Scotty Brown CNC alum 350 head porting

I’m confused, if you wanted then you would have ordered them years ago. So now you want them but you still haven’t ordered them?

 

Agreed. Firstly, there were a lot of ppl that wanted these but dropped out during the 10 years before they were even avail. Then when avail. it seemed there were several "early adopters" (in marketing terms -10 ish?) that did receive them in a reasonably timely manner. Others were either waiting to see some real world results or didn't have the cash at the time and would've bought them subsequently (Demko being one & the engine JW just refunded the deposit on another). This is how a product lifecycle works but after the early adopters there was no more product!

If I'd had the spare cash I'd have ordered a set when they were 1st available & I'm nowhere near needing them although I also hope that there's a subsequent run and that improvements to the initial casting are incorporated. Back in the early '90s Dave Johnson ran some small blurb in the GSXtra (may have even been in the classified section) about selling big valve ported 350 heads. At the time he was still a student in automotive engineering school and had access to the school's flow bench. I was probably the only one who eagerly/immediately sent him the $ & I got my heads in a reasonable timeframe. Was several years before they went on an engine. Now I'm also considering just buying a set of raw castings if they'll sell them just to have in case they never make another run although I assume they'll eventually get caught up & Tim assured me "we'll always have them."

TA shot themselves in the foot here by first taking so long in the development, secondly, not machining extra sets when they were able to (I'm assuming the optional porting levels are a separate machinig operation but even some basic sets that guys could then have ported), and lastly by not being able to keep their machines running (for whatever reasons). Maybe Phoenix just wasn't a good location to start such a business.

I also empathize tremendously w/the position TA is in. I owned a similar type business where we designed & had semi-finished product made & did the machinig/welding/assy. in-house. It's incredibly frustrating to have a niche market & customers that want your product & have cash in hand but cannot get it for whatever reason(s). We literally couldn't answer the phones fast enough (who remembers sitting on hold for hours w/Kenne-Bell!?). Or to have products that you know there's a market for and no time/$ to develop. It was incredibly difficult to build up any stock for many reasons and whenever we did manage to, it sold out quickly. TA is currently sitting on 350 oil pans that they've paid for but they don't have (can't get made) the pickups and 350 head castings that they can't machine. I suspect if they turned the world upside down they could find someone to make the pickups but that takes a lot of time & it's very easy to walk in w/the intention of doing so & then gets put off until "tomorrow." Rinse, repeat. Of course customers understandably don't understand all this.

IMHO, given the castings are bought & paid for, they should take the orders at this point w/o any deposit & then get either ½ down or full payment when they're ready to go into production. Many of those orders wouldn't pan out (become stale) because ppl will have moved on or won't have the $ but many would & it woukd give them an idea of the potential.

 

I did order them years ago, nothing happened, got my deposit back no issues.
I mentioned this before, back when I was still waiting after a 2000.00 deposit, Tim from TA called ME, and asked “ Mark, you still want these heads?” I said “yeah”
I could hear the disappointment in his voice as to my answer, that should have told me then that this is a losing proposition, as I wanted the Level 2 porting, bigger valves and such.
They offered a product and service and can’t deliver, no big deal, I understand, I’m not heart broken, I still like TA Performance and all they do for Buick enthusiasts.
I’ll go fast (for a 350 with 3.42 gears) with my iron heads at the race track with a time slip to prove it

 

Just an assumption here but that pile of heads sitting there had to cost TA money to get in hand. Now.normally when a business shell thst out they want to not only make it back, but more than.

One issue with outsourcing the finishinwork is what if that place screws up the work....then its TA name on the line. Who eats the cost of the messed uo casting that there is only a limited number of to start with.........its not like you can just magicall create others. Every casting ever part has to go out correctly. So yes finding someone to fill those shoe and let go of the control can not be an easy thing.

But if TA DOESNT find an answer they will close. I'm sure they spent tins of time the last few years getting stuff in from different places than b4. But when 6 ppl have to do 30 jobs something gets left behind. Its that simple.....how do you as a business owner pick which jobs get left and which ones get done.

It would had been nice if since that pike has been there for sometime, when they had major shortages in other parts, some more of what they had on hand couk had been stk up to finished product........and I'm sure with a few more pairs of shoes on the floor it would had been able.

1 person can't be 5 places at 1 time.

Ta is the only place for many of the parts this small market needs, I hope they find an answer b4 the doors have to stay closed.

 

It would be sad to see the closing of TA. Glad I ordered mine when I did. The way it looks I unknowingly timed it just right. Hopefully TA can find someone to fill the void. Although the current economic situation we’re in may make people not want to make such a purchase. I side with TA if they’ve put the head production on hold due to the lack of demand and to focus on what brings in money to keep the doors open. If that is the case.

 

That's a good point. I tried having another company, & one which I trusted tremendously, do the machining and even some assy. for me & when they did inevitably mess up a part of which we had a limited supply (& also tack welded a bunch of parts wrong which went through the rest of the process & out to a customer which cost me a fortune), I didn't even get an apology let alone an offer for them to eat the cost of the part. I went back to doing it all myself. Just like me doing my own sheetmetal work on these cars, I don't need to pay someone to mess stuff up. I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself.

 

I think the diff covers are a big part of their business. I seem to remember that they are, or were at least, part of an option package on the mustang. I'd bet a cold beer that the Ford order jumps to the front of the line every time...

 

If I were a CNC operator or machinist and single, no ties here in Ohio, I’d be talking with TA about a job.
Being the way I am, I’d accept a fair wage for my experience, I wouldn’t expect to be paid like a king like “ Ha, I got you guys by the balls” type of wage, those guys don’t last, they’re prima donnas!
What happened to being good at your job and loving what you do?
Those kind of people have staying power!

 

That is why you and I are experts at what we do, artists in our own ways.

 

VERY true!
Anyone that takes great pride In what they do is an artist!
Whether you’re a machinist, body guy, painter, plumber, electrician, carpenter, HVAC guy, landscaper, mason and any other trade I can’t remember.
I redid the top half of a ‘69 Chevy short bed pick up at work last week, the truck has good bones but the previous paint job was on top of multiple paint jobs including LACQUER PUTTY!
All the owner wanted was the cracks and bubbles in the paint fixed and holes in the bed rails filled.
WELL OK
Welded the holes in the bed rails closed (someone else used JB weld)
Welded two extra holes on the passenger door for the mirror closed.
Ground out the factory seam sealer on the roof drip rail which was a bit rusty underneath ( the reason for the bubbling) BOY DID THAT STUFF MAKE SMOKE!!!! Looked like I was burning rubber, LOLOLOL
Ground down the other cracks in the crappy bodywork, I used duraglas as a ground coat of filler, the paint was so damn thick on this thing, it was its own body filler
I would have liked to strip it, but the guy wasn’t paying for that, so it made my job of making this thing look good much harder.
After 6 coats of urethane primer, and 7 hours of blocking and prepping the next day then 2 hours of sealer/base/clear it was painted.
It looks better than the rest of the truck, flatter, straighter and shinier.
At the end of Friday I was tired, sore, my arms and hands hurt from block sanding, but I felt good it turned out nice
That’s pride

 

How close are able to hit the color of paint to the other parts of the car, I am sure other some colors are harder to match, I know it can be tough with other manufactures ink or if you mix it yourself to match previous job.

 

Pastels (solids mostly) are the toughest because there’s no metallic or Pearl to confuse the human eye as far as reflection and such.
Solids absorb different spectrums of light, I remember matching (trying too) a solid orange, inside under led lighting it was ok, outside in natural sunlight it was a mile off, so we tried the popular color position, did a spray out, inside the color looked like ass, outside it was spot on.
Color matching is different to different people, I’ll see a white car with resprayed bumper covers, I’ll say “those bumpers are red” they’re white but have a red tint to them, or blue, black, yellow.
Color is VERY subjective.

 

Ok guys.... back to the TA head and CNC porting work.
TA did a great job and now Scotty is finding excellent flow benefits with the CNC porting program... I think they will sell to all the 350 guys that want all the performance goodies to go along with that great SP3 we now have.

 

I have to say with this CNC head porting I wouldn't want hand porting, this is the way to go.

 

Hand port the sob’s and RUN EM

 

Talked with Bobb Mackley today. He said the 630 Hp Buick 350 ran 11.40 in the quarter at 116 having traction issues and killing two Th-400 and a 8.5 bolt along the way. He said they recently got the cnc ported alum heads back from Scotty Brown and they are currently hoping to order a custom roller cam if they can find a core, it’s still got a flat tappet but they want to change cams as they are going to a larger procharger and alum heads. They are also adding the TA single plane intake with Scotty brown CNC porting as well.

Bobbs twin turbo tomohawk is still under construction.

 

Nice stance on Bobbs car....thumbs up!
Looks like that top pic was at the Back to the Bricks event in Flint.

 

if i recall, lee zane and his nhra stock 350 apollo goes mid 11's. there ain't no 630hp in that engine.
we all must be doing something wrong...........

 

We have went over this a hundred times. Yes the stock class racers like Zane, Wilson, and Henderson run low 11s with purpose built race cars with 4.56 gears, 6000 stall converters, and Mega $ invested. There are lots of tricks and info we can gain from them however they are still limited to stock lift cams, iron intakes etc.

the 630 hp engine obviously didn’t meet its potential, no one claimed it did. If given more runs, suspension work, tuning etc it obviously could have ran way faster. With the CNC ported alum heads, single plane, and larger procharger it has 9 second potential.

With how toxic this forum has been you guys will likely never learn about the future developments.

 

got 25k in my engine. does it go 7's...no. i don't tune, nor do i care. its an continuous r&d project for everybody's info.
BUT....info between 630hp and nhra stocker shows a lot of issues.
i've talked to zane about his engine. we all could build it his way. only trouble is i'm not ocd. lol
if we ALL shared info, think how much further we could be.