damaged aluminum head

today i removed head from lincoln and found damage to surface in water jacket. a hole that doesnt belong. this is where head gasket blew out. can you provide me source, information and or recommendation on aluminum repair or would you recommend changing to cast iron heads? attached are photos of damage. david

David,,,,

All is not lost, IF you can find a good welder. The problem will be warpage however someone thats good can do it with minimual problems. You may have to have it resurfaced but it is fixable.

Tom

There is a guy that goes by the handle of "headhog" who frequents some of the antique motorcycle boards I frequent who is an absolute magician with aluminium repairs on antique Harley cases, heads, etc. I'll see if I can dig up his e-mail and PM it to you. That head repair should be a piece of cake for him. I've seen some very complex repairs he has done to HD cases that were totally scattered, just a handful of chunks, and you can't find any evidence of a repair when he finishes. Welds, alignments, machine work, and appearance are all absolutely perfect.

thanks i would appreciate that information. dd

David,

If you get information about repairing your aluminum head(s), please forward it to me. I have a pair of aluminum heads that were on my recently acquired '41 Continental which leaked, causing the engine to seize. The previous owner replaced them with cast iron heads after freeing up the engine but included the aluminum heads with the car. I have no plans to re-install these heads unless they can be repaired.

Another LZOC forum member "1941" is having the same transmission problem you described. He has a blue 1941 Continental convertible, pictures of which are on the Gilmore Museum, Hickory Corners, MI. June, 2006 Volume 1 Webshots photo album at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/554143472NkqHXU

You might check with him and find out what he has done to fix it.

Thanks,

Here You go guys. Don is a good guy and does outstanding work, If he can't fix it, nobody can.

Don Sullivan

7484 Kennard

Seville, OH 44273

330-948-9938

donsullivan@headhog.com

I was looking at the photos of your heads and they appear to have been milled or resurfaced in the past at least one or more times. From my experience working with my dad in a automotive machine shop in the past heads are usually milled by either one or two machines that I have seen. One method is where the the inside of the head facing up is passed over with a rotating head which has cutting bits evenly spaced on the 360 degree cutter. From the lines in the surface of your head this appears to what has been used in the past. The other machine has a grinding rock in a hole on a flat surface of the machine. The level of the grinding rock in the machine is raised or lowered and the head is moved face down over the rock.

While the hole in your head may be repaired the surface area left may or may not be enough to allow another resufacing job. The sections of each cylinder below the spark plugs appear to be getting pretty thin or even with the out side surface of the head between the cylinders.

Before you spend the money to have the heads repaired you might want to compare or measure these areas with another set of heads iron or aluminum that have not been milled maybe so many times or talk with a machine shop in your area that has experience with Lincoln or Flat Head Ford engines.