I tried to give the whole procomp deal a try a while back... I got sucked in on a pair of 460 heads and thought, "Wow! What a great deal." That was the one and only set I have ever sold, as soon as the fella put them on, 1 river trip out, a valve seat fell right out. Upon inspecting the rest of what was left, I found ALL the intake seats were ready to fall out. A little effort with a punch and the rest fell right out themselves. A little time... and A LOT of examples of the procomp lack of quality passing through my doors later... I would NEVER in good conscience sell another customer a pair even if they begged and offered double the money.
Can you MAKE them work? Sure. I have had a few folks bring them in after seats falling out, guides blown out after 2 seasons, etc... and after extensive work, new seats, new guides, they were ready to go.
Are they "just as good" as more expensive heads? Absolutly NOT! This not an opinion... this is not based on "a lack of talent" (I hope... I'd like to think I have some sort of talent at this shit) needed to build them properly... this is A FACT based upon empirical evidence! Besides poor machine work... besides a very loose interpretation of "tolerances"... besides moderate to severe casting shift... besides all this on several dozen sets I have personally set my own eyes on... besides using recycled vs "virgin" aluminum in their castings... besides all that, the fact is, physically weigh a procomp, and them weigh an Edelbrock/AFR/Brodix... the weight difference is quite noticeable. Then, take a look at the castings themselves and see where strength was sacrificed for cost savings... deck thickness, runner thickness, material around the rocker bosses... material in the spring pockets... these are a few areas you can see without sawing the head in half... and if you do, you can REALLY see just how thin they are. Then, take their "flow numbers" that they provide and cut them by 35-40%... when flow tested on a 3rd party superflow 600, we found them to be not just a little, but really ******* far off from what procomp claims to be their flow numbers... combined with a fairly large runner size, and you have a head that, by them numbers, is far inferior to a smaller runner, better flowing, name brand head.
I'm sure there are folks out there that have had nothing but good luck and therefore "proven" then entire rest of the automotive/marine world to be wrong... but I would rather look upon those anecdotal instances and the exception and not the norm. I have yet to find that elusive "free lunch" in my lifetime... and firmly believe that you truly get, more times than not, what you pay for. Good parts cost more not because the people making them are not greedy, evil corperations, and procomp is somehow owned by a benevolent guy just trying to give shit away cheap... that's left-wing crack-pot liberal crap "thinking"... and people that believe that, thanks for stopping by while waiting to sign up for your obamacare. The cost difference is good parts, made from quality materials, by people earning a decent wage, with the right equipment, here in the United States, cost more than cheapie "knock off" stuff.
Can you make them work? Will they work for your application? Truth of the matter is... perhaps. depending of what you're doing, and what you do to them to make them work for your application. I'd use the analogy that yes, you can use a leaf rake to scratch your back, but there are a lot better things out there to do the job. Also, more times than not... guys switching from 049 heads to the procomp heads are actually going backwards. Most jetboat engines that are either sub-600 hp or 6100 rpm or less will perform much better from a nice, properly built, ported set of 049 heads than a set of procomps. I've built several dyno proven, 600+ hp single carb, pump gas 461-496 big blocks with the 049/781 heads... and I've found most guys, 600hp is more than enough to get their cruiser or family hotrod up and moving to their satisfaction.
The last point to be made... seriously... what is the real cost difference? A few hundred dollars? Buy a set of procomps for about 600 bare... or a set of Edelbrocks for what... 1200? 600 bucks really all the difference between building an engine and not? Then I'd really consider not drinking beer for a couple of weekends, saving up the money, and paying the 600 extra. The difference between quality and crap is less than the cost for 1 river trip.
That's my 2 cents... take it for what it's worth.
