Subject: [Healeys] Head Castings

From: Joe and Lenore Armour <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 May 2013 10:09:19 +1000

This is not a definitive answer re  the question, how many head castings 
could there be? ,  but as far back as 1996 when I was standing in front 
of Denis Welch and his display cabinet of alloy heads I asked was it 
from the same source ( foundry ) as the Southern Carburetor Co.  unit.

He very quickly replied  NO.  His heads were cast without a combustion 
chamber and Denis then had the flexibility to purpose machine the head 
to suit the end user's spec.

This was a long time ago but at that time the market was smaller than 
today but there was more than one supplier.

Some  of the big issues with castings are  as Larry has highlighted plus 
the placement and stability of  cores and the quality and preparation of 
sand / chemical sacrificial items used in the process.

I was once involved with a major foundry in Australia where with a brand 
new, improved furane sand molding process had been commissioned and it 
had a lot of porosity issues. All of the 'old hands' failed to 
recognises the cause of the defects.  I was just the simple young 
engineer, without foundry experience, asking the stupid questions that 
eventually led to the causes in casting porosity.

Back to the  Denis Welch system of casting without a combustion chamber, 
a side effect would have been one less core to shift causing wall 
thickness inconsistencies etc.

'More than one way to kill a cat'

Joe  with a 47 year old original ( ex WWII  melted down Spitfire ! ? ) 
aluminium 'works' head ( 6 cyl )
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