Cylinder head / Cam advice

[Robatron]

I'm after abit of advice really..

The car (3B) is sat on 161k miles at the moment and I reckon it needs the H/G replacing. I've heard various reports of people discovering cracks in the head and quite often people will continue to use that head.

Would it be wise to replace the head if I were to see cracks in it? How much would a fully refurbished and complete head cost?

I'm also fairly certain that the cam chain has become a little slack and beginning to make a fair amount of noise.

I don't have the knowledge or the time (mainly due to lack of knowledge ) to carry out this level of work by myself so I would probably have a garage carry out the work for me.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how much would the parts for a top end rebuild cost me?

[Jamo]

Cheapest way is to buy a 7A head and have it machined, as it's a 3B you'd only need the water manifold doing

[Robatron]

I take it that this would be a far cheaper route too?

[Jamo]

Cheapest would be sourcing a good 2nd hand 3B head, I would take the head off 1st before planning to buy a new one as it maybe o.k.

What your looking for are big cracks, small cracks are o.k if within the bentley manual spec

[Rusty]

Get it flowed before you put it back on :mischeif:

[PeteUr]

Cheapest would be sourcing a good 2nd hand 3B head, I would take the head off 1st before planning to buy a new one as it maybe o.k.

What your looking for are big cracks, small cracks are o.k if within the bentley manual spec

Speak to spink, he's got a few 7a heads already converted, thats where mine's come from

[Robatron]

I'll drop him a message. Thanks Pete.

Are the heads complete?

[spink]

I'll drop him a message. Thanks Pete.

Are the heads complete?

Hi Rob,the heads are complete with valves/tappets although you will have to swap your exhaust valves over from your 3b head as they are not sodium filled on the 7a heads.They have been machined/cam sensor boss attached 100% identical to any 3b/aan/aby head,in the last year or so martinjs and myself have converted around 60 of them,there is approx 15 in use already around uk/europe so far.Out of the 60 heads i only found one to have any cracks,that engine had covered approx 300k,i think every turbo head i have had contact with has had at least the beginnings signs of cracking around the spark plugs

[Billman]

All 7a heads have non sodium filled valves? I have read in German forums that many of them was sodium filled and you can see it from the shape of them they are thicker than the inlet ones like elephant foot and they are non-magnetic on the lower part (inlet ones are).

I the 7A head i have the looked completely the same as the AAN ones i have from another head.

[s2driveruk]

Spink, have a rough cost you can post or pm me with. Might be interested at some point in getting one and as Rusty points out, giving it a good bit of tlc to help with flow

I think the can chain is supposed to be changed every 80k.....not sure how many have ever done it as a routine 80k job and wat shape they were in when swapped?

[Robatron]

Where would you have the head skimmed and ported, David?

[s2driveruk]

thats a good question, still in realms of fantasy land but i do want to get to that point in the next 6-12months by which point the valves, guides etc will have done 200k miles.

[jogi730]

Where would you have the head skimmed and ported, David?

You may recall Hamish's pictures;

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26537&highlight=hamish&page=18

Some nice work there. I personally had my head worked on by Ultimate Performance;

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37796&page=4

http://www.ultimatep.com/

The quality of both is very high but I'm sure there are pelnty of other recommendations
HTH
Chris

[BrianSmith_S2]

I think the can chain is supposed to be changed every 80k.....not sure how many have ever done it as a routine 80k job and wat shape they were in when swapped?

Id have thought the change interval is more miles than this, but not certain....... has anyone ever replaced theirs?