Head finally ready

XMFalcon221

Well-known member
This part of the forum hasn't had much action lately so I thought I'd give you guys an update on my aluminium head build.

It's been over 12 months now since I ordered the head, it took 4 months to arrive down under and its since been at the machine shop, finally ready to pick up tomorrow :beer:

When I first got the head I noticed a hole in the head leading from the rocker box area through to one of the spark plug tunnels. The hole looked like it was from a small porous section from a bad casting. I then dropped the head off for a closer inspection and some basic porting considering the valve guide bosses were way oversized in the ports. The head was pressure tested and luckily the coolant passages seem to be intact but when air was blown into the ports a heap of tiny pin holes were found throughout the head and further casting hollows were found around one of the intake valve spring seats. 2 of the spark plug holes were also oval shaped and the thread was only on 2 sides of the holes. The valve seats were badly corroded and did not have a consistent valve to seat contact.

After the amount of money I spent on the head plus bullcrap Australian custom's duties I was pretty pissed off to say the least. Obviously with Mike passing and Classic Inlines no longer trading I was in a tight spot. I was considering scrapping the aluminium head altogether and trying to source an Aussie 2V head but I decided to push on (fingers are crossed that this was the right decision...)

The rough casting areas were ground out the best that they could be and welded. The 2 dodgy spark plug holes were welded and re-drilled & tapped. The valve spring pads were machined to a larger diameter and .080" hardened steel spring locator shims were fitted under each spring to spread the load over a greater area, luckily there is still just enough spring travel available to suit the .527" valve lift with the slightly reduced installed spring height. After a basic porting job and blending of the valve guide bosses, a new valve seat job was done.

Big weekend in the garage coming up this weekend to work on putting the 221 together and measure & order some push rods. Hopefully in a couple of weeks time i'll be able to kick her in the guts and see what happens....

Please note this post is not meant to be hanging crap on Classic Inlines. Over the past couple of years I have bought a lot of parts from them and had always received great service and advice from Mike. It just seems that my luck ran out with this particular head. Hopefully someone will pick up from where Mike left off, it would be a shame for all of his hard work and initiative to come to an end.

I will keep you posted when I've had a chance to fire the 'ol girl up and hopefully get it back on the road!! summary of the build below:

- 221 from XW Falcon, zero deck height, balanced rotating assembly
- +.040" flat tops, moly rings, 11.0:1 compression
- ARP rod bolts, main studs, head studs
- Aluminium head, 54cc chambers, dual valve springs
- 4 barrel manifold, Edelbrock 500cfm carb
- Clay Smith solid cam, 243 duration @ .050", 110° lobe centre, .527" gross lift
- Yella Terra roller rockers, 1.65:1
- Roller timing set
- Romac balancer
- DUI distributor, curved by Bill Ambler
- Split headers with dual 2.25" exhaust, chambered mufflers
- HD clutch, flywheel drilled for 6x bolts
- McLeod racing hydraulic release bearing
- Toyota W50 5 speed transmission
- Toyota hilux 4.1:1 LSD diff
 
Looking forward to your build. My head had a couple of casting issues also. But only on the lip where the valve cover goes. I am guess this last batch of heads happen to be a rough casting.
 
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