I paid 900 for a set of iron eagle heads from dart to be installed in my 355. The shop ended up installing GM vortec heads, heads that cost nearly half as much. Needless to say i'm pretty upset, and will be bringing the matter to their attention first thing monday. I want to know however the difference between dart and GM vortec heads. Is there any difference besides the thickness? I've heard the Iron Eagle's have more high end, less low end then the GM's. To add to my problems, i paid the shop 400$ to redo the exhaust and add flowmasters, THEY NEVER EVEN TOUCHED THE EXHAUST SYSTEM!!! I'll update all of this tommorow.

Brandon

Sounds like a shakkey garage. I think ya should get some of your cash back and find another shop.I would be

If you have a written estimate or workorder with the proper words and prices, go see a lawyer, now! You want your money back. The job you contracted for was not done. They may want to redo the job, do not allow that. Would you go back there and give them more money? No! They might not do the work right again then you are stuck. See or call a lawyer.

What kind or manifold is on the car now? Do the Darts use a standard intake manifold? The vortecs require the new 8-bolt manifolds. The standard ones can be made to bolt up, but the ports won't match for beans. It sounds like a real mess. Joe

Ok..., before i spread a bad image, the shop is actually the most reputable around, an extremely good group of people. I was just sweating why i had a "raptor" muffler on my car and not the flowmasters i had ordered. According to them, they did do the exhaust, which makes sense now, and the raptors are simply new mufflers by flowtech. Of course... 25$ mufflers don't really compare with the flowmaster 50's i wanted. There answer was that they couldn't fit the 50's under the car, something i can understand, i just wish i was given a choice. Not a big deal though, something i have to live with. The heads however appear to be dart.... When i bought the heads for 900$ i was told they were dart heads, so i was pretty happy. It turns out though they are not dart iron eagle heads, they are some new head, the dart "thunder". Its a GM vortec style head, simply thicker with heart shaped combustion chambers. I'm happy now, i guess i was just calling it too soon. My luck with sports cars over last few years could be a little better than it is.... i just thought i was noticing the trend all over again...lol.

Tks,
Brandon

Also, if you know ANYTHING about the DART Thunder heads, let me know, i can't find them anywhere, but i'm gonna take the shops word on it.

|UPDATED|11/26/2003 3:18:30 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I'm glad your happy with the out-come. If you want to know more about thunder heads...look in the section for ford heads.(blue thunder) ....I hope ya got a good sence of humor...try this for dart heads http://www.iovino.com/darthead.html

|UPDATED|11/26/2003 8:24:40 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Brandon,
Raptor mufflers by Flowtech have been on the market for a few years now. So they aren't the "latest and greatest" muffler on the market.
I installed a set of Raptors on my '79 Chevy 4x4 (sold it 3.5 yrs ago) and they were a nice tough sounding muffler. I even installed them on my brother-inlaws '87 Chevy 4x4 305 TBI 3yrs ago, they still look like new and they make that little 305 V8 sound like a big block.
Sarge

Hello,

I can certainly understand the immediate frustration you had at the start. I have had similar experiences and just flat gave up and started doing whatever I could myself.

I think the thing to do is to find shops that others have had good experiences with and trust them one time. If they screw up go elsewhere.

Every business can make mistakes, it is how they handle the problem that makes a difference.

Alex

LOL..., ok, first about the heads. I'm gonna give the shop a chance, i've pretty much beaten the issue to death with them. They told me that the dart thunder heads for chevy sb's just came out a few weeks ago and that i was the first in the area to have them installed, sounds fishy, but, its plausable and the shop is extremely respectable. As for taking a look at the heads on their site, yes, i already noticed the blue thunder heads, part of my origonal suspicion. Now to the exhaust. As for the raptors, i'll take your word you had them on your vehicle, just check this holley site out: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=flowtech+raptor Its a press release on the new mufflers less than 3 yrs ago. Just interesting, thats all

Brandon

|UPDATED|11/27/2003 1:39:45 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

BrandonS said: Now to the exhaust. As for the raptors, i'll take your word you had them on your vehicle, just check this holley site out: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=flowtech+raptor Its a press release on the new mufflers less than 3 yrs ago. Just interesting, thats all Brandon

I checked it out. Very interesting. Holley bought out Flowtech around Oct99 (i believe.) The only thing that I can think of is that Holley may have considered Flowtechs Raptor new to their line after the buy out. I checked with my brother-inlaw and he recalls that I put the Raptors on his truck about 3 yrs. ago. and my '79 Chevy, I did those a few month prior. Oh well, just another trivial thing to figure out.
Good Luck with the mufflers and heads!
Sarge