Cylinder head casting (pushrod 8 port) ???

[kneegrow]

Hello sports fans, I have decided that it is high time I cast myself a home spun 8 port head for my mini. (or at least tried to). I have access to molten metal and greensand. The problem is, how do they produce the castings? They are either in 2 pieces and then "Stuck" together (sintered?) and that's about it. I find it very hard to believe that a one piece casting would be very hard to "get your sand back" from the waterways, etc. Casting an item with no cavities is no problem. I have probably overlooked something very basic (off to find book on casting)........stu

[kneegrow]

It's ok, I know what I'm doing maths wise and it should be no problem. I will build a couple of plugs and take moulds from these. I will then make my sand cores by a stock set of moulds and waterways. Wire the cores in place and then rock n roll (basically). I overlooked the fact that moulding sand becomes pretty pourable after it has been cooked. No problems here then.

Why? The reason being that you need to have a fully operational staffed plant to produce anything which might give you more power and you should always pay somebody thousands of pounds to do anything, right? No.

Other 8 port heads cost more than the rest of the engine/car. Ridiculous. Most performance heads started off as a one off casting.

If I was going to do something with a non-mini engine, it would involve a Ford Capri and the biggest V8 I could find.

Should be on the pattern building front soon.