I am taking photos of the head as I go. I will reduce them in file size and post them during the week.
I also took photos of 4688R before the bodyshell went on a wooden pallet trolley to the ex-Lotus bodyshop for repair and painting. I screwed 2 4ft lengths of 4x2 to a pallet which came over in the 40ft container, and screwed on 4 trolley wheels, 1 to each corner. Then I used rachet straps to hold it down on the trolley. The whole shell weight not a lot, and can be pushed around a flat surface very easily. I saw the Formula 1 pit crews pushing the cars around on those trolleys, so I thought I would do the same.
To put the shell on the trolley, I cut 4x2 to put through the engine bay where the tanks were, and lifted the back with an engine crane, then used 2 metal trestles or bandstands, put an 8ft length of 4x2 side to side, and then chained the 4x2 from the bodyshell to the 4x2 on the trestles. Then I repeated the whole thing on the front, so the whole shell was held on 2 x 8ft lengths of 4x2, and the trolley went underneath, I lowered the shell onto the pallet, strapped it down, and pushed it on to my trailer to take it to the body shop.
Dave Golding, one of the two who run the bodyshop place, used to make the doors for Europas. He told me he made 6 doors a day, and more than half of the total made.
The problem I forsee in making the manifold is that the tubes taper in size from the 45mm down to around 40mm where they will bolt to the head. The valve seats seem to be 36mm, so the inlet tube further reduces in size during the last 75mm or so from where the manifold joins the head, to the valve.
I am thinking of either finding another cast aluminium inlet manifold of similar tube sizes and adapting that, or buying a solid 55mm diameter aluminium bar, and boring a 40mm hole down the middle, and then gas flowing it from 45mm down to the 40mm using an internal grinder.
It looks very do-able, once you have found the recipe. If the manifold and head are properly gas flowed, and the Webers properly jetted, I cannot see why 125bhp - 130bhp would not be easily available from a very tractable engine, for not a lot of expense. I forsee the actual machining of the head will take about 4 hours (1 hour with the grinder cut off tool and 3 hours with a milling machine).
My car (4129R) with its new Weber head, new cams etc cost a fortune to build the engine, but the car pulls to 6500 in 1st to 4th very quickly.
As I have around 8-12 weeks to wait until 4688R returns from the bodyshop in Lagoon Blue, I have time on my hands to experiment with the heads, as I have no more space left to strip down the 3 other TCS that I have waiting in the queue.
Alex in Norfolk.
