Rebuilt 817's- What are they worth?

[RCE1962]

I bought the engine last year. It was installed Sept/06. The 817 heads have larger valves installed, and rest of valve train stuff, plus stiffer springs (as per builder). 7/16 screw-in studs and roller rockers. Miles driven since this engine ws installed was ±200 miles.

Ready to bolt-on, professionally reworked 817's........ a very good "stock" street head even before the workout.

What are they worth?

Ron

[Tom Kochtanek]

It appears that bare castings for the 817s seem to go for somewhere in the $500 to $750 on Ebay from time to time. Oddly enough a finished set of heads doesn't seem to command the added cost needed to properly rebuild them. Cost of valves, springs, keepers, along with machine shop costs for the studs and seating the valves can add up to quite a bit of $$$. I could look it up and tell you, but offhand it's at least as much as the bare heads. So while you'd think finished 817s would be well over $1000, I haven't seen any go that high (on Ebay).

As in anything finished, the buyer may suspect the quality of the parts and work if s/he does not oversee the process. Documenting exactly what was done with what parts and by whom can mean a lot to the buyer.

A lot of us have probably been watching Ebay and the bids on the 690s and the recent pair of 583s, and wondered what was up. Perhaps the availability of the aluminum heads have dropped the ceiling on what many think might have been an artificial spike in the price of the high performance heads? Time to invest in 690s? You know they'll go up again once more people start seeing these fine engines at local, regional and national venues :).

I'm sure others have some insights on the 817s, and that they'll chime in with their opinions. Take mine for what it's worth :).

Cheers,
TomK