Humboldtgrin

V2Rocket

weird discovery somewhat relevant to this thread...
i've got some subaru heads at my machine shop.
guides fell out...literally, i pulled the exhaust manifold and looked up the port and the guides were dropped 1/2"-1".
new oversize guides found and installed but apparently "nobody does bronze guides anymore" so finding a shop with the proper ream for valve clearance is hard.

944s use bronze guides...make sure your shop has a ream.

TheAllusionist

I have a widefire gasket set that I had intended for the first head, but the o-rings in that one are too far out, they are right over the ledge of the metal flange in the gasket. So yes I am using those headgaskets, if I was able to prep the block well like in a fresh build I would probably use Cometic MLS head gasket, but I have heard the surfaces have to be perfect. I actually thing the o-ring grooves in this head as close as thy are to the combustion chamber are for o-ringing the head to the block and not for the widefire gasket, but Porsche engines aren't my area of expertise, but I am learning! LOL Thanks for the links!

I notice a trend of machine shops in smaller towns closing down as the old timers retire and hi-tech machine shops in bigger cities getting work shipped to them. My guy is the third generation of machinist, his grandfather started the shop and I think when he retires, the shop will close down. He closes on Tuesdays and Thursdays just so he can get work done as whenever I go in there always guys there shooting the breeze and wanting to talk racing, a bit annoying as I run down when I am at work and just want to have a quick conversation and drop off some parts and have to wait for a 30 minute tall tale to finish. With that said, it is actually a cool environment and if I wasn't busy and in a hurry would love hanging out.

At this point now that the huge feeling of disappointment has subsided and I don't want to force it, just go with the flow and maybe do a long term 3L build, whether it be for this car or more likely I find something to build that has some miles on it and would be fun for racing and not be worried about getting a scratch. So now I will get the parts and rebuild the original head and go that route and just chalk this up to a learning experience. The seller offered a refund, but I will keep the parts and use it down the road, I think it was a great buy, just not for my car as it is now.

The positive of my poor purchases online is that I have learned a thing or two and have gotten to know some people here better. John Vitesse has actually been a great source of knowledge and we have had correspondences, etc. and he has been very gracious with his knowledge. And I am happy to say, just like poor Charlie Brown at Evergreen Turbo, John is finally getting a sale after years of correspondence with me. I always feel bad when I ask questions and people don't get immediate sales from me, but I always try to buy from those who share their time with me and the community. I look forward to my Vitesse MAF set up from John and wanted to thank him for sharing his knowledge with me.

Thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge with me and commenting on my post. Happy Easter!

TheAllusionist

Yay,
Finally got my head back, new valves, valve guides, performance springs and retainers….. The head was already ported to supposedly flow 240 CFM so we didn’t mess around with it too much, a little work on the combustion chambers side walls adjacent to valves. In addition, we matched up the head to my ported intake manifold and transitioned into the existing porting so that the intake flowed well into the heads. The intake is also ported and transitioned to match an oversized throttle body.

I have my Hi-Flow K27-8 from Evergreen Turbo and my stealth Vitesse MAF kit and ready to do my engine build/blown head gasket repair.

951and944S

Looks good, are those Victory titanium retainers..?

Only thing iffy, is, during the intake gasket size matching, it looks as if they just 45 deg ground from the new enlarged port size to the original port instead of blending by carrying in further.

Looks as if this will detach flow.

T

TheAllusionist

I would have to look at the box and see if the brand is Victory, but they are titanium and I got them from John Vitesse, along with the springs, etc.

As for the intake to head matching, not my area of expertise, it may be around a 30 degree intial to a 15 degree and it does go back some depending on the curve of the port. Perhaps it could go back farther, I think some of it is just how it looks because the new porting stands out from teh old and looks like there is a sharp crease where they meet in the photo, but that is more of an optical illusion because of the darker origial porting in the intake ports meeting the fresh metal. I guess it also comes down to where do you draw the line and stop. I was just lucky to get him to do the work for me, he is considered the best around here and all the drag racers and circle burners bring their work to him and say he is the best. I don't know how much longer he will be around, may try dropping off a Chevy 327 to be built before he retires.

Thanks for pointing out the potential flaw in the work, I appreciate you pointing these things out, it is how you learn. I think that the intake manifold is ported out plendy at this outsides and where it transitions into the larger throttle body, so the work done is far better than hitting a flat surface and he did this work just to try and make things continous, etc., all I asked for was a valve job and to go through and fix up any problematic areas to help the head flow, I bought the springs, retainers, valves, guides, etc. and his fee on the work was $418.00, I feel like it was more than fair. Now I have to find the time to do the actual work and get my car running! LOL

TheAllusionist

Head gasket question: I have a Wide Fire gasket I was planning on using because I can't guarantee how smooth/clean/flat the engine surface will bin so I didn't want to risk a Comtec MLS gasket. The head tab for measuring how much the head was milled is at 23.75mm which is in overall tolerance level, but less than stock, so a thicker head gasket might be suggested. Since I have an adjustable cam gear to put on it and and a Vitesse MAF, I assume that any slight timing change will/can be reconciled and that slight increase in compression isn't of concern. The one question I have is whether there is an issue with valve and piston clearance as you go down and is that what the 23.6mm minimum tab measurement is about?

With an additional variable of the adjustable cam gear, it seems wise to verify with less than stock head thickness, what type of cam adjustment is safe to make in advance and retard and is there an adjustment the 951 gurus think is an improvement over stock for street mainly?

I would say I am fine, but this is a decent amount of work and I don't want to just blindly move forward after spending all this money and time on the performance parts, etc. bolt on the head fire it up and have a valve clip a piston or something.

Humboldtgrin

TheAllusionist

Thanks, can always use a bit more low end on the street! That is also the reason I have stayed with the stock cam, high RPM powerband doesn't do me much good on the street.