Boss 429 Cylinder Head Straightening

John Edwards discusses how he uses a thermal cleaning oven to straighten excessively warped aluminum cylinder heads at his Costa Mesa R&D Automotive Machine Shop.
www.Engine-Machining.com

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

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• john
• edwards
• costa
• mesa
• r&d
• automotive
• machine
• mustang
• boss
• 429
• drag
• race
• road
• ford
• big
• block
• stang

[Stealth12343211]

You can do the same thing with a piece of MC Iron Channel, some feeler gauges, and an acetylene torch. Is alot more efficient on time, and cost. You dont actually have to heat the entire head (no loss of guides or valve seats from getting it too hot) you heat specific points to relieve the pressure of the warp. The reason you remove warpage insted of milling it away is it would create uneven chamers and on OHC engines it creates binding of the cam shaft. Warpage= pressure, which in turn = Cracks

[fiatnutz]

@Stealth12343211 Dude, you need to review you technology. By localizing the heat, as with a torch, you get a wave in the head that is nearly impossible to remove. The head must be heated uniformly and cooled evenly.

[dwnrety1]

do you not mention what the torque on the bolts and the temp of the oven is because its proprietary?

[fiatnutz]

@dwnrety1 - Yes.

[dwnrety1]

@fiatnutz hm. interesting.

as for the cylinder head i didnt know you could just straighten them out, not to mention the fact that they would warp that much..

[fiatnutz]

@dwnrety1 - The 429 do not use a standard head gasket, the use a nitrogen filled ring and several quad-rings to seal the coolant - good idea, but bery expensive to buy those bots no days. I have welded all the receiver grooves and machined the head for a standard 429 gasket - work real well and the gaskets are cheap.

[PackedFunk]

Boss 429 is one bad, but rare engine.

Love these engines.

[MotorsportsX]

420 degrees and around 90 ftlbs torque? message me if im close lol

[serchmarc]

isnt suppoust that a warped cylinder head is a useless head,and you have to buy a new one,,, YOU CAN STRAIGHT IT BACK UP???? WHAT??????

[azrios]

John, I can show you how to Heat Straighten aluminum cylinder heads within 15 minutes (floor to floor) instead of 2-1/2 hours (as demonstrated in your video) then waiting for cooled down time....

~Rico - ASE Master Machinist

[Stealth12343211]

@fiatnutz I am well aware of my technology. It is considered an accepted and by most shops prefered way to do it. Gives you quicker turn around, causes less problems, and allows for more profitablity. It just takes some skill to learn how to do it. Look up "getting your head straight engine builder" on google. It will give an article that they discuss it in.

[jeffrey19621]

I was told that this had to be done on our VW diesels but never witnessed the procedure until now . Thanks for a great post.

[jjenson2006]

@5191keith I would think the most obvious reason is so you don't have to mill too much metal off it. Each time they warp, you'll have to mill a little off. Eventually, they can no longer be milled. So you'll want to remove as little as possible.

[O7ROADKING]

you have some great videos. very interesting Thanks for posting