The head finally gave out on my Jeep so I went the route of ordering one from Clearwater cylinder heads. When I got it in the mail I started looking over it and noticed that it looks...slightly different. I dont have a picture of my head right now, but I wanted to ask this question because I just got off the phone with CCH and I'm not a fan. Not at all.

From what I've heard and seen, the areas where the head is bolted/mounted on the clearwater head tend to have a much thicker area that is then machine out so the bolt head can go through. This is very prevalent in a youtube video that's a clearwater head being put onto a guys green jeep. I attached some pics:

These are taken from the youtube video, and he's pointing at the area that I'm talking about. The bolt head rests in the machined area, and you can see as you go up/left it's a very smooth transition.


Here is his new head, and you can see a big difference where the equipment was actually machined out of a much thicker casting as to provide that same seat for the bolt.


The "new" head I received from CCH looks like the first picture. I started looking over the rest of the Head, and on the back of the cast near cylinder 6 it has a WJ stamped on it, along with some dates on other cylinders. It also has the 0331 stamped in the usual area that we know. Can anyone confirm that your NEW HEAD from CCH had these same stamps? Did yours have the obviously thicker head or was the mounting location more flush? (picture 1)

The WJ concerned me because I was starting to think this was a remanned head out of a WJ. Although I have no idea if that's true or not. I flipped the head over, and right where the valves are at, it looks to be some old burned oil. Burned where it's kind of a gross brown and I can feel the texture with my hands. This appears in various areas along the head. I called CCH just now and talked to Bob, who was super unfriendly about the whole thing and was snapping at me about only ever selling new heads, never used/remanned ones. This confuses me because there is an option to have a "new" or "any" condition head when ordering on the site.

Another thing that was concerning is that the part number I received on my packing list is different than the one on the website. By 1 letter, but sometimes that can mean a lot. Part number online is CHR238N, and the part number on my list is CHR238ZN. Bob got annoyed when I asked about this and said it was a difference in catalogs on the website vs on paper. When I mentioned what seems to be the oil burn on the head, he got really defensive and told me to send him pictures or he won't believe me. "It's probably just oil" is what he said. If it was new oil/protectant, fine. But because it looks old and caked on, this is what concerns me. He also said "It's the same one that the guy on youtube is installing" which mine is most definitely not.

Has anyone recently received a head from CCH and can confirm which type of head you received? Does it have any stamps on the top indicating WJ or something of the sort? Does that even matter? If you've had a head that does not have the obviously thicker casting, has it lasted ok? I'm just kind of pissy that it seems to look like a used head that I spent $500 on when I could have run down to the junkyard and pulled one for a lot cheaper than that. And then to get some attitude about my questions from the guy. Sorry, this ended up longer than I thought. And possibly the rant. And who knows, I might be completely out of line and it's not actually any sort of burnt oil on the head. I'll upload some pictures tonight when I get off work.

I dunno. I dont want to tear this head off again if it ****s out on me because it was a reman.

 

I wouldn't sweat it, return the head and order from a different company or like you said, pull a junker. Any company that won't take a little time to answer tech questions probably doesn't deserve the business.

 

Here is the BBB info for Clearwater Cylinder Heads (remember this is only negative feedback).

http://www.bbb.org/west-florida/busi...er-fl-6053084#

 

You do realize these Clearwater heads are cast in China? Its probably not remanufactured. Just typical Chinese quality control. I understand a lot of people have had good luck running these heads, but I couldn't bring myself to put one on my Jeep. I went with a remanufactured Tupy on ebay.

 

I put one in a couple of weeks ago. Only 100 miles so too early to tell how it holds up but has a 60 mo warranty on the part.