Serious question, is it worth rebuilding heads or just swapping them?

Overheard two guys at the shop yesterday arguing about this. One said he saves about $400 by rebuilding a set of Cummins heads instead of buying reman units. The other guy swore he had a valve seat drop at 20k miles on a rebuild and lost a whole engine from it. I've done both ways myself but I still go back and forth on which is smarter. How many miles do you guys usually get out of a set of rebuilt heads before you start seeing issues? Or do you just swap and forget it?

2 comments

2 Comments

blake_cooper8d ago

Feel you man, that valve seat drop story gives me chills just thinking about it.

dylan_thompson8d ago

Wait @blake_cooper, isn't that actually a pretty straightforward fix most guys can handle at home?