which head?

[enigmaperformance]

hi all. was hoping some of you more experienced chaps might be able to help me out here. ive recently bought a surf, and come across the dreaded head problem right away. i road tested it thoroughly, tried my best to get it to overheat before i bought it, but couldnt manage it. needless to say by the time id got home it had poured its coolant out. this really didnt surprise me in the least, its just my luck. anyway, back to the matter at hand, its happened a few times since, and im now going to be replacing the head.

my problem is, which head do i go for? now i know 99% of you are going to recommend stevo for the head, and from what ive read on here, probably quite rightly so. however, i cant afford to buy one at that price, and if i could, im not sure i could justify it for the value of the surf. id probably be better off breaking it for spares and getting my money back (thats what i do for a living).

ive found 2 guys selling cylinder heads on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CYLINDER-HEAD-...QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

ive spoken to this guy selling the second one. he claims it is an upgraded head in the title. i asked him in what way is it upgraded, and he reckons there are more waterways in this head. now, correct me if im wrong, but even if there were more waterways in the head, im sure this would only be any use if there were more waterways in the block to match them.

would any of you be willing to part with your money for one of these? or do you know of anywhere else that supplies them? dont get me wrong, im not knocking anybody elses prices, im sure they are well worth the money, and quality is perfect etc, but i just cannot justify spending that much on my particular surf. any help would be greatly appreciated, and id like to see as many replies as possible, so i can guage general consensus of opinion.

oh, one lat question, would i be better off buying a bare or complete cylinder head? i know obviously there is a lot more labour involved in transferring parts to my new head, this isnt a problem, but am i likely to find any more faults with my head once i pulll it apart?

[stormforce]

http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/members_p...evo/index.html

give Stevo a ring his no.is on the website or try Tonyn on his website
www.4x4toys.co.uk

[Flannelmeister]

Just Be Careful!

The head recently went on my surf and googling around the net came across the firm in your second link. The price of £400 (inc VAT) he quoted for a new head with camshaft and valves seemed good so I ordered it and my mechanic fitted it.

Immediately it was obvious something was wrong as oil dripping onto road whenever I parked it. The bloke from the firm was trying to blame garage, wondering if he had put gasket on upside down, which I actually thought would be impossible.

Anyway, the head had to come off and when we put a straight edge across it and shone a torch along it you could clearly see gaps under the straight edge as if the bottom of the head was slightly "rippled".

I rang the head supplier and to be fair he drove down from london with 2 heads. One had exactly the same problem as the first head but the second one seemed ok.

Being cautious I sent the head to be pressure tested at a local motor engineers. It never got as far as being tested, the engineers rang and said when they started dismantling it to test, they found the cam buckets were damaged. They also said it was the wrong head for my 93 L130LTE! The correct head has a "slot" milled out near the front offside bolt hole where the main oil feed comes up from.

I rang the supplier again, and wasn't very pleased as you will imagine. He came down again with another head that he said had been pressure tested and lo and behold, this time it was the right head.

I have just yesterday picked the surf up from the garage and so far, touch wood, it seems fine. I am, however, £300 out of pocket for the second fitting of the head which I will be trying to claim back from the head supplier though who knows how successful that will be. For what I have spent I could have had my car transported to Stockport and had it done properly first time by Stevo.

So, be VERY careful in your dealings and I would recommend you get any head checked over and tested before fitting.

[TonyN]

ive spoken to this guy selling the second one. he claims it is an upgraded head in the title. i asked him in what way is it upgraded, and he reckons there are more waterways in this head. now, correct me if im wrong, but even if there were more waterways in the head, im sure this would only be any use if there were more waterways in the block to match them.

Can't speak for his product, but the cracking issue is between the valves, due to the metal not being thick enough between the waterway and the valve chamber cut out.

The heads we use (Stevo's) are redesigned to be thicker at this point, so you have less chance of it cracking.

They may be uprated heads, but he obviously doesn't know much about what he is selling, so it doesn't inspire confidence to me. Things are normally outrageously cheap for a reason.

[enigmaperformance]

thanks for your replies guys. its definitely interesting to hear the story about the guy advertsing on ebay, i dont think ill be taking my chances with him, after speaking to him i wasnt filled with confidence either, felt as though as i should walk away. hes also been sending me text messages since the phone call, pushing me to get my head sent to him today, in very poor english, something which i dont find at all professional. ill continue looking before i decide what to do next, at the moment im just seeing the surf being worth more in bits

[enigmaperformance]

another question for anybody who knows their stuff. ive just pulled off my cylinder head, and noticed something which may be unusual, may be quite normal, im no expert on these matters. on the bottom of the head, on the inlet side, there are 4 waterways, long oval shaped holes, right next to the injectors. there are also 4 corresponding holes in the block directly below them. however, there isnt any holes in the gasket between them, is this normal? there are also 4 similar holes on the opposite side of the head. now in the gasket there are 4 tiny holes, much smaller than those in the head and block. can anybody tell me if this is normal? there is evidence to suggest that the head has been removed recently, as some of the exhaust manifold bolts were loose, and 2 were missing from the inlet manifold. im just wondering if somebody may have replace the gasket with a wrong item.

[TonyN]

can anybody tell me if this is normal? there is evidence to suggest that the head has been removed recently, as some of the exhaust manifold bolts were loose, and 2 were missing from the inlet manifold. im just wondering if somebody may have replace the gasket with a wrong item.

Its normal, the small holes control the flow of coolant, and half the holes are normally blocked.

[logey79]

The head recently went on my surf and googling around the net came across the firm in your second link. The price of £400 (inc VAT) he quoted for a new head with camshaft and valves seemed good so I ordered it and my mechanic fitted it.

Immediately it was obvious something was wrong as oil dripping onto road whenever I parked it. The bloke from the firm was trying to blame garage, wondering if he had put gasket on upside down, which I actually thought would be impossible.

Anyway, the head had to come off and when we put a straight edge across it and shone a torch along it you could clearly see gaps under the straight edge as if the bottom of the head was slightly "rippled".

I rang the head supplier and to be fair he drove down from london with 2 heads. One had exactly the same problem as the first head but the second one seemed ok.

Being cautious I sent the head to be pressure tested at a local motor engineers. It never got as far as being tested, the engineers rang and said when they started dismantling it to test, they found the cam buckets were damaged. They also said it was the wrong head for my 93 L130LTE! The correct head has a "slot" milled out near the front offside bolt hole where the main oil feed comes up from.

I rang the supplier again, and wasn't very pleased as you will imagine. He came down again with another head that he said had been pressure tested and lo and behold, this time it was the right head.

I have just yesterday picked the surf up from the garage and so far, touch wood, it seems fine. I am, however, £300 out of pocket for the second fitting of the head which I will be trying to claim back from the head supplier though who knows how successful that will be. For what I have spent I could have had my car transported to Stockport and had it done properly first time by Stevo.

So, be VERY careful in your dealings and I would recommend you get any head checked over and tested before fitting.

If you have no joy with recouping your losses as a result of this guy's faulty products, I do hope that you will name and shame him for all to see in a new thread. If dealers are not willing to stand by their products, then they shouldn't be trading, and certainly shouldn't expect to get away with it. The only way to ensure that any rogue traders do not, is to hit them where it hurts, ie, their potential customers. These toys of ours are expensive enough, without any added costs for this sort of nonsense.

But, if he does refund your losses then please let us all know, that would be quite impressive.