anyone heard of eepco heads?
- Kenny2428
- Posts: 2830
- Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2002 12:01 am
anyone heard of eepco heads?
One my my cylinder heads is VW, and the other is made by "Eepco....
- sparkmaster1
- Moderator
- Posts: 1978
- Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2001 1:01 am
-
- Posts: 783
- Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2002 12:01 am
-
- Posts: 1047
- Joined: Fri Nov 15, 2002 12:01 am
- Marc
- Moderator
- Posts: 23741
- Joined: Thu May 23, 2002 12:01 am
The first EEPCO heads were superior in many ways to anything before or since from VW or anyone else. I still have a couple pair and I wouldn't trade them for any other stock-valve heads. Soft? Just try porting some, you'll find out otherwise real quick - they melted down 3 stock head cores for every 2 EEPCOs produced - the metal is far denser than stock heads.
Quality control suffered as production increased and the later heads often had some serious porosity problems (if you flycut them to raise compression or enlarge the bore there was a good chance you'd hit an air pocket). The ports are substantially smaller than any stock head, including a 311, so unless you use them in pairs you're in for extra work to match them up. They have much more metal in the roof of the intake ports so they can be ported larger than early stockers without hitting daylight, but the gasket surface isn't any larger so they still need welding up for ports anywhere near as large as today's 044s will accommodate. Many preferred them (as-cast) for a stock engine - the infamous dualport "flatspot" was reduced by the smaller ports.
Quality control suffered as production increased and the later heads often had some serious porosity problems (if you flycut them to raise compression or enlarge the bore there was a good chance you'd hit an air pocket). The ports are substantially smaller than any stock head, including a 311, so unless you use them in pairs you're in for extra work to match them up. They have much more metal in the roof of the intake ports so they can be ported larger than early stockers without hitting daylight, but the gasket surface isn't any larger so they still need welding up for ports anywhere near as large as today's 044s will accommodate. Many preferred them (as-cast) for a stock engine - the infamous dualport "flatspot" was reduced by the smaller ports.
-
- Posts: 2574
- Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2000 12:01 am
-
- Posts: 594
- Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2002 12:01 am
I sold EEPCO heads when they first hit the market in the 80s. I`ve never heard anything good about them till now. Obviously some were hardened and some were not because after a couple months of selling these heads to unsuspecting customers and hearing back from the heads shops, the guides would fall out of them ,they were porous,and no one had anything good to say. These heads dissapeared as fast as the appeared and no one seemed to care. Its too bad tho because the design of the heads was great and they had extra material over the intake ports the same as a modern 044 head but predating them by almost 20 years. If you are rebuiling your motor to last a long time then I would install 2 new heads anyway.
-
- Posts: 1162
- Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2002 12:01 am
Hmm --
The two pairs that I reworked were obviously a denser, harder material than the standard German heads of the day. They weren't what I would call "porous" although a few random, small air bubbles were obvious. Fortunately, none of these bubbles were exposed in any critical areas after my machining (and apparently, none hiding just beneath the surface.)
If it's true that Eepcos were cast from melted-down heads, I'm amazed with the results. I would have expected some nasty pockets of crud, rather than just a few random, small bubbles. Perhaps they threw out some nasty ones.
Anyhow, I changed out the valve guides and exhaust studs for virilium guides & stainless studs, and then proceeded to put just shy of 100,000 hard street miles on my Ghia. When I sold the Ghia, I kept the engine. It still sits, awaiting an inspection, a rebuild, and another Ghia.
The two pairs that I reworked were obviously a denser, harder material than the standard German heads of the day. They weren't what I would call "porous" although a few random, small air bubbles were obvious. Fortunately, none of these bubbles were exposed in any critical areas after my machining (and apparently, none hiding just beneath the surface.)
If it's true that Eepcos were cast from melted-down heads, I'm amazed with the results. I would have expected some nasty pockets of crud, rather than just a few random, small bubbles. Perhaps they threw out some nasty ones.
Anyhow, I changed out the valve guides and exhaust studs for virilium guides & stainless studs, and then proceeded to put just shy of 100,000 hard street miles on my Ghia. When I sold the Ghia, I kept the engine. It still sits, awaiting an inspection, a rebuild, and another Ghia.
-
- Posts: 556
- Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2002 12:01 am
Re: anyone heard of eepco heads?
So I'm being offered a pair of ported EEPCO heads, is there any feature that would let me identify the early "probably-good-quality" against the later "pot-metal-avoid-at-all-costs" heads?
PS: yes I know, this is a 16 year old thread
PS: yes I know, this is a 16 year old thread

- woodsbuggy1
- Posts: 823
- Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 5:15 pm
Re: anyone heard of eepco heads?
I have only seen 2 sets of EEPCO heads, both of them were on motors that ran very bad. The heads had huge cracks and the valve guides were terrible. Personally I would steer clear, I stopped using used heads several years ago. New heads are not that expensive.
Good Luck
Kenric
Good Luck
Kenric
Good quality is getting harder and harder to find.