General TR TR3B Cylinder Head

I'm in the process of restoring my TR4A, which has an untouched TR3B cylinder head (except for a valve grind in 1977). I was getting ready to haul it off to the machine shop to have the combustion chamber modified and ports all matched when it occurred to me that I have something no one can readily buy anymore and that perhaps someone doing a full, 100% accurate restoration might have more of a need for it than I.

While I'm not particularly looking to make any money off it, I'd need enough to buy a reproduction head.

So then my question is, how likely is it that there's a purist out there who's ready and willing to shell out at least $2,600 for a used, but otherwise original, TR3B head?

Just thought I ought to check BEFORE casually wasting all that untouched originality.

Jim

I picked up 3 for $150...plus three tranny's. Be willing to sell them for $1300 each.

What's the difference between a 3B head and a 3A head???

martx-5 said:

What's the difference between a 3B head and a 3A head???

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Evidently about $2400! Seriously I'm not sure there was anything unique about the 3B head. TSF cars probably were the same as late 3As, and TCF cars would be the same as early 4s - and I'm not sure if there was a difference between the two.

:highly_amused:

cjimj said:

So then my question is, how likely is it that there's a purist out there who's ready and willing to shell out at least $2,600 for a used, but otherwise original, TR3B head? Jim

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Hi Jim and welcome aboard - I think the above posts have already given a good sense there is not much market for the heavy iron parts - heads, blocks, trans, diffs etc. From my perspective I would say it is generally agreed in the TR2/3/3A/3B world there are early (low port) and late (high port) heads. Being as all but the earliest cars had the late port, there is more than enough supply in the used parts market.

The TRA does note a "Late High Port Head" on the 3B, essentially a TR4 head, which looks functionally interchangeable with the other high port heads. According to TRA, it is distinguished by "a flat crown on the front most hump on the head, and the flat area may have a serial number".

Your market for such a head therefore would be limited to a) those who have a car that came so equipped and b) does not already have this head and c) wants to spend the kind of money you want out of it (my sense is this would be a very small group). So, my advice is to haul it off to the machine shop and do your thing. Oh, pictures always welcomed! Again, welcome aboard and tell us about your project.

You know, I forgot that Teri Ann's site has all the info on the TRactor engine cylinder heads. However, after reading it, it seems that the late 3A, 3B, and early 4 heads is still a gray area, although they are definitely different from the earlier high port heads.

https://www.tr3a.info/FAQ_heads.htm

Thanks for the response, I'm not looking to get anything for the head, it works just fine for me. In fact, it'd be an inconvenience to me to bother with going through the gyrations to trade out the head so someone else could benefit from its condition. But in case it had some value to someone else that I wasn't aware of, I figured I should at least ask before hacking away on an otherwise untouched head. Thanks again.