Cylinder heads - How different are they ?

keanej

New Member
Finally got around to reconditioning the spare cylinder heads I got of ebay 12 months ago !

So I spent last week cleaning up the 1st cylinder head, ground the new valves in - all fine.

Started on the 2nd head and found some alloy damage between the piston/gasket seal area and the main water channel - 2 deepish hollows - looks like an original weakness in the casting.

The engineering shop said it could be repaired easily enough, £30 for the welding and £30 for the head skim + vat.

So I didn't bother with that and bought a pair of Land Rover heads for £14.99 of ebay - they look in good condition and although I haven't cleaned them up the head surface looks good.

I am assuming it isn't sensible to mix a later Land Rover head with the SD1 head (I have already completed) as although the heads look similar they are a different casts and so some of the air flow properties may be different - therefore I need to use the two Land Rover heads ?

Just asking incase they are compatible and so saves me the time in preping a 3rd head !

John
 
You're best keeping the matched heads together.
There are (IIRC) 4 different types of heads fitted to the V8 over its lifetime, roughly being P6 SD1 then early and late Land/Range Rover.
 
Harvey is there a fifth variant? The MG B GT V8 has different rocker covers. Whether that makes them different people with more knowledge than me can put me straight.
 
TheCamel said:
Harvey is there a fifth variant? The MG B GT V8 has different rocker covers. Whether that makes them different people with more knowledge than me can put me straight.
AFAIK although the BV8 has different rocker covers and inlet manifold the heads are the same as the Rover engine available at the time, which would be P6 or SD1.

(I can't exactly remember the years the BV8 was sold.)
 
MGB heads aren't special at all.
The rocker covers are unique but that's it.
No original MGB blocks were "stiff blocks"

As far as the inlet manifold goes, it is a P6 manifold with the pent roof bit machined off and a specially cast adapter bolted on in its place.
The carbs in an MGB V8 hang over the rear valley clamp.

MGB V8's were built from 73-75 IIRC
2600 examples were produced in total.
 
Back
Top