Finally lit a fire under the local foundry. Basically, told them I wanted to take the head project to another foundry. I was quite serious and still will if all doesn't go well.
So they cast another head. Another disappointment. w00t:
I happen to remember something Frank R had mentioned in a conversation last year. He said that some patterns cast better upside down. Mentioned this idea to the foundry owner and they tried it. We now have 4 castings that look good.
So now the head is being cast with the deck surface on top instead of the rocker stands. This seems to have cured the problem of the water jacket core breaking loose and floating up. The sand core is now under compression and can't go anywhere.
Because we will be holding the head in a totally different manor than Ford originally did, building the fixture to hold the new casting will be easy. What will be difficult is attaching a factory head to the machine in the same location to pick up gasket surface heights. I've made a sketch of what I think will work, just need to get started on making it.
Things are looking up. Will post updates as work progresses.
http://ford-y-block.com 20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico
