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Head just got back from machine shop, crack in casting. Is this head OK?
I had some buddies over my place this weekend and one of my observant friend's was checking out my rebuilt 951 motor when he noticed a crack on the interior of the head casting. The head was just rebuilt a few weeks ago by a machine shop. The head was cleaned, decked, had new stem seals and valve guides installed, and received a valve job. I told the shop to inspect the head carefully since it came off of my old engine that suffered a catastrophic failure and grenaded.
I am upset they did not catch this, and I fear this head may be trashed. Is this crack in the portion of the casting where the valve guide goes through ok, since the guide is already in place? The crack doesn't look too deep or too wide. It's on exhaust port #2.
I wouldn't run it, eventually the guide will drop out and could ruin your turbo/motor
I just spent over 250 dollars rebuilding a head that is now a paperweight? That's upsetting. I want the shop to make this right, but I'm not sure what to do. I feel like it was their responsibility to catch that. Especially upsetting since the head and cam tower are already bolted on and the engine is ready to drop in. I'm really tempted to say **** it and run it.
Any chance a good TIG welder could just make a few tack welds on the crack to fix it up?
Your best course of action, imo, is to bring it back to the shop that worked on it and go from there. Obviously there's a problem and at the very least you can get your money back
I know that. I am a 23 year old college student and I am simply out of money to keep working on this. I was ready to finish my car... Now even if they refund me the labor, I'll have to find a new head, have it rebuilt, and buy a new head gasket. And I'm not going to half *** a complete rebuild by using an NA head, it will slow down spool. At best I am now out 500 bucks make this right. I don't have the money, so that sets my rebuild way back on the time scale. Extremely upsetting. Is there any way a good tig welder can repair this in situ? That would be the best case scenario for me.
There's no way to get the welding tip down that far to get a good weld, and i personally wouldn't trust it for longevity. I have put na heads on turbos for a long time and haven't had any issues. Honestly i wouldn't use that head and try to get as much out of the shop that worked on it as you can. It really sucks that this happened, but it could have been worse if the motor/turbo was destroyed after it was completly together
On a side note, i read in one of the 951 intro books back in the day that the ceramic cotaing was more for emissions. It was suppose to keep exhaust temps higher so the cat would be more efficient quicker
I am going to go into the shop and present them with this breakdown:
Replacement head: 200
parts + labor: 300
gaskets, ect:75
I am going to inform them they owe me 575 dollars for their mistake and dishonesty in not telling me about the damage (I should have known something was wrong, the first head this shop did for me was a 2 day turnaround, this head was 13 days).
I've never had anything like this happen before. Am I being unreasonable in demanding they make this right? Why should I have to suffer from their mistake? I'm a broke kid basically and this is a big deal to me.
I know this won't make you feel any better but I have a similar head that is now a paperweight that was wrecked in the same way i.e. that casting cracked when they put in the new valve guides.
10-23-2016, 03:24 PM
Head just got back from machine shop, crack in casting. Is this head OK?
