Time for a new head.

[green57]

Short story long. Driving to the rod and gun club to pick up new CZ75 pistol. SVO lost power and started running rough , did compression test, #1 & #2 at 0 psi #3 & #4 at 120 psi. Ah... head gasket shot. Take head apart for surfacing and notice #2 exhaust valve has a cracked seat. Take head to shop, "yes we can fix it ,we'll put in a new seat", good. Get a call from the shop, "crack is to big, can't be fixed", damn and a few more four letter expletives!

Found an '88 XR4Ti head a few '88 and '87 t-bird heads. which is better? did the Germans cast a better head than we did.

The guys at the craft shop and the Mustang club are says put an aluminum head on it. Of course they are not footing the bill.

Pros and cons new aluminum vs vintage cast iron, is it worth the extra cash? Has Esslinger improved the quality of their al heads? Does the Rapido group make a good head. $200 vs $1100 I'm having a hard time seeing it.

Any advice would be great.

G57

[MikeFleming]

The 87/88TC and xr4ti heads are the same. The xr4ti used the same USA-made 2.3L turbo engine as the TC - just without a charge cooler and with a Garrett instead of the IHI blower.

I have no personal experience with the Rapido aluminum head. iirc someone here got one and was seriously disappointed with it: missing machining, missing valve seats, etc. it was an almost exact casting copy of the factory iron one just cast in aluminum with valve seat inserts. Don't recall if it had thread inserts. In any case that was about a decade ago.

the Essy d-port "Street" head has improved (i seriously doubt it, but don't know). They say it has but I have no experience with their "newer" ones. You can read the Red Baron Power thread on my seriously disappointing experiences with the one I have, circa 2005. Absolutely not a usable product out of the box - needed about $1000 of work to make it semi-usable. The casting material is so soft the head bolts continue to crush into the tower - my thumbnail will dent the casting as it's so soft. When I pointed out these issues to Essy, they denied it. Head-in-sand syndrome.

The Essy head also uses a different chamber design - MUCH different from the stock D-port iron head. The one I have uses a totally crazy selection of USS and metric threaded holes (WTF, O?). The non-loaded intakes use coil inserts while the exhaust side do not. The cam cover threads are 1/4-20 versus the factory 6tmm (Huh??). I heard they went to 6mm cam cover holes on later versions but I have no proof of this.

On the plus side they are lighter by about 25 Lbs.

IMHO unless you have deep (& full) pockets and a local head machinist you trust, stay away from the Essy aluminum replacements. LOTS of frustration & unnecessary expense involved.

[green57]

Mike, Thanks for the input. I'm just gonna put a stock head back on it.

Another question from a logistic stand point.

The head bolts that were holding the head on were of the 12 point bolt head design. I have read that these are one time use stretch type bolts. Is that true?

Or can I reuse them?

If not, can I still get them from Ford and if so, what part number do I order?

Thanks for the help.

G57

[MikeFleming]

The 12-point are the original 1974 design. Multiple use. No worries.

The newer fully-threaded shank 6-point head units are a TTA - Torque To Angle - fastener. Also multiple use.

There are no 'Stretch and Toss' fasteners used on this engine.

[green57]

Cool. Good to know, one less thing to worry about and try and find a source for

[green57]

I'm going to upgrade my cam to go with the new turbo so I'm gonna need some new cam bearings and a seal . Can I use a set from Rockauto, Or is there a recommended brand and part number.

Thanks for any advice.

G57