Head castings and casting heads

[FloridaRustang]

Too many ideas floating in my head...

Anyone have a guess as to what would be involved in having a cylinder head cast according to a (set of) CAD drawing(s)?

Aside from my crazy two-stroke (three-stroke?) idea that would require a new head design, I'm wondering what it would take to create a 4-valve DOHC head for the 170-200-250.

The design for chambers and ports could be stolen from any number of heads (Ford's current 4.6 DOHC would fit, but I don't think 37mm intakes are necessary; Honda 2.2 DOHC has a better ratio, IMO), so it's more a matter of getting it onto paper, or more accurately into the computer, in straight six form.

Or maybe just a new 2V crossflow design with OHC that fits the American block without changes.

I've been to Quickparts.com's site. They will take STL files and give you a quote, but I'm not sure they could handle something as complex as a cylinder head. I'm thinking the coolant passages would be the real problem for them, both in putting them in a CAD drawing (ease, not doability) and in casting. And learning the 3d CAD (I've got TurboCAD 7) has turned out to be a bear.

Obviously, the cost would be higher for something small run, but the advantages and the novelty factor... The question is, how much more would it cost? I mean, a pair of V8 aftermarket street heads runs $800 and up.

Outside of that, I would probably have to get hold of a scrap head to study for the coolant passages. Other dimensions can be gleaned from an intact head.

So, what's impossible about this? Shoot it down or give advice, please! Or just talk it to death...

(Yeah, this is probably way outside the realm, but a man can dream, can't he? )

 

[StrangeRanger]

Why noy just buy a Krogdahl conversion? No design hassles and since they've already paid for their tooling, it would be way cheaper than re-inventing the wheel

 

[FloridaRustang]

Until I actually build it, my design work is "free" outside procuring a head to chop apart for study. And I guess that really doesn't even have to be a Ford 6 head. I could probably even work from someone else's pictures (hint, hint).

I'm betting I could get a head cast (after design) and completed for less than the ~$3700US ($5500AUD) Krogdahl's asking, not to mention getting it from Australia to the US. Maybe not, I dunno.

There are also the arguments, carried on here even, against spending that much for a Krogdahl 2V DOHC when you could get a crossflow head for less and make it work.

 

[XFlow_Fairlane]

$3700...thats a good one.....

some people looked into getting DOHC heads made for a 2.3L.....was going to be around $3k per bare casting with several castings needed for setup and such....so you are looking at prob $20K just to get the process started.

once everything got sorted out then it would get cheaper

nick

 

[Anonymous]

In general, start-up costs on something like that are incredible. There are rapid prototyping methods out there that can reduce the time and cost involved, but even then, getting molds made isn't gonna be cheap.

--mikey

 

[Anonymous]

I have thought about this for years, why not design a casting that didn't put the top on the water passages? In aluminun you can weld sheet over the cavity and have your water passage.
The head design I'dd like would be a pushrod type with three valves, pent roof chambers, deep breathing with a normal cam anyone???
Anybody know of a cam belt drive for the 200?