AMC 1.8 heads, better now? Options

[x-faktory]

I recently built a 1911 with 1.8 AMC heads, purchased from AA. runs great! However ,when researching these heads, I came across reported issues related to the seats and valves..i.E. good head castings, but the valves, springs seats were not great......but, that being said.... most of these reports are from 10 years ago.

Does anyone know if AMC addressed these issues in the last 10 years and made improvements? Or????? Please let me know if you have current, direct experience and info.

regards,
al

[914Sixer]

Probably plenty good for everyday driver. Quality vs cost is the only issue I can see.

[x-faktory]

Probably plenty good for everyday driver. Quality vs cost is the only issue I can see.

914Sixer,
I suspect that you are right and thanks for responding. And you are correct, my question is directly related to the current quality. Would really appreciate current experiences with these heads vs the issues reported 10 years back. I.E. have the issues been addressed/resolved. And...have the installs in the last few years been successful?

regards,
al

[914werke]

I imagine the lack of sample example may be due to the (recent) existence of AAP's 2.0L castings. The $ vs quality question gets harder when built for that application due to the welding & machining necessary.

[x-faktory]

I imagine the lack of sample example may be due to the (recent) existence of AAP's 2.0L castings. The $ vs quality question gets harder when built for that application due to the welding & machining necessary.

OK, I appreciate the response.......but I am looking for current, direct experience with installing and running the AMC 1.8 heads? 10 years back, there were issues regarding the seats/valves.....how about now? Are they good to go, or do they still require additional work?

regards,
al

[Front yard mechanic]

Remember the good ole days when stuff was made in Taiwan

[pfreiburger]

I have been looking at that 1911 conversion myself, did you build from a 1.7 or 1.8? What induction are you using?

[r_towle]

I imagine the lack of sample example may be due to the (recent) existence of AAP's 2.0L castings. The $ vs quality question gets harder when built for that application due to the welding & machining necessary.

New news for me.
Who is AAP?
Who sells these?

[JamesJ]

I believe Rich is referring to AA Performance Products

[x-faktory]

I have been looking at that 1911 conversion myself, did you build from a 1.7 or 1.8? What induction are you using?

This was built from a 1.7 EA case as follows:
note: the cam is a Scat C25

This engine is currently for sale and available without the EFI setup or with a carb intake.
(that is one reason why I'm trying to find out more info about the 1.8 heads)


regards,
al

[Geezer914]

Len Hoffman would strip the AA heads and replace the valve seats, guides springs and valves.

[x-faktory]

Len Hoffman would strip the AA heads and replace the valve seats, guides springs and valves.

Geezer,
Yes...that was covered in the posts 10 years back...do you know if he still does that or have the 1.8 heads improved to the point that it is not required?

[Dr Evil]

Len Hoffman would strip the AA heads and replace the valve seats, guides springs and valves.

Geezer,
Yes...that was covered in the posts 10 years back...do you know if he still does that or have the 1.8 heads improved to the point that it is not required?

Looks like the short answer is, no. No one has recent things to report. Perhaps the lack of more recent poor performance reports are due to them not having the same issues. No one wants to spend time posting positives when they can pile on in negative threads.

I know that I can buy them for bus motors, same company, so you may want to check out The Samba for recent info there. The parts are the same, the castings for ours are slightly different.

[JamesM]

I recently built a 1911 with 1.8 AMC heads, purchased from AA. runs great! However ,when researching these heads, I came across reported issues related to the seats and valves..i.E. good head castings, but the valves, springs seats were not great......but, that being said.... most of these reports are from 10 years ago.

Does anyone know if AMC addressed these issues in the last 10 years and made improvements? Or????? Please let me know if you have current, direct experience and info.

regards,
al

May not apply directly to type 4 heads but i recently tore down my 1.9 WBX that had AMC heads installed maybe 20k miles ago for issues unrelated to the heads but wound up finding an issue with the valves/retaining hardware. I just replaced them with a new pair of heads. Granted these heads were from roughly 10 years ago but the brand new set I got appears to use the same valves/hardware.

Id probably keep a close eye on them.

[Dr Evil]

I recently built a 1911 with 1.8 AMC heads, purchased from AA. runs great! However ,when researching these heads, I came across reported issues related to the seats and valves..i.E. good head castings, but the valves, springs seats were not great......but, that being said.... most of these reports are from 10 years ago.

Does anyone know if AMC addressed these issues in the last 10 years and made improvements? Or????? Please let me know if you have current, direct experience and info.

regards,
al

May not apply directly to type 4 heads but i recently tore down my 1.9 WBX that had AMC heads installed maybe 20k miles ago for issues unrelated to the heads but wound up finding an issue with the valves/retaining hardware. I just replaced them with a new pair of heads. Granted these heads were from roughly 10 years ago but the brand new set I got appears to use the same valves/hardware.

Id probably keep a close eye on them.

Doing the same on a 85.5 Vanagon. Left head. GoWesty offers to go through the AMC heads before sending them out, changes some parts, cost about same as regular head from other vendors. I bought the un-edited head. I plan to place an SVX in this thing, so just trying to get it moving as a running project.

[JamesM]

Doing the same on a 85.5 Vanagon. Left head. GoWesty offers to go through the AMC heads before sending them out, changes some parts, cost about same as regular head from other vendors. I bought the un-edited head. I plan to place an SVX in this thing, so just trying to get it moving as a running project.

I had actually got a pair of the heads that gowesty supposedly goes though. Not sure what all if anything they change but the valve hardware all looked the same. I think they may just inspect them.


Speaking of inspecting, be sure to check the combustion chamber on those. it was pointed out in the facebook WBX group that some of the recent WBX AMC heads had a machining error and were not fully surfaced leaving a very small lip at the edge of the chamber. Hardly enough to notice but enough to cause the fire ring to fail in short order causing compression leaks.

I unfortunately had mine installed a couple days before finding out about this so hopefully this was something gowesty inspected for.