where can i get a after market head for a 350x

[coleaclark]

guys where can i get an aftermarket head for my 86 350x the one i have is shot

[Xowner]

dont think there is one being made. whats wroung with yours?

[oscarmayer]

if you want ti worked on, I have a machien shop that can do wonders for it. send them your current head, they can do cnc machining on it and get it back to ya. its about $185 for the machining and labor. any parts needed are extra unless you supply them. if you send them new valves and springs and such, they will machien match them and isntall them as well.

this is a cnc valve job with the seats opend up and the inner port being opend a bit. if you send them your jug (no piston) then can flow it before the work and then after as well so you can see the improvements.

www.theoldone.com
tell them mike sent ya.

[SWIGIN]

there never was an aftermarket head made for the 350x.....no other head fits without major work (see my ascot head swap thread in the mad scientist section).

whats wrong with it?

[Preddy05]

there never was an aftermarket head made for the 350x.....no other head fits without major work (see my ascot head swap thread in the mad scientist section).

whats wrong with it?

How much of a difference is there between the 350x head and say a head from a 86 honda trx 350 4x4?

[coleaclark]

its really messed up

[Vealmonkey]

How are they going to flow a 350x cylinder? What is in the cylinder to flow anyways?

[SWIGIN]

How much of a difference is there between the 350x head and say a head from a 86 honda trx 350 4x4?

yup the old forman heads are the same.....i was just talking about xr500/ascot500 heads.

[SWIGIN]

its really messed up

if the valve seats are good i would run it after i smoothed out the dents.

if you chuck it i'll take it for the price of shipping if the seats are good.

[Xowner]

man you need to have that fixed if the area were the cam rides is good just take it to a machine shop they can put new seats and valve guides in it!

[SWIGIN]

if you want ti worked on, I have a machien shop that can do wonders for it. send them your current head, they can do cnc machining on it and get it back to ya. its about $185 for the machining and labor. any parts needed are extra unless you supply them. if you send them new valves and springs and such, they will machien match them and isntall them as well.

this is a cnc valve job with the seats opend up and the inner port being opend a bit. if you send them your jug (no piston) then can flow it before the work and then after as well so you can see the improvements.

www.theoldone.com
tell them mike sent ya.



you know for that money i can get a full race ported head....not a simple cleaned up valve bowl area.

[The Goat]

I'll take the head for 20 plus shipping if you chuck it. sorry swigin, I need it more than you.

it doesn't look too bad. how's the cam journals (where the cam rides)?

oscar...it's getting to the point where I'm going to buy an extra head...send it to your guys...JUST so I can see what all the damned fuss is about...

if your guys would do heavy heavy porting, I would have already sent them the one I have.

[oscarmayer]

who said it wasn't done up?

the next thing is anyone can grind on a head, but the key is do they truely knwo what they are doing? do they have computer controleld flow bench systesm to test any changes made? a incorrectly done head cna acutally hurt performance not help it. most of these motors don't need the ports opended they need the seat cahmber smoothed out some for the transission (sp?). to happen in a smoother flow.
I've been building motors for many years and especially honda ones. (mostly cars but a 4cyclidner is a 4cyclinder weither it's 8,6,4 or 1. the principles all apply.) and i would NEVER trust any porting palce to touch my head w/o knowing what the flow numbers are before and after. it's a good way to tell they are doing the work correctly vs/ just hoggin it out and saying it works. These guys can take a stock accura integra 1.8l head (gsr) and produce a minium of a 35hp increase over the stock head and that's keeping stock sized everything including cams. YES they are THAT good.

---------------------
cole,
they can fix that head. they have performance professional welders and fabricators that can make that look like new when done. the think you have to do is decide what's less costs. go to ebay and see if you can find a good used head. (probebly still needs a rebuild) contact endyn and show them the photos. see what they woudl charge to fix it vs. a good used head price from online. it's not just replace the seat and valve guides, there's structure damage that needs to be replaced, and you have to hope there's no cracks.

anyway, it's not going to be a cheap fix no matter what you do.

what does the piston and cyclinder look like? are they damaged?
you got out of that pic at BEST case senareo: new valves, new seats, new guides and some welding work. (if you want it done right) and that's if there's no cracks or extra damage other places.

[The Goat]

oscar...here's my think though...can they port my head...to the max?

the 350x is VERY restrictive considering it's a four valve. has to be...otherwise upgrading to larger valves wouldn't produce the drastic increase in power that it does.

[Vealmonkey]

Is this site going to get like ebay. Members put on parts and bid them up?
Also oscarmayer, you still haven't explained why you have to include the cylinder for flowing the head? A flow bench is just that. There are no provisions on a flow bench to attach a cylinder or attach an entire engine block in case of a multi cylinder head. And flowing a head is much more involved than just making sure that there is a good transition of air over the valve. A CNC machine cannot allow for all the little nuances that a true hand ported and flowed head. CNC machines are pretty neat, but they do not blend in chambers or delicately machine around valve guides and they cannot machine in the gradual and subtle curving around the valve guides and some tricky port ares. Most cylinder heads are a bunch of compound curves and a CNC machine cannot deal with the subtleties of the compound curving. I totally agree with you on the overflowing or overgrinding the head to the poiont that it is useless and that flowing and porting is best left done to the professionals with lots of experience and have a nice flow bench. I can also agree that a CNC machine would do a really nice 3 angled vavle job. I have a friend that has all the old tools to do valve seat replacemtns and 3 angled valve jobs and his old machine and tools can do just a nice of job, but it takes longer. But porting and flowing with a CNC, no way will it ever beat hand flowed and ported head.

[SWIGIN]

Is this site going to get like ebay. Members put on parts and bid them up?
Also oscarmayer, you still haven't explained why you have to include the cylinder for flowing the head? A flow bench is just that. There are no provisions on a flow bench to attach a cylinder or attach an entire engine block in case of a multi cylinder head. And flowing a head is much more involved than just making sure that there is a good transition of air over the valve. A CNC machine cannot allow for all the little nuances that a true hand ported and flowed head. CNC machines are pretty neat, but they do not blend in chambers or delicately machine around valve guides and they cannot machine in the gradual and subtle curving around the valve guides and some tricky port ares. Most cylinder heads are a bunch of compound curves and a CNC machine cannot deal with the subtleties of the compound curving. I totally agree with you on the overflowing or overgrinding the head to the poiont that it is useless and that flowing and porting is best left done to the professionals with lots of experience and have a nice flow bench. I can also agree that a CNC machine would do a really nice 3 angled vavle job. I have a friend that has all the old tools to do valve seat replacemtns and 3 angled valve jobs and his old machine and tools can do just a nice of job, but it takes longer. But porting and flowing with a CNC, no way will it ever beat hand flowed and ported head.

beautifully said veal....brought a tear to my eye

[The Goat]

so what you're saying is...if you were to get a nice ported head...and let them play with valves, you could get the best of both worlds?

[Vealmonkey]

Well, if you are asking me since I'm not sure where who the question is posed too, that you can't port until you have all your vavle work done. Everything has to be blended together. Porting work would almost be null and void if you had to go and change the valve seats or anything major like that. The cheapest and easiest mod you can do to your heads after a great valve job is to simply match port and polish your head. First, if your valves don't seat right, it won't matter what else you do since you will have leaks and you won't ever get the full performance potential out of your engine. Also, heads were sandcast and had sand plugs in place before the aluminum was poured and then the sand plug was busted out either by man or machine. So not every head is exactly the same, there can be some shifting in the plugs from one head to the next. If the intake or exhaust ports don't match up exactly to the intake or the exhaust, you could be loosing performance too. The port holes should match up to get full advantage of the flow of incoming and outgoing air. And there always has been a debate on wether you should polish the intake side or leave it rough to really get the incoming air all stirred up to help fuel atomization, but polishing the exhast will definitely help speeding up the outgoing exhaust. The faster you can get out the spent gasses, the better the incoming fuel charge air will perform. On the old atc90 bored and stroked really hot engines, head gurus usually installed bigger intake valves and really worked on blending the area around the valve guides to get the maximum unrestricted flow of air and fuel in. They generally left the exhaust valve alone but would also do some work on the exhaust side. Every head guy usually had their own top secret magic tricks for doing this, but the basic thought was the smaller exhaust vavle force the exhaust to escape at a faster velocity which also help aid the incoming fuel/air. The really good head guys were always busy and the less successful had plenty of time. And word of mouth about who used who to mod whatever they were running was the best way to find out who's porting tricks worked and those who didn't. There were always different builders around the country in their respective areas that were hot. Not everyone sent their stuff to the west coast to be modded. It also helped alot to have your head set up for your riding style. There was no need to have your head set up for all out speed if you were doing alot of motocross or x country style riding, cause all out speed didn't work well for on or off the throttle all the time. So being able to talk to the builder was essential in getting the job done. Some builders would build you a real time bomb that was fast, but would barely last a weekend. Unless you had unlimited funds, that wouldn't do you alot of good either. And going fast is no good if your equipment didn't last. There are alot of factors to building a powerful engine that has some endurance to it and works with your riding style or racing criteria.

[coleaclark]

Thank you guys for the help very much appreciated for all the advice