Mikel Becks Heads

Mikel asked me to post about what I had found and what I did to fix them. Well when I opend the boxes and took a good look at the heads I had noticed that they had been worked on before. I had to chuckle as the company that originally did them was a company here in Atlanta, Ga. Now they did some nice work and I know the guys that did them and know the owners of the company personally. But since they left them and went to someone else they had been changed drastically. And by this someone took a very good set of heads and almost destroyed them.

It looked like someone had tried to port on there first set of heads and went crazy on them. I noticed that someone else had installed seats on the intake side of 2 of the intake runners as they had to in order to save the heads and make them useable. Also to they sunk the seats in most all ports for some unknown reason. And because of this the valve stem heights were all over the place, the highest to the lowest was over .125 different. The ports that whoever did were cc'd at 168 cc's and the other 6 ports were 158 cc's. Then I flowed them and this is what they flowed.

158 cc port

.100......76
.200.....117
.300.....181
.400.....218
.500.....242
.600.....241

then the 168 cc port

.100......76
.200.....125
.300.....195
.400.....229
.500.....246
.600.....248

Now I had to try and get the ports to be more uniform and flow more alike so this is what I did, I cut the bowls with a 75* cutter and back cut the valves as they were the stock tulip type, and I lowered the floor a bit and this is what they flowed.

.100......81
.200.....136
.300.....194
.400.....224
.500.....239
.600.....229

At this point I had them much closer than they were when I recieved them. So now it was time to get all that I could out of them and had to get it at .450 lift as the cam that Mikel is using is olny a bit over .500 lift. So now the challenge was on. After doing more work on the ports and the short turn area and reflowing the heads they didn't increase much, and actually lost airflow. But because I have numerous sets of heads here, that I had other parts for I figured that I try some different valves and this is what happened on the flow bench.

.100......84
.200.....138
.300.....202
.400.....235
.450.....243
.500.....242
.600.....232

So I found something and then tried to backcut the valve and see what happens, and this is what it did.

.100......82
.200.....134
.300.....201
.400.....231
.450.....235
.500.....238
.600.....235

Well this didn't work so back to a valve that isn't back cut. In the meantime the new valves came in and I had a chance to do a lite polish on the bowl area and this is what they ended up at.

.100......82
.200.....164
.300.....209
.400.....242
.450.....249
.500.....246
.600.....241

I didn't just put my efforts on the intake side only, I also did the exh. and this is what they flowed on the exh. when I recieved them with a 1.60 valve.

.100......70
.200.....103
.300.....129
.400.....145
.500.....154
.600.....151

Then I cut the bowls and backcut the valves and this is what they did.

.100......74
.200.....114
.300.....138
.400.....154
.500.....153
.600.....155

Then I hand blended them and this is what they flowed.

.100......74
.200.....114
.300.....144
.400.....192
.500.....202
.600.....202

But now before I could get any further I had to install seats in 6 of the 8 exh. ports as the seats were so bad that this was part of the reason that the valve stem heights were all over the place. Then I did as on the intake side a lite hand polish and this is what they flowed.

.100......74
.200.....113
.300.....142
.400.....192
.450.....198
.500.....204
.600.....210

So now that they were getting closer to being finished I rechecked the valve stem heights with the new valves and they were almost all the same. But the 2 intake seats that were installed by someone else were set too deep and were a bit taller, but because of the thick margin valves they came out fairly close to the others.
So basically after all the repairs and installlation of some heli-coils and seats and springs the heads will live to fight another few years.
Mikel should have them on wednesday of this week (5/14/08), what he will notice will be a faster rev and a healthier sound. At the track he should see a better MPH and a good bit better ET. But this is car and chassis dependant. I hope this is what he wanted me to say about his heads.