsewhere, they are the same casting but I highly doubt they have the same hardware. We use only Comp Cams, Isky, PAC and other premium parts where most use (lesser quality) stuff. They really have not been sold under the ProComp name but they had a similar casting from a different company. I have never spent a dime to advertise them but I cannot keep them in stock. The reason you do not see a lot of Information around the web is that most of that stuff is created by unhappy customers feedback that tend to be negative in nature. The vast majority of customers are very happy with them. People do not often get on these boards and tell stories of how good things are. Most of the time it is quite the other way around.
I do not come on the board or any other and toot my own horn for a reason. Tom Frysinger the man who runs this place, is also my website guy and has been since 2008. I promised him I would never use his board as a place to push product . I think I have done that pretty well. I do answer questions about things and people here email me a lot. Thanks for that.
While the website is far from perfect, and needs an update for sure, I feel like it contains enough information to answer most questions, but people usually call or write with any other info they need. I spend several hours a week typing and yapping on the phone about them. They are NOT the end all be all head for most hard core racers. I have built almost 750Hp on some 500 inch race stuff with them. They are meant to be a low cost replacement head, that delivers performance with out spending tons on old iron or more exotic stuff that requires special rockers, headers, and so on. We are working on a new one and we have small blocks as well. Like most things these days they are hard to keep on the shelf. I order as many as they will let me and we still run out pretty often. Hope that answers some of your questions.
Todd

I haven’t used these heads, but I have used Todd for parts and was very happy with my dealings with him.

Todd is GREAT to deal with!

Thank you for that post. I appreciate someone coming forward and giving some info these Sidewinder heads. $ for $, the price does seem good and if you can have it set up and ready to go out that box, that’s a nice benefit. I will give these heads a consideration when it comes time to decide on heads.