[Paul Webster]

It seems that some of you are getting confused on what to expect from the above items.

One of the first people who influenced me in the modifying of engines was David Vizard, he was someone I truly wanted to meet and sit down and have a chat too.

One of his most memorable sentances which has stuck in my head is "an engine doesn't know what name it has on the rocker cover"

You could apply this to a cylinder head and camshaft, the engine wont know who ported the head and who designed the camshaft.

So if you take a ported head and a camshaft and put it on Big Shows engine last week you might of increased the horsepower by 34 bhp, put it on now and it'l only produce 25bhp more.

Obviously saying that your head combo on customers car made 34bhp sounds a lot better but in reality the engine still topped out at 255bhp.

The other thing to consider is how has the head cam combo improved at every point in the rpm not just the peak, horsepower sells parts torque wins races.

If you do consider buying a unknown head by Mini 2 standards ask for dyno sheets and flowbench figures, if they cant provide these then walk away unless they want to give it to you for free but beware of the consequences which goes with R&D.

I'm sure Jan / Roland / and maybe even Hubie will chime in how many hours / months on the flowbench they've put into there head untill they found out what worked.

So when you look at flow figures is the peak one the best one? No beause if your cam lifts the valve .400 inches it only sees that once, again like an engine its the area under the peak which is important espically the first .200 inches.

Should you believe the flowbench, yes and no, Its a tool for pointing you in the right direction but its the engine combination and the tune what will decide if it works or not.

So what head makes the most horsepower / torque stay tuned and we'll find out soon

Its not how much you spend but how well you spend it

[MINIdriver85]

well, thanks for the post 1320. I'd like to know which head/camshaft combo gives the best results, too. how long do you think this will take you? I bet it will take some months...or even more! lol

[Ant FR]

also on this subject Paul, could you tell me ( as my PM yesterday) a guide to the cost of fitting these. I think a lot of us are getting confused on this point, as we all see the cost of the head, but unless DIYing there is a cost to fit these. Could you give us all an indicative cost of this as i am sure most will not do their own, and that needs to be factored into the cost of the head too,

[Paul Webster]

Its always a tricky one Ant to price.

Does the intake manifold need port matching to the head?

Does the exhaust manifold need port matching?

Does your head come with all the associated gaskets?

What engine oil do you prefer?

Have you got ARP head bolts with the head?

For a normal head gasket change and with our current labour rate of £40 plus vat an hour you would be starting at £320 plus vat this includes leakdown and compression check.

Dyno before and after is £50 plus vat or £60 plus vat an hour if you want to do your own R&D

[Revolution Mini Works]

I can tell you it took 8 months to get the head flow right

Cams have taken as long too, of course most of mine have been for the drag car and stroker

[Tüls]

Quote: Originally Posted by 1320autos (original)

Its not how much you spend but how well uou spend it

isnt that the truth...


great post Paul...

[Paul Webster]

Quote: Originally Posted by MINIdriver85 (original)

well, thanks for the post 1320. I'd like to know which head/camshaft combo gives the best results, too. how long do you think this will take you? I bet it will take some months...or even more! lol

There so many variables that we could try just in exhaust manifolds so I'm not sure whether it will ever end.

If someone comes andtakes the record away it willgive us more incentive.