I have a 95 h23 prelude, I just purchase a gude racing head with stage 2 camshafts,$500 upgraded valvetrain conversion, intake and exhaust port work along with three angle valvetrain job. The combustion chambers and the bowls have also been smoothed/blended along with shaved valveguides. I bought this off of someone on ebay it had been used for 10,000 miles then taken off due to the car being sold. So here is my question, the guy had 100% positive feedback so its not that I dont trust him, but I received the head today and it looks just like a factory head/cams, etc. Im not super knowledgeable in this area, but it looks pretty similiar to a stock setup. Is there a way by looking at this head and cams to tell if it is truly aftermarket parts and ported/polished head or not?

 

here is detailed pics of the head, etc, maybe you guys would know:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...6538172&rd=1,1

 

anyone?

 

The Cams should say what they are on them....To me it just looks like its been cleaned...but if you needed a new head anyways..500 is a steal

 

well its hard to say from the pics because none of them are close ups. you should be able to tell from the wear on the cam lobes how long its been run. the section of the lobe that rides on the lifter would have a wear pattern in it. not a groove or anything like that, but you would notice that the anti friction coating is wearing away. 10000 miles wouldnt have worn it away. i cant beleive you got it that cheap. i would (before installation) take it to a machine shop and have the pressure test it for cracks. i know a good used head (stock, no cams) would be like 500 bucks without a core, and skunk2 cams are like 750 for a pair. so if you throw in a port match and polish job your lookin at like 1500 bucks or so. so i dont really know what to tell you, but that deal seems too good to be true. also it didnt come with any of the lifters and related components so....yeah, i dunno. good luck

 

`