Long story short: The engine I bought from Richard has a bad head, and I need to repair/replace it. The valve guides are all shot, and at least two cylinders have cracks between the valve seats. The cracks were supposedly fixed, but have become visible again, and though I know how much meat is in between the seats, I'm a bit nervous about using this head.

I started porting up a spare 530, but in my haste I screwed it up & it's not fixable. I have another 530, sitting on a B230F that I promised to Raz, but because I promised the engine to Raz I'd rather not have to use that head. I could still use the 530 that came from Richard's engine if I just ignore the cracks and the heli-coiled spark plug hole, but I just can't do it.

I have a fairly good B234F head, but using that would mean notching the pistons in this block, building a turbo header, and LH2.2 would not have the proper spark tables for the 16v burn characteristics. Undoubtably this path would provide the most power (and might even be the cheapest option), but it's a bit ambitious for the goals I've got for this car, and I really kind of wanted to use LH instead of monkeying around with Megasquirt on my daily. Megasquirt might have happened on the 8v anyway, though. Also, apparently the B234F intake manifold is shite, though I don't know if Andy is using his B204GT manifold just yet...

The other problem with the B234 head is that it would give me too much compression - I've got to open up whatever head I use to over 60cc in order to get my compression ratio below 9:1, with the pistons that are in this block. The B234 head would give me somewhere 'round 10:1 CR, and wouldn't be too happy with alot of boost.

So I'm looking for options. I don't need a 530 specifically, though that's the toughest and most plentiful head out there. I know Dale's got a 398 I can use, but we're not sure if it's SCP and it would need a rebuild anyway. A 405 has theoretically better flow from the intake, but are all BCP and theoretically weaker (though I've hammered on a 405 for the past 5 years without a head gasket failure) and needs injector/pulsair holes plugged. The 405 would need less porting for me to make it work with my engine though...

Who's got what, what condition is it in, and how cheaply would you let it go for?

geoff? doesnt he have something?

i'll gladly pull a head for you sometime down at pick and pull if you want....let me know, maybe i'll go sunday

ciao

Sorry Matt...I sold all my 405's, so all I've got is my old 160. It's been rebuilt not long ago, but its also been decked, so the CR would be higher. It's not much, but you're welcome to it if you want it.

Well there's a 405 at PYP, at least there was last weekend, so I could go grab that Saturday morning, but ... dammit. Evil thoughts of 16v glory are running through my brain. I wonder how much boost I could run at 10:1

Pull the 405 and sell me the K and have a 405?

Did you and Dale have a 531 at one point? There aren't a lot of places around here to junk up a freshwater 531, but in Portland there is a decent shot at that.

I was wondering if that might be happening!!

Dunno about boost, with MS I suppose more, but that bottom end was built pretty tough no?

I have a 398 you can have for free, *fairly* sure it's scp but it WILL need at least a basic rebuild.

I bet you could run as much boost on a 10:1 16valve motor as on a 9:1 8 valve...

Scott (my car buddy at work) suggested something elementarily simple: draw up a head gasket and get one cut out of .125" copper. That would give me a drop in CR and would eliminate much of the need for valve reliefs at the same time, and since there's no quench pad to speak of in the B234 head, I wouldn't be losing too much there...

There are no 405 heads at the wrecker with K cams in them...I know this...

We've got a 531 but it's spent way too much time under water and is essentially junk. Not to mention, Matt had to take a BFH to the exhaust manifold to get it off and broke out a couple of exhaust stud bosses. It's junk. We're actually going to slice and dice it to see how much and where the material is in them...

So what's the deal Matt? You goin' 16v?

Not yet.

I tried again on Richard's old head & we'll see what happens there. It has a few issues that need to be dealt with during a rebuild, and as an added bit of insurance I'm going to get them to pressure test it to make sure that the heavy cutting I did isn't now leaking water. As of last night, the chambers are 100% finished & the exhaust ports are 90% finished. Tonight hopefully I'll get the exhaust ports touched up and get moving on the intakes.

The issues with 16v on a turbocharged B23 are many and can't be solved easily. It would undoubtably make the power, but it's alot of work and effort for what's supposed to be an "effortless" car.

Athal helped talk me down somewhat as well, and the car is going to start off a little less ambitious and leave room to grow. I think I'm happier with this path, though it would be nice to crack 300 RWHP right away...

Yeah, that's cool. Staying 8v seems reasonable.
I hope that head holds up for you Matt....all the porting sounds pretty sweet. How much of a drop in CR are you expecting? I don't doubt 300 whp is within your reach in a short while!

Matt i've got a few heads in stock here if need be...

A 405 I pulled with plugged EGR ports and k-jet holes. The odd time my b230 would smoke on startup (value guides?). Otherwise it's perfectly fine. It's the head I had on my 244 when I came to PACNW the first time.

I have a 398 head off my old b21ft.. my only concern is the cam bearing caps, I think they are on the head, but I'd have to check.

Also have a 161 (I think?) probably not desirable to you. It is all rebuilt and has about 10,000 miles on it (from the 242).

Also have a 530 that came off my b230ft, never ran it but it's same condition as any other used head.

I owe you, so if you want a head give me a shout. Won't cost you!

Well the other day I started opening up Richard's old head, and got it to about 57.5ccs in each chamber, with an eye to good flow. I could have gotten them bigger, but flow would suffer. Anyway, with the pistons that are in the engine, that's about 9.1:1 C/R, which will limit boost a bit but we'll see. Shouldn't be too bad...

I'm not sure why you owe me anything, Geoff, but I'll take that 405 if this head turns out to be too far gone.

FWIW, these pistons gave about 9.8-10.0:1 with the stock 530. Good thing CNG has an octane of about 130, huh Richard?

Just give me a PM/Email if you need it .. I havn't been surfing the boards 24/7 lately.

You gave me the EDIS stuff + your two cents quite a few times. I'm happy if I can help you out!