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"BR" stamping on Heads

Some of you may remember the stories of my 68' Bug that started stumbling, stuttering, and losing power. After dropping the engine and yanking it apart, I see that the heads are shot and I need a valve job. Now it's summer, and I have a small budget to work within!

I'm looking at the cost of new heads versus having mine machined. I know that they need new seats, which from what I can tell means "a complete job". I'm also pretty sure that they will need grinded down so that they have a tight fit. I can tell now that things were running way too lean and it did a real number on them.

So the question is, what does the "BR" stamp on the heads mean? Is that BRazil? I'm trying to determine if the heads I have now are good quality. They look like some heads that I have seen in photographs of "genuine VW parts". But I have seen some that have a BR2 on them. I figure, if I have some cheap sh*t heads now, I should probably start over with a new assembled pair.

-Ray Haque

Reply to
Ray Dios Haque
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Correction: Upon further examination and crud removal I see that my heads are stamped with "2BR". And it's hard to make out, but it appears that they have a small VW symbol and german part number.

-Ray Haque

Reply to
Ray Dios Haque

hard to make out, but it appears that they have a small VW symbol and >

german part number.

"2BR" means they were made by VW in Brazil. The part number should begin "040", which is roughly the equivalent of the German '113' heads.

Reply to
Peter

Are these dual port or single port heads? If they are dual port, they will need to be checked close for cracks. Dual port heads are still available New. If they are single port heads, then you are going to have to choose, upgrade to dual port heads and that means intake changes. Or you can have the heads inspected and rebuilt if no cracks are found. Single port heads are getting hard to find in new or used condition and they too suffer from cracking as well but not as bad as dual port heads.

I elected to have my single port heads rebuilt as I am not going for more power and don't have the stuff for dual ports either.

Reply to
TerryB

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