[Healeys] Alloy Head

Awgertoo at aol.com Awgertoo at aol.com
Fri Oct 16 18:13:23 MDT 2009


In a message dated 10/16/2009 7:42:02 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
rnbmail at yahoo.com writes:

Curt, As  you seem so sure - WHERE will mine crack????  What will the  
warning
signs be?????
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Now don't get upset Robert--Curt could be wrong and your head might never  
crack, though the fact that at least two suppliers have gone to all the  
trouble and development expense to make and market aftermarket aluminum heads  
for a car which had a total production run of only 15,000 units, (I am now  
including only the BN1-BN2 Healeys, not Austin applications) perhaps only  
50% of which are still on the road, does say mouthfuls....
 
Most 100 heads crack between 2 and 3.  The warning signs might be  seepage 
under the head.  Or you could simply blow a head gasket:   perhaps a loud 
moise, steam out the exhaust, immediate overheating, no  power.  It will be 
apparent that something radical is wrong!.
 
My 100's head cracked between 1 and 2--in my case I think it was  more a 
matter metal erosion caused by some predetonation and assisted  by some head 
warping as there was a definite lack of  metal across the rather narrow 
bridge. It was not so much a crack as a  piece of metal missing that blew the 
gasket out.  I was about 1500 miles  from home and luckilyh found a good welder 
who built the metal back up with  nickle rods, and after I had the head 
skimmed I made it back home, but I felt  the handwriting was on the wall and 
bought a DW stage 2 head and  matching tubular exhaust.


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