Thank you! Still, I've got pronunciation problems with the "valves". I jump around and can't decide what's wrong and what's right. About a month ago a friend asked about the pronunciation of a word "valve" and I got messed up, lol. Thanks! I find that funny aswell. Actually, it's an honour for me to get it done. Can't wait to see it in action, but some details still need my attention before I assemble. Well, I've got some more progress, on the way for the heads. Combustion chamber design was advanced once again. More on the exhaust side. from that to that It wasn't enough for the TA Perf "slightly oversize" exhaust valve. Some discussions here [video=youtube;OgzRxQ66vB8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgzRxQ66vB8[/video] By the way, that's my first iron head to work on and I like it pretty much. It's very forgiveable, the walls would only move if you push on them, but when you go deeper some strange stuff may happen: it seems like the hardness is different in different parts of combustion chamber, so if you use a small burr it may dig in some places and leave high spots in other -the result would look kinda awful. So be careful once you dig into deeper (lower) layers of the iron. Timing cover had undergone few repairs. The cracked bolt portion was cut out and rewelded completely. Soon to shape it and glass bead again. I wasn't really happy with the "billetness" of TA Perf valve locks. The surface is very rough. The stock stamped ones have some dents too. Can't decide which ones to put. finally, got a chamber volume checker laser cut from 10 mm plexiglass, still need a burette Oh, I forgot about the valve guides! Here they are. (They are discussed in the video a little)
Nice Work !! You shouldn't worry too much about pronunciation. You are quite easily understood. Your nailhead build is MOST interesting.
It's been some time! Well, the engine owner was kinda low on money, so I was forced to finish the project on my own. I could just drop it, but I still wanted to finish it, because it did cost me a lot of time, effort and some sacrifices. And the whole engine is kinda tricky in details, if done right it can have a lot of power and if done badly, it can die pretty quickly. And if I do something I want to learn and take as much experience as I can. The head work took a looot of time! Cast iron heads were really killing me. So in April it was like that. Head #1 Head #2 It wasn't ideal, the seat-to-wall radius was still quiet rough, but it looked good. Suddenly, while doing the intake bowls I got into some real problems. Yeah! It's a hole! Guess, the casting was way too thin that in the other 7 intake ports, or might have been rusted from the inside. So I was in deep sh-t. I've found a local guy and asked him to weld it. Looked good, but didn't work. I took the cylinder head to pressure check the water passages at an engine shop and it was spilling water all around. Tried brazing Didn't work again. Tried brazing more - the water was going under the brazing and spilling again. And so I got mad a little bit, ground all the stuff we brazed and drove some 1000 miles for spraying nickel. That's some interesting tech - air/metal powder mixture is pressurized and heated which results in a supersonic metal "adding". Too bad for #2 head, it was all yellow-goldish due to constant hot water pressurized checks. Well, the "powder metal man" had blown some 5.5 bars (80 psi) of supersonic air and we got some holes. And it was covered with several layers of powder nickel. The blue marker shows the edge which I shouldn't ever touch and it was the place which actually didn't hold pressure in the next pressurized water check... It was so sad for me, so I came in to film it. [video=youtube;fePVzogQYsk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fePVzogQYsk[/video]
The nickel literally opened up for the water flow and closed when the water pressure was not applied. I thought that we should do a trick which might had worked if done right. I decided to thoroughly heat the sprayed nickel so it'd bind all together. I tried to find some cast iron welder/brazer who could help me out, and luckily I've found one. The trick almost worked, the head did hold some pressure, while still leaking - now under the nickel. So it was again adhesion problem. So I asked him to fix the head, he took some time and got to try. That hole looked scary as hell!!! He said it was all rusty so it couldn't have been fixed. Later the cast iron was up to show its character. This is a powder method to check for small cracks. The purple are the cracks. [video=youtube;Eruj2SOoBYE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eruj2SOoBYE[/video] The cracks only appeared on 2nd-3rd day AFTER welding! The next pics were not done at the same time! Each pic was done after the port was cleaned, welded and checked after 2-3 days. Oh, man, he was up to give up! Seriously! :ball: That's some flux (fusion agent), don't worry. And so my friend from Australia told me that we should heat the head to glowing red and weld/braze it, so no cracks would appear. And it worked! The final coat was done with hot silver-copper brazing. The head passed the pressure test! :Smarty: ____________________ Meanwhile I've done the exhaust manifolds. The point was to increase cross-section to slightly bigger than exhaust port, yet provid smooth turns and remove the choke heater from the right manifold, which restricts flow. _______________________ After the head got back to me I took some time to ressurect it from the dead (teh rusty-dusty hands of cast iron death) and we got onto our final straight. I took a burette to check the combustion chamber volume. I've got a range of 132 ccs +/- 1 cc. Which is somewhat less than 1% difference! I'm an idealist myself, but keeping in mind its huge volume and 0.76% is okay for a street driven nailhead. Due to dual plane manifold you need a very big luck to fill all cylinder at 100% -the case when this difference will begin to matter... So I went on for the seats! Actually, it was again difficult to get the Nailhead done, because only one company in St.Petersburg had a valve machine other than Serdi. Serdi is a well known and respected valve seat cutter machine, but its cutting tooth chuck is waaay too big to fit in the Nailhead combustion chamber, so they can't reach the seats. (The combustion chamber was left rough while cutting seats, I wanted to get the final polishing done afterwards) As for the seats, I went on like that: I've read what my performance bible said - The Chevrolet Racing Engine by Bill Jenkins - I have a kind of an ultimate respect for that book as it's amazingly deep and detailed, so detailed that you can't get it right from the first time! hehe! He used 30-45-60-90 degree cut on the intake, each angle except 30 and 45 was at least 0.100 in wide in order to aid the air to turn. The width of 45 degree cut was recommended at 0.085-0.090 in (about 2.2 mm) for the intake, and the exhaust 45 was about 0.065-0.070 in (about 1.7 mm). At first, I was to follow his advice, especially in valve seat width of the intake, but the factory Buick Repair Manual said that 0.075 in is not a desirable width for intake seats. Okay, so I got 0.065-0.070 in (1.7 mm) width on both int and exh 45 degree cuts. Regarding the top angle, I decided to use 37.5 top cut, because 30 angle could leave a much deep protrusion in the chamber, which I absolutely hate. I wasn't over satisfied with the 37.5 degree cut and I think a 40 degree cut could benefit a little more. It could eliminate the top cut step on the valve seat, so the air would gradually turn inside the combustion chamber. But maybe next time! ____________________ Finishing the intake plenum modifications. It has quiet a big mismatch on the ports and it's very very important to get it ported. I'll do a video once it's done (very soon!).
Now here's the most important thing for me (and hopefully for you!) in this thread. I've tried to combine some of my knowledge and explain you how to port and increase horsepower of a Nailhead engine, but the basic principles can be applied to any other engine (a 455 maybe, hehe!). The basics and intake ports: [video=youtube;r7ytIuDbmkE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ytIuDbmkE[/video] I'm sorry that I've lost some words during my explanation, it was a little difficult since I haven't recorded English-speaking videos for a while. After you talk for more than 5 mins during recording everything becomes a little messed up, especially when it's done at night, lol.
Here's the 2nd part about the exhaust ports... [video=youtube;FaDdyfRzWI4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaDdyfRzWI4[/video] ...right after which my camera ran out of juice. So the ending is a little strange.
Exhaust port related video. [video=youtube;sdlDVlh09eY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdlDVlh09eY[/video] This video shows the original port exit angle and a flat step which occurs when you try to line it up to the gasket. This exhaust port curve was discussed in the previous - exhaust guide - video.
Combustion chamber video. This is an old video, when all 8 combustion chambers were pretty close to equal, while still being very rough. But you can see the way it's done as the shape can be seen better. Warning: again my background soundtrack is somewhat crazy, this time it's a sort of norwegian black metal, which is good for porting cast iron heads in cold winters. You obviously need some hate to get a cast iron head done, haha. So please, be ready to adjust the volume. No explanations given there. [video=youtube;oS_rjN9NTtg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS_rjN9NTtg[/video] The idea is to gradually unshroud both of the valves - move the walls a little further apart from the seats and remove sharp edges. The result is a little bigger combustion chamber on the intake side, than on the exhaust - because the intake valve is bigger and you shouldn't increase the chamber more than necessary. Same in a word of head porting science is that you don't need more than 6.5 mm (0.255 in) valve-to-wall clearance as it would have no reaction on performance. p.s. Sorry for creating a bunch of messages, but I can't get more than 1 video per message.
Dude - I salute your skills and resourcefulness. More videos, more death metal. Maybe I missed this earlier in the thread, but what it the ultimate plan for this engine? A Pro-Street Volga?
Thanks man! Actually, some '65 Wildcat lowrider. The engine was almost dead, and so the owner wanted to get as much power as possible while rebuilding it. He said, it was going to be his long term ride, but later it turned out that he wanted to just fix the car and sell it better with a performance engine. So, you know, when one's doing for himself and when one's doing that for re-selling - that's not the same attention from the owner. However, I just couldn't make myself do it badly, but quick. So it's like we take the best of both worlds - the engine is gonna run fine on the street, yet have quite big power. I hope about 350-360 net hp on the flywheel. P.S. But I actually do create some parts for Volgas, they have their own V8, which is pretty cool - full aluminum die-cast everything since 50s, big block chevy bore spacing, wet liners, 10 degree wedge heads and common as dirt. It's very underestimated, and I think it can be pretty badass, if done properly.
Perseverance pays off !! Nice Work ! You have saved those heads ! Many people would have sent them to be scrapped. :TU:
Very well done indeed. As I was reading your progress and seeing the pictures trying to fix that hole, I was thinking to myself "Try heating up the head and welding with it hot!" Glad you got it figured out! That's definitely a nice save. You have obviously spent a lot of time on the heads alone and do beautiful work. I hope the performance gains you get out of it are what you were looking for. Nailheads are very fickle especially when it comes to air. Which is odd because they are constantly starved for air to begin with. That sucks about your customer though. Starting off he tells you that he wants something with power to be reliable and for himself. Then later says he is out of money and his whole tune about the car is different. Now its not for him, he is just trying to flip it. I sure hope whoever gets it appreciates all the hard work you are putting into that Nailhead. It's not a normal V8 by any means.
A non-welded head could be a better choice, but I'm in Russia, and I didn't have much to choose from nor I really wanted to get a new head ported again like this one. And again at my own costs. It was a hard deal saving it! Hope it'd live long enough to enjoy it through out! There's a little problem with glowing red cast iron. My welder was very very afraid of the white iron - a very hard and brittle condition of iron, and when it's whitened, you can't save this piece or modify - only cut or scrap it. Cast iron welding is not a very common thing here, but it's mostly done on truck gearboxes and other stuff which doesn't a pressure on one side and vacuum on the other side - like in the water passages and the intake port here. The reason is probably because most of the soviet made car/truck engines never had a cast iron head. It was a pre-WWII thing here, later all engines had aluminum head - no matter if it was flathead-6, V8 or straight-4. The flathead-6, btw, was a metric version of officially licensed Dodge D5 of 1910s, originally with splash lubrication. It was modified quite a lot here, the last version was probably GAZ-52. I still wonder if a Dodge D5 cam would fit, haha. Me and my friends want to try a hot rod with that engine. We also had the licensed 4-71s and 6-71s in 1950s! These were YaAZ-204 and -206 respectfully. It's still the main source for the blowers. The intake ports on the Nailhead are pretty amazing, however, the intake itself does limit quite a lot due to core shifts! Huge mismatches and lots of smaller than desirable areas. Btw, found something crazy from the 60s hot rodding. http://candyshotrodsupply.blogspot.ru/2010/01/buick-nailhead-after-market-heads.html Still, I hardly believe it had better intake ports than the original design. My customer's dedication is the something that made me sad while doing this engine. It's a friend of my best friend, so I thought it was all okay, but something went bad... Anyway, since this car is in Russia, where most of the engines are rebuilt with dirt and "one's mother", and my other friend, who had a '66 Riviera, wasn't kind about the Nailhead's performance (said he'd rather have prefered a 455), I thought, all the pefromance stuff was worth to do. Now just need to get my money back. ________________ Oil pump non-driven shaft was about half-of-an-inch out from the body! Some said they may even hit counterwieghts if they get out a lot! This lead to some scratches on the cover plate, but it's mostly okay! The new driven shaft has some little side play (less than the old one), don't know if I should give it a bronze bushing or just leave alone. I can't figure out what to do with the exhaust manifold sealing surface. Guess, those on the head and on the manifolds need to be ground flat with a grinding disc machine, not just milled. Since milling won't seal it. I can't find where to do this final operation. I can make some gaskets from soft steel or whatever...
The other day I was watching TV and there was this programme. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cdsrv_car-sos-austin-re-powered_shortfilms I started sh-tting bricks at 19 min! I must have known about that before! I could fix that small hole (when it was small) pretty quick. Actually I thought about screwing a bolt it, but it was odd for me and I thought cast iron welding is easier. :laugh: However, this process is completely uncommon here! I even thought maybe I should dealer something here, hehe, though I don't see a great demand right now. The process is called cold metal stitching and you can do pretty much everything. The idea is to increase pressure in this area, so it'd seal - like a valve seat in the head. But metal stitching is not a structural reinforcement, it just creates some stress, so it won't hold a big load and can't be used on mounts or whatever.
Guess, I'm done with the heads! Not absolutely ideally looking, but i'm pretty pleased! Milled (ground) off 0.013 in. These still need to be final cleaned and assembled. The machine shop refused to grind flat the exhaust port sealing surface, cause they didn't have a base angle for it. (Duh!) However, the exhaust sealing surface on the head looks fine, unlike the ones on the exhaust manifolds! I've done 1st part of the intake manifold video, I think, it'd be better when coped with part 2.
Maybe Tom will chime in here. he had my manifolds machined at the flange surface for better sealing with no gasket. I know its a pain in the rear to set them up to cut....I've never seen a picture of how they did that. Maybe Tom can describe it.....
Yeah, they are a PAIN to get set-up. If the cutting is off even .020" angle you end up with a manifold that sits too close to or too far away & now things don't line up any longer & other mods need to be made to compensate.
Damn! Sounds like trouble! It calls for experience of the machinist then! I also thought about thin copper gaskets or high-temp loctite... Tom, what do you think about the head work and stuff? Is it worth a dime? You must be the most experienced person around performance Nailheads!
