During and after covid a lot of standard small and large bore heads plus rare large bore heads emerged as owners seemed to dig out forgotten or stored cylinder heads, but since 2022- there seems to be a levelling of prices requested by sellers except some who claim misleading facts and ask for high prices […]
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Posts in Cylinder Heads
originally by Keith Calver in 2005 The mass-produced standard head studs/nuts suffer from compromised specification – both in material and machining quality. Worst affected are the threaded portions, giving rise to inaccurate torque-down; thread deformation, stud distortion and stretch, off-square seating of the nut to head and so on. Specific and tightly controlled design, machining, […]
I will be updating this article regularly now it is live on the Mini Spares website and updating all my findings. As so many misleading articles and claims of rarity seem to crop up about the A series heads I have decided to add my own findings, starting from when I first began unbolting parts […]
I frequently hear the phrase “big-bore engines tend to be unreliable long-term because of head gasket problems”. Which is complete rubbish, even when non-Payen head gaskets are used.These big-bore engines can be supremely reliable – providing the are machined and built correctly in the first place. Something that continually astonishes me doesn’t happen even when […]
Never have been, never will be. These are as fitted to the various A-series cylinder heads as standard in all applications. Cast iron is used because it is a very dissimilar metal from any used in valve manufacture – important to eliminate galling that causes seizure of the valves in the guides – is softer, […]
I’m often asked about the range of cylinder heads I do for Mini Spares/Mini Mania, so here’s the low-down…Although the following range of heads accommodate specific fitments – like pre-1992 where by-pass hoses and heater take-offs on the clutch end of the head are used and post-1992 where neither of these exist, and on SPi […]
During a discourse with the editorial staff at Mini Mag, it was decided the build feature presented an ideal opportunity to demonstrate just exactly what such an engine build is capable of in days where it’s generally believed you have to have an all-singing, all-dancing 1380cc engine to have an enjoyable road burner – leaving […]
This gasket was originally developed by Howley Racing way back in the mid eighties for what was then part of the factory Rover Group racing effort – the Group A Metro Turbo.C-STR1057 Group A Turbo head gasketThe engines developed by Howley Racing were giving 220+bhp and 185lb ft running 16.4psi boost – quite a chunk of […]
1275 head gaskets Every mini owner has there own favourite choice of head gaskets for their requirements. To help owners these sales figures might help Strangely the annual sales for the last 3 years average out about the same. TAM1521- 1500 per annum plus 600 in head sets total 2100— GEG300-625 per annum plus 500 in kits total 1125 […]
The original Arden 8 port head tooling was purchased from Jim Whitehouse in 1990, sadly genius Jim died in 2008 aged 89. The head was jointly designed by Jim and Norman Seeney and originally cast at the BMC Leyland factory Birmid Qualcast in 1967. Designed with racing in mind it was developed in 1966/7 to […]