<VV> 60 heads on 61-62 80 HP

[Tony Underwood]

At 05:47 PM 9/14/2010, BobHelt at aol.com wrote:
>
>In a message dated 9/14/2010 12:36:54 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
>Rt66Vairs at aol.com writes:
>
>I was  advised by an IECC member to use thicker head gaskets, just to make
>
>sure, if I wanted to run regular
>gas.
>
>The lack of choke springs  and such is a non-issue also because this is a
>'61 Lakewood. It  actually has a
>84HP engine (POS if there ever was one built by GM)
>
>
>All very confusing, Tim.
>So it really isn't really an 80 hp engine after all but an 84 hp one. And
>the heads you want to use are what? 80 hp heads or 95 hp heads?...both are
>1960's.
>
>And are you planning to use thicker gaskets on 8CR heads or 9CR heads?
>
>Single valve springs or dual valve springs?
>



1960 heads had the "bad" one-piece valves, which were a bit soft and 
(exhausts) tended to burn more easily than one would expect, and with 
today's unleaded fuels if the valves haven't been replaced with 
something better they're prime candidates for troublemaking.


Likewise, the '60 heads used those dinky valve springs.   Not a 
terrible issue in themselves, but they're likely pretty soft by now 
and could end up having float issues or inadequate sealing, which 
could lead to hot-spotting and burning.   The '60 heads themselves 
will bolt onto the Lakewood engine without issue other than the 
crossover tube size difference, and there's not likely to be enough 
of a difference in compression to bother with.

Still, if *I* had my 'druthers, I'd use something of later vintage 
with better quality valves.   '62-up, if available...  since some of 
the '61 engines also had the same soft valves and small (read: 
weaker) springs.




tony..