New Special Cylinder head

New Special Cylinder head

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Discussion

Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
quotequote all
Here are a few pics of the new head. It has taken a lot of work to get it to this standatd, completly overhauled and I have had to repair a few threads using inserts.

Webers are now done and ready to fit. Sorry for the quality but only had my phone on me.





fastcarl

254 posts

220 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
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i like it, is it the standard exhast arrangment.

carl

wildoliver

8,780 posts

216 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
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Why did you move the inlet ports? Although I could be wrong as I can't see how well the flow is from the head face down the port I would have though the flow would have been decreased?

wildoliver

8,780 posts

216 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
quotequote all
Ok ignore me I've just realised it is in fact an aseries head and thus you have made it cross flow!

Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
quotequote all
I didnt it is as was during the 1960's, just overhauled. Made by a company called WestLake Engineering.

115BHP from a 997? Yes please.

guru_1071

2,768 posts

234 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
quotequote all
nice effort

are you sure it ran on a 997? 8 ports where done for big bore stuff, more like a 970.

very nice bit of kit there though mate

wildoliver

8,780 posts

216 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
quotequote all
It does look gorgeous!

Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Tuesday 27th February 2007
quotequote all
guru_1071 said:
nice effort

are you sure it ran on a 997? 8 ports where done for big bore stuff, more like a 970.

very nice bit of kit there though mate



Yep typo 970S

Thats the head done, now for the rest of the car!


Edited by Extra 300 Driver on Tuesday 27th February 19:54

dark_helmet

302 posts

213 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
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I couldn't help thinking that if you could make/buy some throttle bodies to replace the webers and manifold you could run very direct inlet tract to the piston chamber. I think you could develop some serious power this way with a vertically inclined TB pointing at the valve

Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
quotequote all
dark_helmet said:
I couldn't help thinking that if you could make/buy some throttle bodies to replace the webers and manifold you could run very direct inlet tract to the piston chamber. I think you could develop some serious power this way with a vertically inclined TB pointing at the valve


Trying to keep it all orignal, but good idea.

guru_1071

2,768 posts

234 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
quotequote all
Extra 300 Driver said:
Trying to keep it all orignal, but good idea.


so you will be fitting either Lucas or TJ mechanical fuel injection then........

got some nice photos of a downdraft weslake running a set of Lucus slide throttles somewhere......

Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
quotequote all
guru_1071 said:
Extra 300 Driver said:
Trying to keep it all orignal, but good idea.


so you will be fitting either Lucas or TJ mechanical fuel injection then........

got some nice photos of a downdraft weslake running a set of Lucus slide throttles somewhere......



Post 'em up!

fwdracer

3,564 posts

224 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
quotequote all
Will be as potent as an Arden 8-port set-up? Is the downdraft (cast iron) weslake head more efficienct? Also has the weslake head got 4 exhaust ports too? Questions, question, questions!!! Certainly looks like you've done a crackin job of restoring itthumbup

There is a 7-Port head (also cast iron) that looks pretty similar at the front but then runs 3 exhausts ports on the back (so you can use a 'normal' LCB. B*ggered if I can remember the name of it now but I think it originates from Denmark???

dark_helmet

302 posts

213 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
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Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
quotequote all
Remember guys that this head is from the 60's and before Arden had their heads going. It may not produe the best power but for the time it was effin quick.


Edited by Extra 300 Driver on Wednesday 28th February 19:37

Extra 300 Driver

Original Poster:

5,281 posts

246 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
quotequote all
guru_1071 said:
Extra 300 Driver said:
Trying to keep it all orignal, but good idea.


so you will be fitting either Lucas or TJ mechanical fuel injection then........

got some nice photos of a downdraft weslake running a set of Lucus slide throttles somewhere......



Got this;

guru_1071

2,768 posts

234 months

Wednesday 28th February 2007
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or this one, which runs cloud9

love machine

7,609 posts

235 months

Thursday 1st March 2007
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Nice.

I was after a Weslake Head for years and went as far as getting SOME patterns made. "Our man" made it very clear who owned the design! (and no, we are not talking arden heads here). All of my stuff went up in the shed fire. From the data I have looked at, the Weslake was the best 8 port head for the A Series (apart from the Howley SOHC) as far as flow figures were concerned. They were considerably better than the Arden (in ultimate form). Why oh why oh why I will never understand why people put 90 degree elbows and fit them with DCOE webers, the idea is a straight flow, not in an "N" manner. One guy who got good results (on a minor with more bonnet clearance) used Weber IDA40's (like downdraft DCOE's). I looked into the design of this in great detail and for a pushrod engine, this is about as good as you can get. TJ FI is quite rare though. They did allsorts of Weslake heads and quite a few had the chambers in the pistons/etc. From what I gather, small chambers are a part of the snag usually found on 2nd hand heads. There are still blank castings available from here and there but they were notoriously dodgy in their casting. One of the blokes I know was involved in the develoment of these things and they were ace.

If you are looking for cams/manifolds for the thing, I may have a contact for you, but it's several years old now. Someone had everything in their shed apart from a head, a 300 deg and a 320/320 cam and some other bits. I may have deleted it.

From a flow point of view, I have photos of the 7 port casting and as good as you can get for the x00xx00x port configuration, really the inlets are different lengths and so if you want to use resonant tuning, you are basically limited to lower frequencies/revs as they are quite different. Good for FI though.

The Weslake is the holy grail of heads, if you're going to do it justice, ditch the 90 degree bends, they probably make the top end worse than an arden, or perhaps even a full bore 5 port.

danwebster

503 posts

234 months

Thursday 1st March 2007
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That picture of the 8 porter on the slide throttles keeps cropping up lately. The engine belongs to a very good friend of mine who rebuilt it over the last couple of years to a period spec, mechanical fuel injection, slide throttles etc.

The slides were handmade by another friend of mine, an extremely talented engineer. The engine owner is fairly secretive about his work so i'm surprised he let that picture out.

The engine is in the (original works) car now by the way, although it hasn't run yet.

321lightspeed

34 posts

213 months

Thursday 8th March 2007
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Did it need any valve seats? They are pretty thin on the ground without at least a bit of wear and tear.