Cylinder Heads

Common cylinder head defects include worn guides, valves, seats and valve springs that can cause poor performance, a dead cylinder due to a burnt valve, or combustion, coolant, and oil leaks from warpage or cracks. Instead of significant down time and a huge repair bill from a local machine shop, you can have your car or truck back on the road fast for less cash with a replacement cylinder head. Our heads are thoroughly cleaned and carefully inspected, and receive new valve guides, 3-angle valve seats, and new valve seals. Valve spring installed height is set to specifications and the head is pressure tested.

A blown head gasket can cause a variety of problems depending on where the gasket fails. A gasket that fails between cylinders can cause a loss of compression and misfire. A leak from the combustion chamber to a coolant passage can cause a loss of coolant and overheating, while a leak between coolant and oil passages can result in coolant in the oil and oil in the cooling system. While precautions should be taken to ensure the head is not cracked or warped, in any case a new head gasket is in order and we can supply you with whatever kind you need, including composite and multi-layer steel gaskets.

To ensure proper head gasket sealing, most manufacturers specify that old head bolts not be reused. These engines are equipped with Torque-To-Yield (TTY) head bolts. Unlike ordinary bolts that are stretched within their range of elasticity when torqued, and return to their original length when loosened, TTY bolts are designed to be torqued to their yield point, and will remain elongated. This has been proven to provide more even clamping and better head gasket seal. With TTY bolts, head bolt replacement is necessary whenever a cylinder head is reinstalled, so we have a large stock of these fasteners on our digital shelves.

Minimizing restriction and maximizing airflow in and out of your engine is a necessity for making more horsepower. Installing accessories like a cold air intake, larger carburetor or throttle body, aftermarket intake manifold, headers, and performance exhaust system will provide a considerable increase in power, but that still leaves a major bottleneck – the cylinder heads. Even on performance models, the factory heads can significantly hamper airflow. Today we can supply you with the very latest cylinder head technology for most popular applications, bare and fully assembled.

Although there are many quality performance cast iron cylinder heads, most are made of aluminum. Aluminum heads are much lighter, for an overall improvement in power-to-weight ratio, and lightening the engine can improve vehicle weight distribution. Aluminum also dissipates heat better, and you may be able to run a higher compression ratio without fear of detonation. Regardless of the material, all performance cylinder heads are beefed up in critical areas to allow the ports to be contoured for increased flow in ways that, if attempted on a factory casting, would likely result in grinding into a water jacket.