Aluminum Head /6

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Badvert65

Badvert65

Long Time Mopar Nut
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Cool stuff! Probably a prototype for the aluminum /6 back in 61.
 
I may be wrong, but I think you would still need the special head gasket that no one can get anymore. Maybe why this head has not been used.
 
Being that early Lamborghini V-12s were german made engines based on two slant sixes mated together, I think you could probably get a double overhead cam aluminum slant six head for less than this white elephant...
 
CCHHAARRGGER! said:
I may be wrong, but I think you would still need the special head gasket that no one can get anymore. Maybe why this head has not been used.
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It's the block configuration, open deck, that requires the weird head gasket. The head looks like an aluminum version of the cast iron one. What might be trouble is the odd-ball valve cover.
 
Lots of stuff to think about. Super Rare, this is a part I have never seen before, ever. More rare than Hemi, and Max Wedge one offs. But is it worth 8.5K,that is a lot. The head gasket you can find, hard, but you can find it. Valve cover with that shape, I don't know, I have never seen one, I would think would have to be custom made. The head needs a couple of thousand dollars to be ready to run, custom valves, guides, welding and pressure testing. So if you put it on an aluminum block, they won't hold a lot of HP and at 40 over max, its only a 228 or so, not much. So what do you do with it? Then you have a rare all aluminum slant, what do you put it in? Hot rod? Old Toad, Rail Dragster?
59 Slant Six 3.JPG
 
I think at 4k you would have some takers. But you have to change that valve cover flange.
 
somebody maybe should have run spring shims between the bottom of the v. springs and the head. it kinda looks like someone cut the guide bosses down for triple springs and/or guide seals.
I've never seen another aluminum sl/6 head. It would be cool if someone could digitize the surface, so someone could recreate all of it except for the water jackets.
I have a CI sl/6 head that has "SPECIAL" cast into it. IIRC, I put 318 valves in it, & hogged the bowls out. I can't remember where it came from, it might have come with an aluminum sl/6 block I bought several decades ago.
 
Could you o-ring the head to get around the gasket issue?
 
Something else to consider on top of all this, is it really only good for a wall hanger/ waste of workshop space/ conversation piece/ glorified boat anchor? How many other of these prototypes do you think may have been produced that didn’t come out of one of Chrysler’s dyno cells? This was produced at a time when all the American manufacturers were designing and casting heads from aluminum, only to figure out casting aluminum cylinder heads is nothing like casting iron cylinder heads... I seriously believe dropping $8500 and attempting to run it on ANY engine would amount to a tale shame very few would be able to live with! Case in point, look at all The aluminum Mopar performance heads from the 90’s that suffered from porosity and splitting at the parting lines in the castings. I seriously doubt they were able to do it any better in 1959!
 
roccodart440 said:
Could you o-ring the head to get around the gasket issue?
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If you look at the deck of an iron block, it has a flat surface with the exception of the cylinder bores and various coolant holes. If you look at the deck of an aluminum block, everything is open, you see straight into the water jacket and it looks like the cylinder bores are each standing by themselves. That is why the need for a special head gasket.
 
el5dart said:
at 8500 buck id make a mold out of it and sell repops for 4k
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I get the point, but the reality is, Nobody in their right mind would spend more than $400 bucks for a repop that offers nothing but weight savings and less efficiency unless the squeeze is bumped up 1+ points. It is simply a novelty, and nothing more, and this original is a piece of R&D Mopar history. Is it worth 8.5K? I don't know anyone that would,...even half of that, but some have wealth they are happy to part with so............
 
I was talking to a mopar buddy of mine, and he said he saw an aluminum sl/6 head at the Portland Swap Meet, years ago. There's no telling if this was the same one.
 
Ida thought some sl6 racer would've tripped over his own feet to pick that up, but not for $8500
 
It's a unicorn for sure, but not worth THAT. Somebody should make the guy a cash offer and take it to an aluminum foundry so the rest of us can have one.
 
If I where going to go through the trouble of tooling up a new aluminum slant six head, I would make something like the mickey thompson three valve indy head with a small cover for rocker access and the hilborn stacks coming out of the top of the head. I agree that other than being a prototype or a lightweight head, there is going to be minimal performance gain from using it. If your going to do something, don't do something that's already been done!
 
Simply having an aluminum slant six head gets you 0% closer to having additional aluminum heads cast.
Any 3D modeling-scanning that could be done with the aluminum head could be done with an iron head.
Seriously, if one was going to produce a slant head in aluminum, why replicate what exists today. Seems that a clean sheet of paper: cross flow, four valves per cylinder,,,
 
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