Author Topic: FE Power Cylinder Heads  (Read 85763 times)

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Faron

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #15 on: January 28, 2019, 11:30:43 PM »
Wow , Very informative and COOL , Cant wait to see some in person ( you have 88 days ) LOL  8)

ec164

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #16 on: January 29, 2019, 12:10:20 AM »
Glad to see this coming together for you Jay, that had to be a super good feeling watching them pour the Aluminum in the castings and then see and take one home.....Good for You!!!     Al
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WConley

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #17 on: January 29, 2019, 12:57:13 AM »
Very cool Jay!  Thanks for the play-by-play.  Those intake runners are the bee's knees!
A careful study of failure will yield the ingredients for success.

ntheogen

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #18 on: January 29, 2019, 02:15:26 AM »
Can't wait to see what these will do on top of a monster stroker. Nice work Jay.

Heo

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #19 on: January 29, 2019, 05:34:13 AM »
Wooow! My inner engineering geek just fainted  ;D



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Dumpling

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #20 on: January 29, 2019, 06:59:18 AM »
Do the steel chiller blocks remain embedded in the head or are they able to be cut off/removed?

Pouring photos evoke my impression of Dove' s methods, though maybe they didn't do it slowly?

When do you test for porosity?

cjshaker

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #21 on: January 29, 2019, 07:41:32 AM »
Just a thought about the left over sand that's hard to get out; could you make a clamping fixture to hold the head in a lathe, fill the water/port chambers with steel beads, seal any openings with tape or something similar, then let it turn for a time? That would probably knock loose any sand that was compacted inside the chambers and make it easier to get out.
Doug Smith


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jayb

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #22 on: January 29, 2019, 08:05:28 AM »
Do the steel chiller blocks remain embedded in the head or are they able to be cut off/removed?

Pouring photos evoke my impression of Dove' s methods, though maybe they didn't do it slowly?

When do you test for porosity?

The steel chill is removed with the sand.  On the head, you are seeing the impression of the face of the block in the casting, not the block itself.

Dove - bite your tongue LOL!  Actually most small foundries pour their aluminum this way, the equipment required for automatic pouring is pretty expensive, and most small foundries don't have the volume to justify it.  I can't pressure test for porosity until after the head has been machined, so unfortunately the heads have to be nearly complete before I can check it.  But given the simulations this casting went through, and the way it looks now, I'm not too concerned.  There really is no evidence of porosity anywhere on the casting that I can find, and you can certainly see evidence of it on a casting with that issue.  The pressure check is the acid test of course, so we'll see how that turns out.
Jay Brown
- 1969 Mach 1, Drag Week 2005 Winner NA/BB, 511" FE (10.60s @ 129); Drag Week 2007 Runner-Up PA/BB, 490" Supercharged FE (9.35 @ 151)
- 1964 Ford Galaxie, Drag Week 2009 Winner Modified NA (9.50s @ 143), 585" SOHC
- 1969 Shelby Clone, Drag Week 2015 Winner Modified NA (Average 8.98 @ 149), 585" SOHC

   

jayb

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #23 on: January 29, 2019, 08:14:04 AM »
Just a thought about the left over sand that's hard to get out; could you make a clamping fixture to hold the head in a lathe, fill the water/port chambers with steel beads, seal any openings with tape or something similar, then let it turn for a time? That would probably knock loose any sand that was compacted inside the chambers and make it easier to get out.

That's an interesting idea, and I may consider something like that if getting the sand out turns out to be a problem.  What foundries will normally do is X-ray the casting to identify any areas that may still have sand in them, then heat the casting and put it in some kind of a shaker machine to break it all loose.  The small foundry that I work with doesn't have X-ray capabilities, but I can get that done elsewhere if necessary.  I think I will primarily be relying on rods, probes, and compressed air to get the sand out.  Once it gets hot, the adhesive that holds the sand together becomes brittle and breaks down, so the sand tends to come out a little easier after the pour.  The guys at the foundry used an air chisel that they held against some of the risers to cause a vibration throughout the whole casting, to help shake the sand loose.  There is about a 1/4" diameter by 1" long water passage that goes around the back of the spark plug that I'm primarily concerned about.  I think I can get in there with an aluminum welding rod and probe that passage through one of the deck openings, and if that is clear I think that all the sand is gone.  Still learning on this...
Jay Brown
- 1969 Mach 1, Drag Week 2005 Winner NA/BB, 511" FE (10.60s @ 129); Drag Week 2007 Runner-Up PA/BB, 490" Supercharged FE (9.35 @ 151)
- 1964 Ford Galaxie, Drag Week 2009 Winner Modified NA (9.50s @ 143), 585" SOHC
- 1969 Shelby Clone, Drag Week 2015 Winner Modified NA (Average 8.98 @ 149), 585" SOHC

   

e philpott

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #24 on: January 29, 2019, 08:53:03 AM »
Does the exhaust port get machined down ?, picture could be deceiving but it doesn't look like any material for sealing the lower portion of the exhaust port to the header

Chrisss31

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #25 on: January 29, 2019, 08:55:28 AM »
Question...  Where do you start the machining process?  I'm curious about how or what you machine to locate all of the critical surfaces.

cjshaker

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2019, 08:56:22 AM »
Another thought. On our big salt spreaders that we use at work, the kind that sit on a flat bed truck, there are "shakers" that you can mount on the side of the hopper, to keep the salt/sand from coagulating on the sides of the hopper. They're fairly small and produce a stout harmonic vibration. Something like that might also help in knocking anything loose. I don't think the vibrations are extreme enough to hurt the castings, but that may be something you'd want to ask the foundry about. It would be similar to them using the impact hammers. They work REALLY well on hard compacted salt and sand that is used in the hoppers. They are designed to be bolted on, but I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to strap one to an object.

A short video showing how they work...
https://youtu.be/VOAilFSa0_U

I use units similar to these...
http://www.vibco.com/products/vibco-featured-products/vibco-sandbuster-vibrators

Those units are 12v operation, but they do make 110 volt jobs designed for industrial applications. Just an example here, after a quick search...
https://www.clevelandvibrator.com/product/37/1176/cm-5-110v

I'm just thinking that using probes and whatnot on each head would be very time consuming, and basically a PITA, and still may be difficult to get at hard to reach areas.
Ok, I'll shut up now.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2019, 09:02:21 AM by cjshaker »
Doug Smith


'69 R-code Mach 1, 427 MR, 2x4, Jerico, 4.30 Locker
'70 F-350 390
'55 Ford Customline 2dr
'37 Ford Coupe

Katz427

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2019, 09:14:04 AM »
Very nice! Having seen how those mold filling programs work, glad to see you had access to one. They save a lot of time, and really a big help in design to get a quality casting. Thanks, for sharing the information on the casting.

Falcon67

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2019, 10:48:46 AM »
>To be honest, I fully expect at least one or two iterations will be required before they are ready for sale.

Having spent 20 years in mfg and previously dealing with "investment" type aluminum castings (very simple ones actually), hitting your marks on layout, porosity, etc on the 1st try for a complicated casting would be a hellofa thing.

Ghoughton

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Re: FE Power Cylinder Heads
« Reply #29 on: January 29, 2019, 11:34:46 AM »
These are so cool!! It looks like it’s coming along nicely. And what an extraordinary amount of
Effort on your part. I can’t wait to see the progress as it comes along. Especially flow numbers
and Dyno numbers. I have a large bore genesis block patiently waiting