My “mild” W8 R3 mill was built by Brian (
[email protected])….. he actually directed me to a more parts friendly camshaft profile that would be more towards the “set it, and forget it” and not so much “kill”. looked like new inside at 220 passes (since we had to fix the oil pan….wheel stand issue). He’s also had some pretty stout big block chevy and Mopars in the shop, but i do believe their “bread and butter” are the builds you mentioned.
ahhhh the W5….. you broke my heart Fredo! My first meeting with Brian (IMM) was centered around building W5 engine #2 after our leaky new blue plug heads that all you rat bastards said were good destroyed a short block (engine 1 was built in SoDak and other than the broken rod due to trying to compress water looked great inside). they leaked, were epoxied, then leaked again. I had two sets of W5 heads and was going to have IMM port them and build another engine….. he had a look of concern and wasn’t really saying much until I pressed him….. I believe the quote was “did you learn anything the first time?”…. so we halted that project and decided the new Ebrock Victors we’d try, but they kept pushing the release date and I ended up buying a top end that Brett Miller had laying around and ordered a new 9.2 deck R3 at work because i could do that once upon a time.
honestly the W5 was just another GREAT idea that was poorly executed by MP and their chosen foundrys. If the castings weren’t such a crapshoot I’d probably still be running them. Made for a great/fun mid 9 mill. Believe ours flowed in the .335 range. We tried to have our leaky W5 repaired but it crumbled as they tried to weld on it.
touting the W5 as a great head is akin to me saying my 90% stockish 904 is a great race transmission, or the 8.75 is great for a race car. You dance in a minefield with any of them imho…..
fwiw our W8 (old Brett design) flowed over 400 on two different benches….. I have all the right pieces for a high 8 sec mill, but just toned her down a bit.
and for the W5 crowd Shane at Precision Cylinder Head has a cnc program for them. Not sure why this late in the game, but he does.
