Which Heads?

[Piledriver]

I happily stand corrected, Richard.

Would you recommend RIMCO to rebuild/repair T4 heads?
Anyone else? Does FAT do it in house?

[Type 4 Unleashed]

I happily stand corrected, Richard.

Would you recommend RIMCO to rebuild/repair T4 heads?
Anyone else? Does FAT do it in house?

I have never seen or ran any heads done by Rimco, so I have no opinion, fore or against.

And the only thing I know about Fat heads is they have a specific chamber design they use for their Type lV off road
race motors.

[HAM Inc]

I have watched this thread with some interest.

I feel I should clarify my policy.

I do still work with used T4 heads, but on a very limited basis. Very limited!

I do not work with used 2.0 bus heads. I stopped that nonsense about 4 years ago. The majority were used up junk then and the % of junk will only be worse now.

I do not work with heads that have been through the hands of another shop. I do not work with heads with evidence of overheating like excessive cracks and detonation damage. I require photos to be sent to me of the heads so I can access the state of the castings.

I do not do partial rebuilds. Indeed every head that I build is actually a remanufactured unit. All spark plug threads are welded shut and new plug threads machined, all ex studs are replaced. Any repairs of any nature to the ex stud bosses are milled out and new bosses welded in with new threads machined, NO INSERTS! oval counterbores remachined. All new seats, guides, parts etc.

A pair of heads leaving my shop will cost you more up front than a pair leaving my competitors shops, but compare services provided. Serdi cut seats, diamond dressed flycutters, custom fixtures on dedicated mills, extremely tightly held tolerances, etc

If my back load of work reaches a certain point I do not accept used T4 head work. My New policy has greatly limited the # of used T4 heads that I service. I like it that way. The days of plentitudes of quality used T4 cores is over. A very high % is junk now. I feel it is morally wrong to rework a pair of castings that I know or even just suspect have exceeded their service life.

The new AMC castings are spectacular. They hold a valve job great and will deliver a nice long life span, without requiring a premature refreshing of the valve job, especially on hi-perf engines with elevated compression.

[gaston]

Using refreshed Typ4 heads is still a posibility. And the withstand the german autobahn...

[Piledriver]

Great News!!!
Thank you for clarifying your policy, Len!

[Clatter]

oval counterbores remachined

This alone is worth the price of admission IMHO.
Leaks at the exhaust flange are very likely if the typical stock rough-cast sealing surface is used.
Many of my years, and many heads, have been used in my experience trying to keep the exhaust sealed at the head.

Some here on this forum own NO Type 4s, (Zero).
Yet, it doesn't stop them from dispensing of incorrect advise.

I have several years of use, and many severe miles, on a set of RAT/HAM heads,
And they have performed far beyond any of the many others i have tried.

There are so many things about those CNC Bugpatch heads that make me cringe....I won't even go there.
They might be less than half the price of Len's,
They are arguably less than half as good,
but would certainly last less than half as long.

Yeah, there's a lot of Nutswingers leg-humping Jake and Len,
But, damn, if you ever get the chance to run their stuff,
Don't be surprised if you end up being one of them...

[Getbackontrack]

GBOTaircooledperformance.dk

I sell complete T4 heads made from mild to wild applications at good prices.. Have done a lot of heads..

feel free to contact me.

Regards, Jakob

[bill.est]

...if someone needs NEW 371S , http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 0&t=133280

[Typ Vier]

A possible future alternative for someone wanting Type 1 exhaust
http://wheelerdealer-blog.blogspot.com/

[Ephry73]

I guess the better question to ask is, what engine is this going into? stock rebuild? better than stock? high performance? etc...
I cannot justify spending 2500+ on heads alone, if the engine will be reusing the bottom end as-is.

Len's work is EXCELLENT. Adrian's too. I had a set of heads from EMW's and they were very good.

Find out exactly what you want from the motor. Plan your budget, build accordingly.


E

[baja stu]

Brothers Machine shop is great!

[Piledriver]

You have to login to see those pics.

[baja stu]

I fixed the pictures.

The heads are on a fuel injected 2686 engine.

[ornjkr8]

Are the new castings based on 2.0 heads? Port and chamber wise? Like Ephry73 stated, 2500+ on heads for an otherwise stock 17/1800 is a bit overkill. In my case, I have a 1700 bottom end with domed 1800 slugs and jugs.44 IDFs, tangerine and a yet to be selected cam( probably a raby kit). Engine isn't a fire breather but A decent head would help,but I think a stock 1800 head would do ok too. But considering the bulk of the budget is in the Header, cam and thestuff to get it in the car( clutch,'Käfer' bar) high dollar heads are out for this year anyhow.

[Ephry73]

Ornjk,

Honestly take a set of Q 1700 castings. have a competent head guy bore them to spec, put new seats, guides and valves in and leave the stock valve sizes alone. make sure that chambers are as close to equal as possible. You can try the 39mm X 34mm size, that worked very well for me with the engine config I had for both the 1700 and the 1910. In the 1910 I ran a Webcam hydraulic cam with solid lifters and it worked very well. I think I was running close to high 8s in the CR department on the 1910(there has to be a post around here with that information) and it did well. I just got greedy and wanted more power
You want reliability and these things, if done well, are bullet proof.

If I had to do it all over again, I would do that same thing for the heads, get the same Mallory distributor(with mallory coil and plug wires), the same Tiger performance header(with 2.5" MF), the same weber 40s(with 32mm venturies machined locally and jetted to meet the engine layout), the same DTM kit and just change the cam(can't remember the grind number but it was a Webcam hydraulic with a bit more lift than stock).
I could have made way more juice with a different cam and maybe better mileage. I was aiming on the conservative side and the cam was very cheap unused from a fellow member here.

What YOU DO want is:

Good cooling(the engine will fry, albeit, take longer than a type1, but it will if not cooled properly)
Good induction and ignition
Great exhaust for obvious reasons.

A nice 1800 or 1700 motor can be a very, very peppy and happy motor in a VW platform and get very good mileage at the same time.

Hope this helps.

E