Homemade heads?

bw68d100318 said

I guess I'm just wondering why no one/few fabricate their own heads, not out of a chunk of aluminium, but pieced together. I understand it would take a lot of planning and time, but heads are what make an engine, cams move the torque curve around, but the curve stays a similar shape, I believe because of the heads. I might pursue this idea and document the process here.

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A fabricated head is going to have a lot of potential failure issues that a head machined out of a solid piece of metal isn't going to have. First off is strength, the cylinder pressures are significant, and the head will also have to withstand being torqued down to the engine without catastrophic distortion. Those are not small things. The distortion effect is probably more significant, even the stock heads distort when torqued. Not saying it can't be done, but that will take some serious thought. Next is the number of potential leaks. If you're fabricating a head, every joint and seam is a potential leak, whether it be water or vacuum. Vacuum is a pretty high standard when it comes to containing leaks. I'm sure its been done, but I can't recall any constructed heads on anything in recent history.

And of course, time and money. Your first effort probably won't be successful, so that means doing this more than once. And that may include rebuilding your test engine more than once, depending on what isn't successful the first (or second, or third) time around. With the relatively low price of aftermarket heads, even people that are capable of pulling it off don't bother. Again, not saying it can't be done. But I'd bet that when you're done, you'll have spent far more money than you would have on a set of heads that's already on the market. And given the capabilities of those heads, the bar is set pretty high if you're going to make a better head.