Cast Iron Cylinder Head Extreme Porting Weld up the Holes and Seats and Make it New Again!!

[@donmadere4237]

I still say you’re the King of cast welding!!!!😊

[@scottjones7279]

Yes you are the king of cast iron welding. How about some details of the cast iron welding.

[@tomsing6384]

Hi Brian I have been watching you from more or less the beginning of your most interesting Barn Project, starting with the Bridge Crain, and how you brought back the three giant Paper waits, the big monster lath, the HBM, and the big monster drill press, you made three working machines out of scrap metal. And I kind of miss your old dog, he used to run after you all over the farm, but I must say I have not watched in a while. A long time ago I sent you some machinist calipers and I saw you use one of the tiny little things, good job. And you saved that old horse barn just in time, it was going by the wayside very fast, and now it will be here long after you have willed your property to the next young and rising generation. But I was shocked when I saw for the first time your house up close, the outside look as if it needs a makeover, I wonder what the inside looks like, maybe like the inside of the old barn shop, now I am sounding like a nagging old lady, “Stop That” I think I saw a sagging roof line on the old house, could have just been an optical illusion, so let me ask the question where on the agenda have you placed the old plantation house for a new paint job, to tell you the truth that is going to be a big job and if it is done right an expensive job. But I saw you perform somewhat of a miracle on the old horse barn, and when you get you mind machined up for the job there is no stopping you.

[@bcbloc02]

I miss the old dog too. I use your transfer calipers all the time. :-) The house as always is a constant work in progress. Way more to do than time and money allow. :-(

[@mudnducs]

It’ll be interesting to see it run

[@ypaulbrown]

hello my Friend Brian, always great to see you back at the Grind...Paul in Orlando

[@bcbloc02]

@@ypaulbrown Hi Paul good to see you here as always 🤠

[@lewiemcneely9143]

WOW! SWEET! Kentucky Windage! Blessings!

[@kevinreardon2558]

Ah, a man how has gotten a head in this world. Good video.

[@SkinnyBiker]

Another good job!

[@stevenclaeys6252]

Thank you for another Great video. Cheers

[@Randysshop]

Looks good Brian. You had to cut the valves to length and recut the keeper groove also to bad you did not film it would liked to have seen it done. Thanks

[@bcbloc02]

I will try to film it next time. Hopefully I will have the little Monarch available the next time I do some valves as its a lot easier to work with and film on doing small parts.

[@randydeboer832]

@@bcbloc02 👍

[@TrPrecisionMachining]

very good video brian

[@donaldhalls2189]

Great job, one huge head,thanks for sharing, all the best

[@kimber1958]

Man, Brian, no surprise wonderful job

[@edsmachine93]

Nice work Brian. What do you weld the head up with? Nice HBM Milling.👍 Thanks for sharing. 👍 🇺🇸👍

[@bcbloc02]

@@edsmachine93 it is a nickel and iron mixed rod as you can see on the welded seats after grinding it matches very well to the regular iron.

[@paulcooper9135]

Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦

[@KG-yn9qi]

Well done!

[@kisspeteristvan]

Nice

[@glowplug4762]

Wow!! That is CLOSE to the injector bores Brian! Ever develop any cracking in that area?

[@gwharton68]

Always interesting to watch. How many cubic inches is that engine?

[@elroyelblander6277]

👍👍👍👍..what size nozzle bore?... Do those like to crack like say a 6B 9mm ?... Nice work as always feller 👊

[@bcbloc02]

@@elroyelblander6277 they are 9mm but they aren’t as prone to crack there as Cummins heads because the ports are further apart.

[@elroyelblander6277]

@@bcbloc02 👍👍👊

[@frednewman2162]

Where there valve seats installed in the head? If so we’re they existing seats or aftermarket ones for the new valves?

[@bcbloc02]

@@frednewman2162 no seats. The valve runs against the cast head as is.

[@RodneyHayes-d3y]

Do they run coolant in the tractor pull engines or just filler

[@mutantryeff]

It is a combination of both in a typical engine

[@bcbloc02]

@@RodneyHayes-d3y depends on application. This one will try coolant only but if it leaks it can get filled.

[@stevenslater2669]

Welding c.i. cylinder heads is black magic! Many have tried, most have failed. I think that’s the reason most racing heads are aluminum. Aluminum is easy to repair after a valve breaks. When I ran some combustion chamber shape studies, we had a good handle on port & valve sizes in what became the production 3.0L V6 Ford Taurus base engine. But I wanted to try some combustion chamber iterations. Didn’t have time (or funding) to make castings, but my manager said I could freelance some outside services. I knew a welder that did a lot of cast iron welding for AMC (back in the mid 1980s). He built a big firebrick enclosure and basically a heat treat oven on his big fabrication table, then proceeded to preheat my heads and weld the chambers on the table. I don’t know how he stood the heat. I couldn’t take 2 minutes watching him weld! We dyno’d 4 different welded up chambers for power without a single failure. Couldn’t run octane requirements, of course, but we went into production with a damn good cylinder head. I always argued that an ideal engine configuration would have an aluminum block and cast iron head. In the compression ratios we ran back then, to make an aluminum head engine deliver the same power as an iron head engine you have to run 1 to 1.5 points higher compression ratio to make up for the higher transfer of the aluminum (about 4% different). If GM had spent about a buck on the Vega cooling system (a sealed radiator cap like Cadillac already had in production), the overflow bottle would have become a coolant recovery bottle - and the Vega overheating problem would have mostly gone away.

[@bcbloc02]

@@stevenslater2669 I have done some thermal coatings on head combustion faces and that usually always picked up some power. I use a lot of torch gas heating and welding one of these heads and it takes a bunch of time but once you get it hot ya got to keep going with it it definitely isn't something you want to do in stages.

[@scottjones7279]

The intake and exhaust valves look like they are the same size, what size are they and what size were they? I have never been to a tractor pull. Is this for your machine or a customer?

[@bcbloc02]

@@scottjones7279 2.375 and 2.250 customer machine not mine

[@Grandpa82547]

How did you weld it?

[@bcbloc02]

Lots of preheating then with a stick welder.

[@TheJohndeere466]

You should find you a cincinnati tool and cutter grinder to grind those keep grooves in the valves. You can mount the end of the stem in a collet and then make a steel washer with a counter bore that fits over the head of the valve with a center hole in the back side. Then you can put the tailstock in the center hole. Grinder makes a much nicer looking keeper groove. You just dress a wheel to the shape and plunge it in. Ive seen cutter grinders going for as low as 300 here lately. I bought one last year with the newer tilting head for 160.00.

[@bcbloc02]

How do you control the radius on the grinder wheel for the top of the groove? Seems like would need a pretty hard and narrow stone to do it consistent but I am sure it would leave a nice finish.

[@TheJohndeere466]

@@bcbloc02 Yes you need a hard wheel and dress the radius on the wheel. You may need to dress after after a few valves. If you get a cbn wheel you could do a lot of valves before you need to dress.

[@TheJohndeere466]

You should mill a chamber in there like a 55 series head. It would make more power.

[@bcbloc02]

That really depends on the piston design. The deck surface isn't real thick where the chamber would go so if you cut a 1/4" into it for a good chamber it likely would break thru as its probably not but 3/8" thick at most. A pitty Deere didn't put an extra hundred lbs of cast in these heads where we need it so we could modify them to make 10 times the power they were designed for. Apparently they thought cooling and longevity was more important. 🤣

[@TheJohndeere466]

@@bcbloc02 I made a pattern to recast small block heads. I havnt had one cast yet.

[@TheJohndeere466]

JUst wondering why you use a facing head instead of a face mill. Facing heads are normally used to face while the table stays stationary. They usally have a way for the tool to feed across the face.

[@bcbloc02]

I don't have any face mills with enough diameter to cut the full face of the head in one pass and I never like multiple passes on a sealing surface as there is always a slight variance in the surface. Also the facing slide is more rigid than the spindle so it gives a better flatter finish.

[@TheJohndeere466]

@@bcbloc02 I have a big facemill we put on the horizontals or the vertical cnc