Re: How do I determine if my 1951 288 head is usable and who has one?

Posted by kunzea On 2024/5/31 9:19:31

Bottom line up front: What I thought were ridges were actually locations where there was little carbon or other build-up.

Please check the following.

I started to describe what I thought I saw, that there was a ridge around the water passages and the cylinder/valve cavities. I realized that if that was the case then the head could probably never be resurfaced. That didn't seem likely. I went down and felt around these "ridges" and realized they weren't ridges at all but were the locations where the head gasket edges had sealed between the head and block and had kept the engine from building-up carbon. The "ridges" were actually low spots in the build-up.

There was little or no "ridge" on 4 on the 5 side. I think this relates to my experience re-torquing the head a few months back. The center nuts around 4 and 5, especially 4, rotated about 3/8 of a turn. Practically all of the center nuts turned a significant amount. At 18 threads per inch this 3/8 of a turn equates to a possible warp of about 56/1000". Also I've been getting traces of sooty water from the tail pipe.

I have talked to 2 machine shops about re-surfacing the head and the manifold assembly (manifolds bolted together).

BTW, any recommendations on painting those components. Also I'm going to get new nuts and washers. Probably not acorns. SST since they won't be painted?