Here are some photos of some modifications me and my friend Rich are considering doing to the heads on my 259 Studebaker engine. This is not for a street engine, it was supposed to be for a Bonneville race engine, this is also being done to a junk head so is a test. This head was brought to us by Jack Vines who just bought Rich's Packard stuff, I think the head was given to Jack by another Studebaker owner who goes by the handle of jallen on the Studebaker drivers club forum. We are starting on the exhaust side. Have received much input on the SDC forum. Donor Head, couldn't read casting number very well Rich bolting it to the mill Head on the mill, making certain we have enough travel Then my camera batteries went dead, Rich is supposed to send me some pics. I will post if/when he does. I will post some more pictures of how we cut the ports by next weekend either way. Here is the head after three ports were done Rich finished the last port during the week Birds eye view of the exhaust valve seat Center ports, notice the crud in the water p***age? Casting wire still in the head I cleaned up the edges of water p***ages with a dremel and a grinder using various bits. The main goal was to clean away loose material Notice the hole in the front corner, those were small pockets that were just peeping through. One for each port. I drilled them to 9/32 and tapped for 5/16 fine thread. Here is the center plug shaped out of cast iron, and a bolt in the hole I described above ( sorry for the blurry photo ) Plugs and screws ready to glue in Glued, next the head needs to be re-machined Thats all for now. Zenon
Zenon, like I stated on your other thread, I really like this concept! I hope you and Rich someday, decide to finish the project. Good luck!
Interesting! What sort of "glue" are you using? How are you going attach an exhaust manifold to the new face? Inquiring minds want to know. Mike
And that's just the EXHAUST side! Who knew what was hiding in that lump of iron? Big AMC-looking dogleg ports. Or maybe you should call 'em Wild Boar ports, the way you hogged them out. I wonder how much meat is left in the side of the head for flanges. Stubs wouldn't work, would they?
The flanges will be angle iron with square tube ports that come straight up to flanges for the headers, at least at the angle of the what is left of the port. The head bolts will go through the angle and then maybe a couple of small bolts through the valve cover rail. at the top. The glue is just JB Weld, Rich has done stuff like this before, this is a test for a race engine for Bonneville. We wanted to run in Production Pick-up but we can't run this head modification in Production cl***. We plan to pressure test this head to see if the JB Weld holds. The ports aren't huge. But they used to turn almost 90 degrees over a bump, so this should be a big improvement.
This project came up because me and Rich were talking about this modification on Cleveland heads. Specifically on the Al Liest Ford-o-let.
Rather than fix something that doesn't need fixing....the exhaust ports flow just fine. Figure out an easy way to raise/clean up the intake ports....make them work better.......! Hmmm is this a recording.., haven't I heard this somewhere before. While still a true statement (per past racers and the flow bench)...just giving you a hard time... Mike
Mike is referring to the fact that this mod is probably not necessary according to many of the guys on the Studebaker Racing site, who in all fairness I believe. And I will chime in with the added fact that the SCTA won't let me and Rich run the head in production, apparently even if it complies with the current production rules as written. Which I kind of understand however you can run a Brodix head in production but you are not allowed to modify a OEM head. There may be middle ground but who has time to find it? To Mike....the intakes are next. But there is nothing you haven't probably considered in the works but there will be lots of pictures. Jack Vines has been very quiet about the intake modification he asked Rich to do. I am wondering if he wants to keep it secret? I guess I should PM him and ask if minds me posting pictures of it. I have to go to LA this weekend so it will be another week maybe, although Rich may work on it.
Hmmm.....if what goes on has an easier time getting out......I get it! This is a horsepower thing. Right?
Next phase Head with patches machined flat, Rich did this during the last two weeks Rich also machined three pieces of angle iron flat on every side, one for each exhaust port. Here is a picture with all three in place The head is bolted to angle plates on the mill so the adapters can be mounted with machine screws Picking the spots to locate the holes for the screws First hole drilled, tapped and countersunk Second hole drilled, tapped. Starting on third mounting hole which turned out to be too close to where we planned to weld the port onto the angle iron. Mistake! Good thing this is a test Me, working on the center adapter All screws drilled tapped and installed, preparing to drill large holes for ports Large drill centered in exhaust port before drilling rough hole into adapter plate Drilling rough hole in adapter, now it has to be ground out and shaped Locating the head bolt holes, then we would reinstall the adapter and drill the hole for the head bolt. These were done one at a time. Head bolt holes all drilled Test ports, Rich is going to make the flange this week, or next. Thanksgiving is coming, we dont plan to work next weekend. From the side
Zen - Beside raising the intake port, another worthwhile project would be to find a good angle, a good method for plugging the original hole and plug type to move the spark plug nearer the exhaust valve, like a modern hiperf. head design. Probably need to be a long, small diameter body like some of the forign cars or motorcycle engines plugs.. Mike
It might be possible to purchase a cast iron pipe plug, tap out the spark plug hole, maybe from the inside towards the outside, with pipe thread, and JB weld it into place. Or weld it. Then re drill for new location. As you know Mike, there is not much wiggle room between the water jackets around the exhaust.
Here are some pictures of the intake side. WARNING! If you are squeamish then stop reading now. This may not be for the weak of heart. Just kidding! These mods are just for testing and are pushing limits, just to be clear. More pics will follow as I finish off these ideas. Intake mod requested by Jack Vines, he wanted the intake runner removed. I havent smoothed anything yet, this is as milled. Here is the start of my experiment. Cutting off the top of the ports to see if I could raise the ports up/open them up. There is more work to do on this side but if inquiring minds want to know here it is. Thats all the stuff from the intake side so far.
The Saga continues Here is one of the exhaust ports cleaned up with the adapter flange mounted. This will probably be the only one I will finish off so Jack can test it. There are two pics. Here is the port with the tubing held in place, another two pics. Now I have to weld it in place, Rich is going to machine a flange to weld on the top. Again two pics. ( I was originally considering doing something like this on the intake side, coming in under the rocker arms straight towards the valve, tried the pictured way instead. I became a little timid, for some reason, about the water jackets. ) Now I need to go, Happy Thanksgivin.
Flow testing. Here is a Pontiac 400 I cut about 10 years ago to show a guy. Pontiac and Olds heads look like they would really be helped by doing this. Along with Cleveland and 429-460 Fords
I really like this concept- kind of a backyard way of improving the flow on a stock head! It's very similar to what I want to do with the Caddy flathead block, so I'm real curious to see some flow numbers off of this. I sure hope you post some!
It worked very well with Cleveland heads and you don't have to go into the water. I have some small chamber 460 heads here and they sure look like they would be the same as the 351.
Thanks for updating Zenndog, Rich. Good pics! Also thanks to Jack Vines for the inspiration, and for being cool with letting us see the process. I'm enjoying watching you guys cut up a fifty year old hunk of iron way too much.
Jack found us the head to use for this experiment, Rich provided the inspiration because he was telling me about the exhaust modification he did on a Cleveland head. The Stude head looked like it had a similar issue so I suggested we try it. Rich wants to build a Stude pickup into a Bonneville truck and I had the 259 engine, so we tried the exhaust mod. SCTA says we can't run the head in production, but we are finishing the head off. Jack wanted us to cut the divider out of one of the intake port pairs, so we did.
I have seen 385 series heads with cleveland style port plates. Might even be able to dig up a couple pics. Oh yea, and WAY cool thread by the way.
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