New Bare 039 Heads Available $279, AA Performace Products-In California Options

[brownaar]

Any new progress/updates on this?

[Robnxious]

Agreed thanks Len! and a question..
Ive been debating buying a set of AMC heads and engaging in some serious machine work to mod them to 2L spec and twin plug for my 2366 Mtr build w/Nikkies.
Do you think these would be acceptable options while perhaps saving me some scratch?

Verdicts still out on these castings. They make a good first impression, but at this point I need to work a pair. They clearly aren't as beefy as the amc's. The amc's are very good castings that have proven durable on a lot of very high output large displacement engines over the past 15 years. We'll see. Like I said, once I machine a pair I'll know a lot more.

I would LOVE it if I didn't have to weld heads to move the spark plugs anymore. I still do all of the welding and peening personally and it takes it's toll physically. Not to mention the time.

Well I for one want to thank you for personally doing the welding and peening on your heads, since my set just arrived for my build today. Can't wait to drive them and see what all the fuss is about! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

[HAM Inc]

Agreed thanks Len! and a question..
Ive been debating buying a set of AMC heads and engaging in some serious machine work to mod them to 2L spec and twin plug for my 2366 Mtr build w/Nikkies.
Do you think these would be acceptable options while perhaps saving me some scratch?

Verdicts still out on these castings. They make a good first impression, but at this point I need to work a pair. They clearly aren't as beefy as the amc's. The amc's are very good castings that have proven durable on a lot of very high output large displacement engines over the past 15 years. We'll see. Like I said, once I machine a pair I'll know a lot more.

I would LOVE it if I didn't have to weld heads to move the spark plugs anymore. I still do all of the welding and peening personally and it takes it's toll physically. Not to mention the time.

Well I for one want to thank you for personally doing the welding and peening on your heads, since my set just arrived for my build today. Can't wait to drive them and see what all the fuss is about! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

Thanks for purchasing a pair of my heads! Lot of time and effort goes into them. Hope you're satisfied with the performance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

As for the knockoff heads, I've just finished a pair. They machined well and critical deminsions are a match, for the most part. The pushrod tube bores are a couple of thousanths small, which is good since the machine work to them is rough as a cob and require honing to smooth them out so they don't tear o-rings. The flycut finish is okay, but the work from chamber to chamber varied by a couple of thousanths. Our finish work is with .0005"

The intake ports are awful as delivered. Rough as cobs (and I like rough, but this was a bit much) and don't line up at all with a factory gasket. But that wasn't a big deal for me as they do have the same corkscrew shape, and are undersized such that with port work they lined up fine and flowed the same as our ported heads.

The exhaust ports are pretty much dead nuts copies of the O.E. heads in rough shape and after polishing and blending flow about the same as an untouched stock port, which is good when comparing to other O.E. T4 heads (1.7&1.8) but bad when comparing to what we get out of our AMC heads, which have tiny ports as delivered from AMC and lots of meat around the outside of the port that allows us to carve a far superior shape that we've developed over the years. There's not much that can be done to improve the knockoff ports as they are bulged out where it doesn't help and don't have meat enough to port where it does help.

As for the machining characteristics of the heads I ran them on the cnc at the same feeds and speeds with the same tooling as we use on AMC heads. The chips and machined surfaces were identical in appearance to the AMC heads and the machined dimensions were with .0002" of what we get with the AMC's. That tells me that they at least have similar machinibility, which is encouraging regarding alloy characteristics, but hardly conclusive in predicting durability.

Because they are lightweight castings of an unknown alloy I am sending this pair off for thermal coatings. After which they will go on a 2270 being built by a freind of mine and Jake's for some serious road use. Not screaming high revver, which would actually be less challenging, but in a 412 that is going to be lugged to the ends of the earth, something aircooled heads hate!

My verdict is still out on these castings as far as durability goes. My hunch is that they are going to do at least as well as a 40Y.O. casting that's been run through the ringer. That said, I'm willing to build them out with quality parts if people are interested, but I'm not willing to put any[i] warranty on them beyond my workmanship.

[Krieger]

Thanks for your analysis Len! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[914Sixer]

Len's verdict is good to hear. He mentioned in earlier posts that his source at AA said that they would be reinforcing the molds in the rights places so all in all this COULD BE a win win situation.

[Mueller]

Len's verdict is good to hear. He mentioned in earlier posts that his source at AA said that they would be reinforcing the molds in the rights places so all in all this COULD BE a win win situation.

I read on shoptalk that this 1st batch sold out already.

It would be great if they could add material for porting.

[Frank S]

My verdict is still out on these castings as far as durability goes. My hunch is that they are going to do at least as well as a 40Y.O. casting that's been run through the ringer. That said, I'm willing to build them out with quality parts if people are interested, but I'm not willing to put any[i] warranty on them beyond my workmanship.
[/quote]

Len,

I'm interested in one set build to standard specs (should go into a 2056 keeping the D-Jet).

Frank

[gothspeed]

EDIT: please disregard this post and bump!! I just saw the GB thread here:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=319606

[FUEL14]

I'm just (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_bump.gif) ing this thread to see if there are any updates this year about these AA heads. I wonder if McMark or HAM Inc have any recent thoughts about the current quality of these?

Thank you.

[HAM Inc]

I'm just (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_bump.gif) ing this thread to see if there are any updates this year about these AA heads. I wonder if McMark or HAM Inc have any recent thoughts about the current quality of these?

Thank you.

I've been very impressed with the consistency of the castings. So far they have all machined very nicely and the dimensional consistency of the machine work has been spot on, ie, valve guide bore sizing and spacing, chamber heights and volumes, I could go on.

I have now done a fair amount of flow testing with different valve sizes and port mods and found some specific details that these castings respond very well to. Not willing to share those specifics here, but our customers will benefit from this knowledge. Like all other T4 heads the AAP's are capable of making impressive power with the right mods.

Still too soon for me to speak of long term service life, but we have gotten nothing but positive feedback regarding valve adjustment consistency on the heads in service so far.

To date, every pair we've prepped has received ceramic coating to the chambers and exhaust ports. This will extend the life of any T4 head.

World member Shane Sparks got a seriously bad-ass pair of these heads for his ChumpCar. Shane has agreed to share his experience. Endurance racing will be an excellent test of these and any heads.

Overall I feel pretty good about these heads, so far, and think they are a much better choice than 40+ years old O.E. castings. Time will tell.

[FUEL14]

Len, thanks so much for the indepth reply. What's the best way to contact you privately to discuss options for a prepared pair of heads? PM? Email?
Regards, Luke.

[HAM Inc]

Len, thanks so much for the indepth reply. What's the best way to contact you privately to discuss options for a prepared pair of heads? PM? Email?
Regards, Luke.

You can contact us directly. info@hamheads.com

[McMark]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Len is far more intimate with heads than I am. But I've used a few sets now and haven't run into any issues. They seem like great reproductions. Oh, but I haven't ordered or inspected their fully built heads. Just the bare castings.

[Jetsetsurfshop]

First, thanks Len for the heads. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Here's a report from my 914 Chump car.
I did a test day on September 7th. I did four sessions with about 6-8 laps each at Sebring. While on track I get a chance to look down at my cylinder temp gauge between turn 16-17. I never seen it over 350 degrees. It stabilized after about two laps. Oil temp does too. It was hot at the track and my third and fourth session I ran it pretty hard. Still never seen above 350 degrees.
Heres some stuff I can tell you about the heads.
The work from Len was great. He could elaborate on all he did.
Heres what I can tell you all.
He coated in the chambers
He notched cylinder head 3 plug for the cylinder head sensor (awesome)
He put some special magic black coating on the heads for heat
He twisted my arm and made me run ti retainers (for when someone misses a shift!)
The heads are not leaking oil from the pushrod tubes.
The spark plug placement was correct for my 2.0 liter tin
I'm hitting the dyno in a few weeks and I think I should be at 155-160hp.
I'll report back when thats done.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[FUEL14]

Awesome... Thanks for sharing this information.

First, thanks Len for the heads. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Here's a report from my 914 Chump car.
I did a test day on September 7th. I did four sessions with about 6-8 laps each at Sebring. While on track I get a chance to look down at my cylinder temp gauge between turn 16-17. I never seen it over 350 degrees. It stabilized after about two laps. Oil temp does too. It was hot at the track and my third and fourth session I ran it pretty hard. Still never seen above 350 degrees.
Heres some stuff I can tell you about the heads.
The work from Len was great. He could elaborate on all he did.
Heres what I can tell you all.
He coated in the chambers
He notched cylinder head 3 plug for the cylinder head sensor (awesome)
He put some special magic black coating on the heads for heat
He twisted my arm and made me run ti retainers (for when someone misses a shift!)
The heads are not leaking oil from the pushrod tubes.
The spark plug placement was correct for my 2.0 liter tin
I'm hitting the dyno in a few weeks and I think I should be at 155-160hp.
I'll report back when thats done.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)