What do you do?

[Vortecpro]

Lets say your 840 date coded COPO heads have been through a few sub par machine shops and have very sunken seats or 1.900 diameter exhaust seats installed right into water.......does this sound familiar?? Heres what you do-you weld them up!

[big gear head]

Did you do that yourself? Cast iron welding is pretty tricky and I've never been very comfortable doing it. I know that several years ago Indy Cylinder Heads built a oven that they could put a head in and weld it while it was red hot. There is a guy close to Buffalo KY that is well known for welding cast iron blocks and heads.

[Vortecpro]

Did you do that yourself? Cast iron welding is pretty tricky and I've never been very comfortable doing it. I know that several years ago Indy Cylinder Heads built a oven that they could put a head in and weld it while it was red hot. There is a guy close to Buffalo KY that is well known for welding cast iron blocks and heads.


Al Mathon Headmaster LOL
I have a guy that welds it for me then I machine it, you'd be surprised what we've fixed. I will post pictures as go, heres a little preview.

[EZ Nova]

Yep Vortec, that's what you do. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

We have as specialty weld place I've use up here in Ontario Canada for 20+ yrs. They have various size ovens, 20 of them I believe, that they heat weld and cool at controlled rate. One I know you can pull a trailer into. Very well know and do a lot of work around SW Ontario.

Now I have machine heads/block, I have machined many cast welded pieces. It's a process for sure. One old guy at the shop used to tell me you need to drink a min of 2 glasses of milk per day when machining cast?????

Now the fun/work begins. Good job saving the head and please keep up posted.

Your NORTHERN neighbor....

[big gear head]

It looks like the weld is good. I don't see any voids.

[Vortecpro]

It looks like the weld is good. I don't see any voids.

I will post as I go, yes it looks really good.

[EZ Nova]

You do this work on a manual machines to right? Be nice to get a small CNC and you could set it up to just nicely do small light cuts and go while your doing something else for a bit.

You locate CL of the welded hole off the guide?

[EZ Nova]

Actually looking to see more of the finish product. Not sure of the USA, but here in Canada, our insurance companies are clamping down on cars. I will be 55 next month. I bought a 409 '61 Pontiac about 6 years ago. At that time, I was with State Farm. I had been with them my whole life. They WOULD NOT insure the Pontiac because it had headers. ONLY modification could be like a radio (some stereo's were not insurable) shifter and rims. Anything more then that, no insurance thru them.

So I went to Zehre insurance. Well know aftermarket car insurance company up here. Mostly anything goes. Well last summer, they will no longer insure my '66 Nova with tubs and rollcage.

So anyway, the reason that I mentioned that is up here, it going to get harder for the average guy with 3 or 4 cars to get insurance. BUT with these builds like this, one can easily have a 500+Hp car that looks stock but with headers or even manifolds, and still enjoy them.

I see a BIG market for these builds coming.

[Vortecpro]

The guides need honed, valve job needs to be done, then the porting and finally the CCs set.

[big gear head]

That looks great!

[ZLP955]

Nice job there!

[dustinm]

I have had this done on heads before by Williams Cylinder Head and Machining in Nevada Iowa. I think the name has changed to Midwest Cylinder Head now. They have probably welded a million heads and blocks over the years by now.

Anyway very nice work Mark, I would not expect anything else from you.

[Vortecpro]

Finished welded 840 head, 1.80 exhaust valve, 2.250 Intake valve, 11/32 stem. Peak flow was 365 CFM short port and 370 CFM long port, 260 CFM exhaust port @ 28 inches, 109 CC combustion chamber.

[RobR]

Nice job

Different collets on the intake and exhaust valves?

How close do you run the springs to Coil bind?

Very nice flow numbers

[Vortecpro]

Nice job

Different collets on the intake and exhaust valves?

How close do you run the springs to Coil bind?

Very nice flow numbers

Thanks, I used a .050 short keeper on the intakes. I think it was .100 from coil bind.

[RobR]

You mention Al Mathon in an earlier post. He was the go to guy and arguably the best for cast-iron repair and welding.

Al’s welding magic was on some of the top pro stock, modified eliminator, and super stock cars. This is back when you had to run the factory cast-iron heads like the old 461, 461x and the 292 turbo heads.

Back in the 70s and early 80s before NHRA went to 500 inches for the pro stock cars, Al was bringing the decks down to 9” for racers running big block Chevy’s.
This was quite an accomplishment back before the flood of aftermarket parts available for the BBC.
Mentioning him it brought back some good memories.