head swap

[Zmatt]

I removed the engine that has been residing in the spider it's whole life today to install a working one. As far as I can tell the one I bought is completely stock, however the one I pulled happens to have a port and polish and big vales. My old man had it done sometime in the 80's. i think it would be a smart idea to swap the head on to the newer motor, but I have heard that messing with heads is a lot of work. How hard would it be to pop one off and put on another? Is it a simple job of taking off the timing belts and undoing some bolts or is it more involved?

[Zmatt]

15 views and nothing. I know you guys swap heads, you talk about putting the 1800 head on everything else all the time.

[BEEK]

depends on your mechanical abilities. if your "old man" ported and polished the head, installed big valves, were there any other modifications?, cams, high compression pistons?. i would take all of those modifications into consideration before i made my decision. swapping a head , ive done it on the side of the road in about 45min, after cool down. its not that complicated. just have to know what to look for, set the valve timing etc

[lanciahf]

Its not hard but you should get a shop manual and read the head removal section several times before you dive in.

[narfire]

Swapping heads is not a difficult thing to do, engine in or out of the car. Has the head been recently surfaced, I like a shiney surface on the head before installing,but others with more experience can comment on that.
Remember to use a NEW timing belt and chase and oil the head bolt holes and bolt washers. If you don't have a manual try and source one from a vendor or ebay ect. they give plenty of installation tips and after reading a few times the task is not that daunting. Set the engine and head at TDC and put it on.. Then the fun starts... get the clearances on the valve shims checked and sorted, again not difficult really but the proper tool and patience and a can of installation fluid helps.
Good luck plenty of help here to get you through this.

[Zmatt]

The head has had nothing done to it recently. it's been under the hood of this car for 20 years just sitting. I would imagine it needs some tlc to work. Would the port and polish still be any good?

[narfire]

I'm blessed to have several gearheads in the area,one of which recently bought a large Snap-On block boiler. I currently have 2 -1800 heads cooking as they were sitting for several years as well. I'm still kind of new at this,but if you can clean them up somehow,take a look at the intake and exhaust side,I'd like them to be clean before installing onto an engine I'm going to use. Perhaps someone here has used "gunk" and a hose and some elbow grease to clean the ports up. I'd like to think after cleaning and everything is nice and shiney,the head would be good to go,I'd put new seals in though. A shop would let you know about the valve guides.Do you know(about) how many miles on the head? Like changing the belt and flex disk, a machined and refurbished head is then known to be good. I'd figure the porting and polishing would still be a benifit,if the head is sound and valves seat well.
Sorry if I was babbling a bit.. just bottled my white wines from my grapes

[Zmatt]

here is what i know, the car says it has 80 something thousand miles on it, the port and polish has fewer for sure, how many fewer is anyone's guess. There is a very competent machine shop in town who builds race engines all the time. Since I have 2 engines with me, a good stock one and a modified one that needs rebuilding I think it may be worthwhile to drive the stock one and rebuild the other one to better performance and swap them out when I'm ready. Call me crazy, but how does a turbo carb car sound? I know Sol Cal mark is making a turbo header, and T3 turbos can be harvested here used from old volvos cheap. i have read a book front to back on turbo theory and application and I am confident it can be done cheap and make a lot of good power.