I have a 2 year old head which I damaged when I was removing it. I didn't realize that one of the nuts wasn't loosened. I ended up cracking the casting. Can I repair it somehow?
Take a look at the photos at the following link to see what I'm trying to explain:
thanx,
Looks gone to me.. heads are cheap, though. I asked my local shop about welding a crack, but it really isn't worth it when a complete replacement is around $125. Same for cylinders.. They're so cheap, it didn't make sense for me to rebore them.
a good welder could weld up the hole... but then it would have to be machined... by the time you get through that, you'd likely come out better to order a new head...
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Sure. Any VW head can be repaired. Drill out the fractured portion and, working from both sides, using TIG, rebuild the depth of metal. Then move over to the mill and re-machine the chamber. When you have two identical chamber, flip the head over and use a suitable spot- facer to machine the floor of the bolt-hole socket.. Remember, this socket (and the washer that goes there) must form an oil seal -- you want a nice finish. Finally, using a jig or triangulated measurements, locate the hole and drill through.
Big shops have special jigs & tooling that allows them to overhaul a head at minimum cost. Even so, they generally wait until they have a hundred or more which they process as batch. This keeps the cost-per- head low enough to show a profit.
So while the answer to your question is 'yes,' it comes with several qualifiers that turns it into a 'no.' (Why? Because if you had the tools, experience, TIGer and so on, you would have already repaired the thing.)
Toss it. Buy another.
-Bob Hoover
I guess I will say this..............You used some force to crack that head! :-o I have several rebuildable heads, but I usually get new heads cheaper than rebuilding my cylinder heads. Are you close to someone that might have some for you?
Mofoco purchased all of Topline's aircooled, and maybe water-cooled, cylinder head machinery so they "could" do the work, if you wanted them to do it for you. Remco, I think, is another place that could do the work.
This is NOT a Porsche 356 cylinder head so why not buy new? I do not think that JB Weld will work on it, although there are some welding rods that you use with a propane torch that impressed me! But then you need to machine it afterwards. Are you up to the challenge and is this just for fun? Or you want a very reliable engine?
I have the equipment to do it, but would still just buy another. That's a weird stress fracture, and the other bosses may be next.
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