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Cylinder head manufacturers and vendors


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marnal..... clearwater.....  what are you buying when you buy fomr midwest turbo? fomr TEP? whats the difference in the castings? i am sure this has been brought up before.

 

but what is the difference between other heads such as the caravan head? I am sure combustion chambers are different ect.

 

 

Shawn

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I think on the T-racing.com site he has most of the aftermerket heads listed and there specs.
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i bought my caravan head( just non jet valve head) from alabama cyl head.  They offer remans but they also cast their own and its supposed to be a better alloy.  I think my reman was $185 and i think new casting was $250. they come with valve guides pressed in, 3angle valve job, cam towers and a warranty
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I think ottis at midwest can get the magna heads, not sure what he uses , have to check my old mails to see. I have the Alambama head, the new casting. It seems good so far, I had it race preped with the 3-angle job,full porting job, no JV. It was good work but I still had to do some more deburring on the head. They told me the new cast was desighned from the caravan head, they sent me used/cleaned up caps from the caravan style head.
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If i'm not mistaken, Marnal switched owners recently and they're heads are being made in China now.. Not a good thing, materials wise..  I'll find out for sure.

 

they have some made in india now, which aren't as strong as the others. but i talked to them last week about my head and they still offered the other casting(the spanish one)

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If i'm not mistaken, Marnal switched owners recently and they're heads are being made in China now.. Not a good thing, materials wise..  I'll find out for sure.

 

Incorrect.

 

Marnal still carries the head made in Spain(AMC), but also offer a lower cost head made in India.  I have not looked at one of the India heads, so I can't comment on their quality

 

If you want a Marnal/AMC head, let me know.

 

Rich

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Top End sells the marnal head as there own.
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Do the Marnals, etc., flow better? are they less likely to crack? whats the difference? Isnt any non-jet valve head an improvement over stock?

 

I am also head shopping and dont feel like paying $250-350 for a non-jet valve head when I can go to the junkyard and get a caravan head for a 1/4 that. But at the same time I dont want to buy a caravan head out of the yard and have it crack two weeks later because all the heads were poor castings or something. So simply, I am asking, will the caravan head be fine as long as I dont overheat?

 

Cory

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The caravan heads can be fine, but you should at least swap out the valves for turbo ones. The main difference is that the exhaust valve is stainless.

 

I'm sure guys are running the Caravan heads, but I personally don't know anyone that is. Many of the Caravn heads in the yards are already junk. Instigator got maybe 3 or 4 of them and never found a good one. They wre all either cracked or had pitting in the chamber that went pretty deep.

 

The jet valve head will not flow any different than the non-jet head. They have the same chambers and port. If you look at a non-jet head, it will have provisions for the jet valves, but they are not machined for them.

 

The main reason heads crack is due to high cumbustion temps due to leaning out. The jet valve allows more air into the cylinder, thus creating a leaner mixture. If you eliminate the jet-valves, it reasons to say that you will not lean out as easily.

 

The difference is that the AMC/Marnal head is made to higher standards than many, if not all, of the other aftermarket heads.

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  • 8 months later...

Not to beat the dead horse, But my head gasket just blew due to over heat. I'M in the same boat as everyone else for a marnal. TEP is to pricey. I need this fixed quick b/c this car is my daily driver. Im doing a complete head job and if I get everything from tep its like $1000 plus.

 

Is there a previous topic that tells the best parts to build a good foundation for a power house ( ie, what head gasket, valves, cam, ect) and where i can get the parts the cheapest?

 

I figure that since im taking off this head and replacing it, I might as well build a good foundation for my power upgrades in the future like mpi and bigger turbo

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Not to beat the dead horse, But my head gasket just blew due to over heat. I'M in the same boat as everyone else for a marnal. TEP is to pricey. I need this fixed quick b/c this car is my daily driver. Im doing a complete head job and if I get everything from tep its like $1000 plus.

 

Is there a previous topic that tells the best parts to build a good foundation for a power house ( ie, what head gasket, valves, cam, ect) and where i can get the parts the cheapest?

 

I figure that since im taking off this head and replacing it, I might as well build a good foundation for my power upgrades in the future like mpi and bigger turbo

 

I know there have been some threads on what you are asking about, but I'm not sure how long ago. Maybe try a search. It's probably going to be a lot of reading though.

If you need a Marnal, let me know.

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