[TR] Aluminum head?

[Michael Porter]

On 9/2/2019 9:11 PM, Wbeech at flash.net wrote:
> Oh wow, my ‘66 TR4 Motor has an aluminium head, am I doomed?  Discovered a water leak after I bought it, bad weld job on the one of channels in the block that fouled the head seal.  Filed it, fixed it, remember only 70ftlbs on the studs.  ISTR the liners were not as proud of the block as some say they should be.

You've probably averted problems because the liners weren't sticking up 
to spec (especially toward the high side of the tolerance).

It's a curious situation.  The heads aren't wildly popular because of 
the price, so the number of them actually out there is pretty small, 
relatively speaking.  But, they also might be fairly rare because the 
few people that did buy them couldn't get them to seal and, thinking it 
was their fault, that there was something special about the product that 
they didn't understand, and went back to cast-iron heads.

I knew there was at least one person on the list with one, and I think 
two, because I remember a message maybe a couple of decades ago, in the 
early days of the list, from someone having trouble getting one to seal 
properly.

(Not against aluminum heads, at all.  There are advantages to them.  I 
just think, because of the small variability of the figure-eight gaskets 
and the cylinder heights, that they're probably ill-suited, in the 
configuration they're being produced, for wet-sleeve engines.  I've been 
designing, off and on, on a 4-valve OHC head for the GT6 which, now that 
there's machinable wax available for 3D-printers, can be 3D-printed and 
investment-cast.)


Cheers.

-- 


Michael Porter
Roswell, NM


Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....