Cylinder Heads -> Lower End -> JCS POS

[Amskeptic]

...but I don't think you want to know the costs of them!

you mean these?
http://www.remmele-motorsport.com/en/cylheads_rem.html . . . . a mere 3,990 Euros or @ $5,850 plus trans-Atlantic shipping?

And I can't use my STOCK EXHAUST???
ColinNoWay

[vdubyah73]

I've also read some positive things about the head work these guys do;
Headflow Masters - Adrian Audirac
2466 #F S. Santa Fe Ave
Vista, CA 92084
760.727.1827 - audirac@att.net
http://vw-offroadmotors.com/main/index.html

brand new amc castings, with all hardware removed, including seats and guides. then all hardware replaced with quality hardware and 3 angle valve job, cost 1100 and something dollars 2 years ago. I'm happy.

[midatlanticys]

brand new amc castings, with all hardware removed, including seats and guides. then all hardware replaced with quality hardware . . .

Wouldn't it make sense if someone sold *bare* AMC heads (sans hardware) and Len Hoffmann or Headflow or Performance Workshop or whoever could machine and install hardware to their customer's needs/desires?

[Amskeptic]

Wouldn't it make sense if someone sold *bare* AMC heads (sans hardware) and Len Hoffmann or Headflow or Performance Workshop or whoever could machine and install hardware to their customer's needs/desires?

Sure . . . . Get on it. Let us know.

[Ryno]

Sped....saw this ad if ya still lookin

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/pts/1516765273.html

[Bleyseng]

brand new amc castings, with all hardware removed, including seats and guides. then all hardware replaced with quality hardware . . .

Wouldn't it make sense if someone sold *bare* AMC heads (sans hardware) and Len Hoffmann or Headflow or Performance Workshop or whoever could machine and install hardware to their customer's needs/desires?

IIRC Raby used to get the Raw castings but AMC stopped selling em, Sooo now Raby/Len Hoffman buy them and strip em of everything! They are the "Cats Meow" for heads these days....

[midatlanticys]

. . . . but AMC stopped selling em

hmmmmmm - wonder why? maybe they've stopped casting heads for Bays? and now only have the *complete* heads left on the shelf? . . . . maybe Jake will chime in here shed some light!

[Bleyseng]

AMC stopped selling the raw head castings, they sell only complete heads with the valves, springs, etc...which are crap.

[sped372]

Ok so quite a delay but I've been in the middle of a home remodeling project as well. Gotta get this bus going by springtime though.

Found a recommended Porsche shop via word of mouth in Madison. From our conversation the guy knew his stuff and felt confident in working my heads over, should be getting them back shortly. (Coupla nice 356's and 911's in the shop BTW).

I have yet to see them in person but the diagnosis was valve guides and seats that were drilled/machined 'off center' and a couple valve seats that were sinking due to burrs underneath of them. Sounds plausible but I have limited experience.

He also mentioned that he was probably going to have to flycut at least one head slightly.

I want to make sure I get this thing back together A-OK; I assume I should go through the deck height procedure just to prove out the lower end geometry. How does flycutting the head complicate this issue? Do I now need to cc or can I put copper shims between the head and cylinders on that side to compensate? I'm worried about increased compression ratio (and unbalanced side to side).

I'm an 'advanced novice' if that makes any sense.

[Amskeptic]

Ok so quite a delay but I've been in the middle of a home remodeling project as well. Gotta get this bus going by springtime though.

Found a recommended Porsche shop via word of mouth in Madison. From our conversation the guy knew his stuff and felt confident in working my heads over, should be getting them back shortly. (Coupla nice 356's and 911's in the shop BTW).

I have yet to see them in person but the diagnosis was valve guides and seats that were drilled/machined 'off center' and a couple valve seats that were sinking due to burrs underneath of them. Sounds plausible but I have limited experience.

He also mentioned that he was probably going to have to flycut at least one head slightly.

I want to make sure I get this thing back together A-OK; I assume I should go through the deck height procedure just to prove out the lower end geometry. How does flycutting the head complicate this issue? Do I now need to cc or can I put copper shims between the head and cylinders on that side to compensate? I'm worried about increased compression ratio (and unbalanced side to side).

I'm an 'advanced novice' if that makes any sense.

Have your machinist CC the heads. If he flycuts, he must either make equal the combustion chamber volumes amongst all cylinders, or at least make even each cylinder with its mate on that head, and tell you what the numbers are. There are plenty of online calculators which will give you your compression ratio or any other variable. You can modify deck height, cylinder sealing shim, base shim, combustion chamber CCs, with constants being bore and stroke. 7.7 was factory to 1970/71 then it dropped to 7.3. Anything below 8 is probably going to be just fine.
Colin

[sped372]

That makes sense.

[sped372]

So, ended up buying new heads. What was left of the old ones would have been nearly as expensive to fix up. Oversized, misaligned valve guide holes (must have been custom rigged or something?) Off center seats, poor welds, you name it. Anyway, the shoddy work got me to questioning the rest of the internals.

Checked end play. 0.012. Started to clean things up nice and notice this. I assume this is bad. I mean bad. Please cheer me up if I'm wrong but I think this thing just got a whole lot more complicated.



Yes, that is me rotating the #1 bearing by hand. I may be a noob when it comes to engine internals but I'm pretty sure it isn't supposed to do that.

[sped372]

I posted this on TS also and already got confirmation of my worst fears. For your amusement here are some photos of the aforementioned shoddy-heads. I'm depressed. I had hoped to swap heads and be back in good shape for spring. Doesn't look promising now.

The offending SOB.


Head with seats still in.
What exactly are my valve seats seated against? Shouldn't be able to see this much of a gap should you? Even with my limited experience it just looks bad.



Seat Removed
Oh, well I guess it makes sense that the valve adjustments never quit tightening since there were some nice burrs underneath the seats that I presume kept compressing.


Valve Guide
A bit hard to tell from the photo but the ID and OD are not concentric.


Lash Adjusters.
Seriously, check these things out. There's no way this occurred in 12k miles.


The New GEX?
Looks like they even had trouble stamping their own name.


So yes. Everyone has said it before. You get what you pay for. This engine bought us a couple years but now I want to do it right. Do I dare re-use any of the parts from this one, can measuring them truly prove whether they are of any value? I have developed so much skepticism about this thing that I don't know how much if any hope I should have of salvaging anything from it.

[Ryno]

If you have heads that you already bought, you could give mofoco a call for a shortblock.

[sped372]

I could, but I never got a good vibe from that place. Stopped in there a couple times when I lived in Milwaukee and they never seemed to build my confidence.