[Staowners] {Spam?} CYLINDER HEADS

[george.simpson.forums at neuf.fr]

Pete - I sanded off the paint carefully but when down to bare metal there's no trace of any stamp.

I also tried to check the depth of the combustion chamber - where does one measure from? The chamber is slightly wedge shaped sloping from the spark plug hole which is the deepest part of the chamber. It is page 12 in my Workshop Manual which is a 1956 issue. By the spark plug hole, the depth was .9" but tomorrow I will measure the other side and see what the mid-point would be.

As the block and cylinder head of the engine whose number matches the chassis number are both painted sa blue/silver, I must assume they belong together and if ALL Mk I Alpines had H.C. then this must be one. If/when I change the heads (must locate the thiner gasket and valve stem caps first) then I will have the two heads to compare.

Thanks for the help.

George

George, Yes the stamp is above the siamese centre port. As far as
I know thats the only easy visual ID. So far as I know the casting
numbers don't help. The Alpine head would have shallower combustion
chambers. The alpine should measure 0.72" from the head surface to the
top of the combustion chamber.The lower,6.45:1,should measure 0.83".
See shop manual page 17 engine section. The Alpine also used a thinner
cylinder head gasket. it would be a good idea to clean off the paint to
try and locate the HC stamp as it is usually not a very deep
impression. let me know how you get on.                           Pete


 

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: george.simpson.forums at neuf.fr 

Pete -  I found nothing  above #2 - 3 inlet ports on both heads (do you mean above the siamesed  central exhaust port?) but then there is the usual silver blue paint so today I will scratch some off to look further.

I
looked on the top of the head and found two characters stamped into the
machined edge on top where the rocker cover gasket seals with the head.
They were  W   and   8    ... could this mean 8 : 1 or the H.C. head? So also tomorrow, I
will take off the rocker cover of the head presently on the Alpine and
look at the machined edge where I found the above characters and report
back.

I tend to agree with you about the hardened seats - if one
is not thrashing the car at high revs for hours at a time (and
hopefully none of us would treat our 50+ year old cars like that!!!)
then the risk is very small - presently I add a lead additive for the
low kilometres I do in a year.
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