All Small Six What’s happening with the Vintage Inlines SBF Aluminum Cylinder Heads and Manifolds…?

[awasson]

Ok, if that was the case, a finished head is a long way from the foundry, so someone had to do all the machine work, (drawings) and supply all the ancillary stuff as well. Not a lot of places here that could or would do that work, (yellaterra?) And the Australian manifolds dont fit, so where did they come from. head stud developments does make some heads for our local GM six, they are low volumes and expensive, but they do wake up the six.

It's the first I had heard of it but then again, I'm not very knowledgeable in the history of these heads or how the VI head evolved. It sounds like a convoluted way to make a buck. You'd have to do some volume to do it and as you said, there's a lot of post pour work to do before you deliver a head. VI offers head/manifold as a pair so I suspect the same foundry pours both.

Oh well. Glad to see that there's been an update. Eventually I might go that route too so I'm rooting for them to iron out all of the details and make them a success.

 

[Wayne clark]

Ok, if that was the case, a finished head is a long way from the foundry, so someone had to do all the machine work, (drawings) and supply all the ancillary stuff as well. Not a lot of places here that could or would do that work, (yellaterra?) And the Australian manifolds dont fit, so where did they come from. head stud developments does make some heads for our local GM six, they are low volumes and expensive, but they do wake up the six.

He put up a picture with a bunch of them on a pallet that still needed the machine work . You look at the castings and you can get an idea of all the work needed to have a finished product .
And even those may have been the ones he said had a casting issue .
I purchased Classic Inline S# 009 from a member here about 6 years back . I'm hopeing somebody didn't get carried away with milling the head & porting it .
I'm hopeing the 46 cc chambers won't be an issue with the stock dish pistons & our thicker head gaskets . It looks good in that shipping box But the no problems remains to be seen .

 

[AZstang66]

YAAASSSSSSS

 

[AK49]

YAAASSSSSSS

View attachment 29825

Well…. timing is a funny thing

I have been having fits over getting a new cylinder head done / mine is cracked and the only other one I found will be almost $1800 to rebuild at a machine shop…. because it’s junk…

Should I just wait for one of these?

 

[awasson]

Well…. timing is a funny thing

I have been having fits over getting a new cylinder head done / mine is cracked and the only other one I found will be almost $1800 to rebuild at a machine shop…. because it’s junk…

Should I just wait for one of these?

Welcome aboard... These engines are a little bit tricky to do anything with, regarding the head and in north America our options for a head upgrade are slim.

If you want a very good head for getting the most out of your Ford 200, inline-6 then the options you have are:

1) Get on a waiting list for this head (pre-orders are currently closed). The head is $3200 and the price includes: Assembled aluminum cylinder head (dual springs, retainers, and viton seals), alloy intake manifold, and carb plate. Also includes stainless steel hardware for installing the manifold. Heads will have 1.84" intake valves and 1.50" exhaust valves. 1.5 and 1.6 ratio rocker assemblies are available, but not included.

* The above is cut and paste from the Vintage Inlines website: https://www.vintageinlines.com/product-page/deposit-only-aluminum-head-package

2) Get/import a used Argentinian head, intake and header. They are probably around half to two thirds the cost when the dust settles. The configuration is similar; a well sorted out head, manifold and exhaust, big valves, nice flowing intake and head. Hard to find but there's a guy that goes by the name of Diego D'Andrea on the Facebook 200/250 group who has been importing them for people in that group in the United states.

3) Get/import an Australian 2V head. Same as above but probably even harder to source. I have however seen 2 full sets of Aussie 2V heads, intakes and headers for sale in the classifieds here and on Facebook for around $2500 USD.

4) If you want to keep things a little less spendy but still want a performance boost... Get a decent used log head, rebuild it, skim it for compression and do a direct mount 2V carburetor. Get the valves back cut while you're at it and put on an adjustable rocker assembly with 1.65 ratio rockers (the original ratio is 1.5). The 1.65 ratio rockers will increase valve lift. Even on a small log head the difference is significant.

I am building a performance head out of a used unmolested large log head. Large log refers to the heads built from 1969 and newer. 78 through 80 are probably the most desirable because of the larger CFM of the log and the larger 1.75" intake valves. Mine is a 1969 head so I will be putting in new seats for the larger valves.

The large log heads also have larger combustion chambers so they need to be shaved to reduce the chambers and increase compression.

5) If you just wan to get the car back on the road, get a decent used log head, have it vacuum tested and inspected for cracks, damage and have it skimmed to make sure it is true, change the valve guide seals and run it. They come up from time to time in the classifieds here and I see them on Facebook marketplace from time to time as well.