moparman76_69 wrote: That really looks like heat rather than force. The hole in the first pic is deformed on one side and has a bulge where it looks like the surface began to melt.
It's not. It hasnt been run for more than 2 minutes at a timeand there's a clear point where impact was made.
Doesnt really matter since it sounds like I have to waste my good spare head on this car with another gasket set no matter what the cause was.
Very aggravating.
It can be saved, but finding a shop that does that kind of repair work may not be easy, depending on where you live. Without being able to actually look at it, I'm guessing a few minutes with a TIG welder and then remachine it back to shape. Also agree that finding a bearing that would fit the application and just opening up the hole would probably be the easiest way to go.
I've had good experiences with this shop in the past and am willing to chalk this up to a bad day, but they are somewhat famous for building some really nasty drag motors. If anyone locally has the capability, it'll be them. I guess I can look into it, but I have no idea how much that sort of thing costs.
They'll tear down a head, clean it, do a valve job, resurface, and assemble for under $150. If they can fix it for $250-300 i'll just about break even on my time to set up another head I suppose.
moparman76_69 wrote: That really looks like heat rather than force. The hole in the first pic is deformed on one side and has a bulge where it looks like the surface began to melt.
Agreed. That damage is not from being dropped.
maj75 wrote:moparman76_69 wrote: That really looks like heat rather than force. The hole in the first pic is deformed on one side and has a bulge where it looks like the surface began to melt.Agreed. That damage is not from being dropped.
Oh FFS.
It doesn't matter. It's damaged, i'm just wondering if anyone thought there was a good chance of it being fixed. I can't get a good picture of the whole thing at once because there's car in the way and i was only interested in capturing why my gasket wouldn't seal at the moment.
The head has been dropped. I assure you. I'm pretty familiar with these heads, i pulled this head off of a running car 3 years ago and tore it down myself before i dumped it at the machine shop in the beginning of November. It wasn't like this when i pulled it off the car, it wasn't like this when i dropped it off at the machine shop, and the gasket hasn't sealed since the first moment i tried to run this head.
I don't care why the sky is currently green, i'm just trying to figure out if it's possible to make it blue again.
I love you all, but holy crap. 
Could you TIG and file to shape a corresponding high spot on Plate 10-180 to take up the gap between the head and the plate???
Gasoline wrote: Could you TIG and file to shape a coresponding high spot on Plate 10-180 to take up the gap between the head and the plate???
I'm pretty sure that's pretty possible, i'm more worried about being able to properly fix the cam journal.
But like i said, my guess is that at this point, it's going to be safer and more economical to just throw together another head, as i imagine this sort of repair isn't cheap.
But i will bring both heads in when i'm ready and ask them to give me a quote on both. 
It's hard to imagine why, or how, but by the way the holes and journal are drooping, it sure does look like it's been heated. I would take it back to the shop and show them, but anybody who worked on that head has either overlooked the damage, or are incompetent, so good luck getting anyone to admit that it happened there.
If a customer brought me that head, I could probably fix it, but I'd advise him to scrap it.
My guy does some amazing work on what would normally be a destroyed head.
Any of you head gurus want to port the replacement for me? I'm really not looking forward to dealing with it and my work schedule is barely going to allow me to swap the heads, let alone spend the time to equal the somewhat half-assed job i did on the first one.
I can help you with porting. I have time.
Thanks Stan, i'll let you know if it comes down to that, i really appreciate it.
In the meantime, i'm looking at another MX6 tomorrow. Thinking it might be easier to just buy a winter beater for the time being.
In reply to Swank Force One:
Easy there, big guy...
How do you know that is the head you dropped off? I get it that it didn't look like that when you dropped it off. Maybe it got switched.
It makes a difference whether it was dropped or melted. Melted is not repairable as the structure of the metal has changed...
I always thought it wasn't good to trust a head that was dropped. A lot of weirdness happens that you can't see.
maj75 wrote: In reply to Swank Force One: Easy there, big guy... How do you know that is the head you dropped off? I get it that it didn't look like that when you dropped it off. Maybe it got switched. It makes a difference whether it was dropped or melted. Melted is not repairable as the structure of the metal has changed...
.... these arent real common anymore, when I dropped it off they remarked they hadnt seen on in years.
I fail to see what it has to do with anything.
I have a trashed head that has been dropped, period.
Or maybe it was swapped, then melted, then dropped.
But it's still trashed.
Can I maybe make the sky blue again?
Take the one off my car so at least you can drive yours again?
Can you make a sand mold of this head, square up the damage in the mold, and have the guy from the spitfire build melt it and repour it into the mold? 
Is it a 3V head?
Should I keep an eye out at my core suppliers for ones lying around? I can often get cylinder head cores pretty cheap.
I have a spare if you need it, just saying
I have spare heads, but they all need to be machined and ported.
It's not a big deal now. I'm just going to use this as an opportunity to address some other rather large issues that were uncovered when i lifted the old head off the motor.
Not super psyched about tearing the car down to nothing again after 10 minutes total of runtime on the current setup, but it's gotta happen.
Swank Force One wrote: Any of you head gurus want to port the replacement for me? I'm really not looking forward to dealing with it and my work schedule is barely going to allow me to swap the heads, let alone spend the time to equal the somewhat half-assed job i did on the first one.
Is this a paying job??
Sending you a PM.
I dont know why anyone is having trouble seeing that damage. It's.. ugly. I think the head could be fixed. All the possibilities have been mentioned. Tig it up and then line bore it and machine the ugly face for the gasket. Bore it out and bush it, then machine the face for the gasket.
I think it comes down to the cost of that vs porting another head. I would definitely try and find a place willing to do the repair before giving up. It's definitely doable. The hard part is finding someone willing.
It can be saved, machined for an insert bearing just like a con rod bearing as others have said. Why does the top part sit so far off aswell?
I had a set of heads done by a good local shop. They then sat on the shelf for over 30 days before I got to installing them. Upon putting the lifter buckets into the bores, I found two bores were nicked from tool contact. I called the shop and they said they would take care of it no problem, I even tried to give them some money and they said "hell no, we probably did it." The point of my story is just that you should call them and see what they say. It might save you a chunk of change.
You'll need to log in to post.
