Here’s some of the information that’s been passed on to me regarding the aluminum cylinder heads for the Y. I’m keeping this post separate from the one asking “Who’s serious about purchasing a pair of aluminum cylinder heads?” to keep that particular post from being a discussion about the heads themselves and easier to get a head count of potential head purchasers. New posts or adding to this one regarding specific questions are always welcome.
The aluminum heads are still being planned as a direct bolt on for the run of the mill Y engines. Standard design features will include the factory bolt and gasket patterns for intake manifolds, exhausts, and rocker arm setups while having improved out of the box air flow over the stock heads. The valve covers will still sit in the stock locations which seems to be a valid concern. The heads will include stainless steel valves, retainers, springs, and locks and are essentially being planned as a simple bolt on without the need for special parts. The external texture and markings on the castings will be such that the heads can be painted to look like stock heads if so desired. These heads will use the newer style washered 14mm spark plugs which are commonfare at this point on most of the other aftermarket heads that are now available. The exact spark plug recommendations will be available by the time the heads are ready to hit the market.
Dyno testing is at the top of the list before the heads are released but just as soon as this testing validates that the heads are indeed ready to go, the heads will go into production and start being sold. That means not much fanfare or publicity before the first production run is sold out. Which brings up the original question in the other post, “How many people interested in first run heads” which will allow for an estimate for the intial number of foundary castings to be determined. Keep in mind that with the aluminum foundaries going out of business at an apalling rate, that second run may take awhile depending upon which U.S. foundaries are still around after the smoke clears and how long it takes for one of these to come back up to speed making quality castings. On my end, rebuildable large valve head cores are getting hard to come by so the production of these heads will definitely alleviate this shortage and with the heads exhibitting better than stock air flow characteristics, then all the better.
Click here to return to “Request for Head Count Posting”.
Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)