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My first head job!

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Tabcon

Tabcon

Jedi Warrior
Offline
Kas Kastner has been extremely gracious and helpful in helping me with my engine build. We've traded some emails and I don't think that there is anything he doesn't know about TR4 engines and drivetrain. At first I thought I could get advice from some of the vendors that sold all this stuff, but I quickly learned that most just want to sell you their stuff. I say most, with the exception of Darryl Uprichard, the owner of Racestorations. Darryl has also been a wealth of knowledge and has not pressured me in any way to use his parts. In fact he has directed me to places here in the States where I can get the same parts for less then he has to sell them for since he had to pay to have them imported to him from the US to begin with.

Anyway, on the the head job.

Based on what I've learned so far about head porting from Kastner, as well as my research into the subject, I finished porting my head yesterday. It still needs to be shaved and have new guides and larger valves installed. I'm using 89 mm liners with J&E short deck forged pistons and Pauter forged rods. This machine work on these parts is incredible and a joy to finally behold. I'll post some pictures of all the components before I install them as soon as I get my crank back.

Here are some pics of the head:

head shot 1

head shot 2

head shot 3
 
Nice work. Are you going to custom modify a solid copper gasket? I did mine myself too and it's pretty tight between cyls to get a good seal. Just wondering what advice you have.
-Pete
 
Nice porting work Tab.

You've come this far in first class, so I assume that you will CC the head after the shaving to confirm your chamber volumes?
 
Great work, I think the TR4 cylinder is a very underated motor, I did a 4A motor with no more than the high compression overbore kit and it ran very strong.

I am sure you will be happy with what you get.
 
Looks like a first rate job. Never tried to do it myself. Always paid someone else to do it. Not much satisfaction that way though. Looking forward to more posts.
 
I'm installing 89mm liners and pistons and hopefully the copper gasket I get from gasket works will work alright, but I'm sure there will be some trimming. I was considering a gasket from Cometic but I was told that since it's a sandwiched stainless one that it would be to rigid to conform. So the copper seems to be the best solution.

I had purchased an additional head that I started porting but I went right through one of the water ways in an exhaust port. This thing was rotted from the inside and I'm glad I discovered it early. Be careful buying used TR parts, they're so old that you don't know how deteriorated they can be on the inside.
 
Tabcon said:
I started porting but I went right through one of the water ways in an exhaust port. This thing was rotted from the inside and I'm glad I discovered it early.
Click to expand...
How much meat you taking off on the porting job?
 
I opened the intake port walls to be consistent with the diameter of the port.
I used the head of one of the intake valves as a guide since it's diameter is just a tiny bit smaller than the ports diameter. I quit removing material when I could pass the valves head from the opening of the port almost all the way back to the valve guide.
 
Tab:

Back in the day, gasket sets that I used (don't remember manufacturers name, but probably Stanpart) came with both copper and steel head gaskets. The idea seemed to be to use both for lower compression, copper for a little higher compression, and steel alone for high compression. I used the steel only for my race motors and never had an issue.

Jim
 
bgbassplyr said:
Back in the day, gasket sets that I used (don't remember manufacturers name, but probably Stanpart) came with both copper and steel head gaskets. The idea seemed to be to use both for lower compression,
Click to expand...
That does sound suspiciously like the "low compression kit", Stanpart 502227. But it also included a flat steel plate, which was used between the copper and steel head gaskets, to really get the CR down low.

Just adding the steel gasket to a copper gasket isn't going to make enough difference to be worth arguing about.
 
In most cases, the REALLY high compression race engines, 14:1 and over, are still using copper, but the guy who is working on my block right now told me that some are switching to the steel MLS gaskets and liking them. In either case, I think the user would find out soon enough which one works and which doesn't.

The compression ratio I'll be using of 11.7:1 is considered low by todays standards, but fairly high I suppose for a 45 year old 4 banger. For obvious reasons, I won't be running pump gas in this one.

I could most likely get by with either head gasket, but I've changed my mind and I'm going to try the MLS gasket by Cometic first. I've also changed my mind on the head I just finished and ordered a stripped down aluminum one. I learned a great deal in the process, but I'm not totally sold on my work and I'll feel more comfortable with a head that has been ported by professionals who actually own a flow bench. I just couldn't see having as much dough in an engine as I'll have in this one and resorting to guess work on the head.

I'm definitely no originality purist when it comes to engineering and performance. Technology has come a long way since the Triumph engineers built these cars and to not take advantage of all the great stuff that's available now, at least for me, is not an option. When the engine is completed, the only original part on it will be the block.
 
Hi Tab,
I have read that most people that have tried the aluminum head have not been able to make it work as well as the iron one (except jon ellison in uk-spent many years to get it to work). The water passages will be smaller and i suspect that you will require head studs that are exactly the same length with the block modified to accomodate all same length studs (due to the increased thermal expansion rate of aluminum-varying clamping pressure with thermal cycles if studs are different lengths-just a guess).
Nice work on the ports.
Rob
 
Thanks for the heads up Rob.

I'm using ARP head studs and bolts and I'm sure they will all be the same length, but I really don't understand why this would be a problem with an aluminum head.
Most cars now do use aluminum heads with cast blocks, so I would imagine the problems mostly occur with the wrong head gasket, or fitting it wrong. The head itself was cast with the same size mold as the cast iron head, so the water ways should be the same. But who knows. In any event, I will be using a larger aluminum radiator and an electric fan, so this should help with any cooling issues I may have.

I haven't sprung for the head yet, and a cast head is not out of the question, as long as it is new. The head you see that I ported was one of two. The other head looked great on the exterior, but once I started porting it, my burr when straight through one of the exhaust port walls. It was rusted from the inside out.

I'm using as many lightweight alloy parts as I can as sort of an experiment. I want to see exactly how much weight I can trim off of the car without it looking like a race car. I suppose I could just go ahead with a factory type restoration, but that would be no fun at all...lol.
 
Paul, sorry I missed your question above. Yes, I do plan on CC'ing the head. Actually, it's the only correct way to determine how much needs to be milled off to get the compression ratio I want.

I've decided to let a pro do the aluminum head for me. Without a flow bench, I'm just shooting in the dark, so they will CC it for me.

I took a look at your restoration website and you really did a first class job on your 6. I love the paint you used on your block and intend to do the same.

Did you ever re-dyno you car to determine how much BHP it's making?
 
Tab,

Thanks for the compliments. No, I'm afraid that I haven't gotten it to the dyno yet. After the rebuild, I got about 1,200 miles on it, then we got hit, so the next three months were in the body shop. I parked it November 8th, put on the CTek and the cover and I haven't touched it since, except to make sure the charger lights stayed on. I've been buried with a house project and promised myself and my wife that I would get it done before playing with the car or playing golf again. I'm almost there, so I hope to have it ready for a local club dyno day in July.

Good idea on the pro for the aluminum head. You can make a very expensive piece of scrap if you are not skilled at that type of work.

A tip on the paint. As you saw, I had my block dipped in acid twice and then it sat in a cooking tank for a weekend to get all of the acid out of the block. That's why it looking like aluminum in the pictures when it came out.Make sure that you heat your block before you paint it to get any moisture out of the pours of the metal. Even if you let it sit in the hot sun for a few hours, then let it cool gradually and paint it after. Baking the paint in the sun helps too. I'd give it a full 72 hours to cure before starting it up too.
 
Tabcon said:
...

I'm using ARP head studs and bolts and I'm sure they will all be the same length...
Click to expand...

They won't be. I have ARP studs in my TR3 engine and IIRC, there were three differenent lengths. Some about four inches longer then others.
 
Martx-5 , That is correct for the arp "Kit" for the triumph. The triumph engine has threaded connections for the studs at different depths in the block.
Tab, talk to Darryl U. to make sure. He will be able to inform you of what is required if you ask.
Rob
ps-Tab, sounds like you are building a pure race car now that you are bumping the compression over 10:1. I guess you will now have a camshaft over 300 degrees to go with it.
 
Oh..duh!!!

LOL

I thought you meant that the studs should just match each other in length, not actually 'ALL' be the same exact length. Now it makes sense.

Now, are you telling me I should use all 'LONG' studs, or all "SHORT' studs, or does it matter? I would assume that you should use the shorter studs since they are most likely shorter for a good reason, like maybe they will protrude into a water way or something.

Forgive my ignorance on this matter, but I really don't understand what difference the stud length would make if you torque all the studs to the same specs. I mean one stud is not creating any more force than the other if they are all torqued by the same amount...right? But if this is the case, couldn't you just use a different foot per pound pressure on say the small studs? Maybe more pressure on the small ones?

I guess the main thing I don't understand is what makes the specific combination of a 'Triumph' cast iron block and an aluminum head any different then say a cast iron Ford block with an aluminum head. I've head that the Triumph blocks are very dense when compared to the newer cast iron, so maybe this accounts for it...?

Anyway, I sure am curious...lol.

Thanks for the advice Paul. We don't have any acid baths in my area, just the hot tank ones. I had this block bead blasted first, then it was hot tanked. When the machinist removed the distributor bush he found a good bit of blast media, so it was a good thing I had him replace it. I also spent many dull hours grinding all the casting marks off and polishing the interior of the block so that it didn't have any rough edges. I'm sure painting the interior of the block is fine, but with my luck, a tiny piece of paint would most likely chip off and pursuant to Murphy's law, cause a piston to shoot clean through the side of the block...lol
 
Aluminum expands much more with heat than steel does. That means the force on the head studs (and the force they exert on the head) will go up dramatically as the engine warms up. Since the TRactor motor has some of the studs set much more deeply in the block (like 5" lower) than others, the studs must be different lengths to reach the head. The longer studs will stretch more easily than the short ones will; so the clamping forces will be unequal when the engine is hot. This is what everyone is worried about.

Most likely, the best solution would be to undercut the short studs more than the long studs, to make them approximately equally 'stretchy'. Might need to be a different alloy as well.

But it sure sounds like a lot of development for only an incremental improvement on an old TRactor motor. For likely less effort and expense, you can get a lot more power with a supercharger. Or just drop in a different engine ... I understand both the Ford 302 (with factory alloy heads) and Rover 3.5 (alloy heads and block) are actually lighter than the stock motor.
 
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