Resurrecting Jalpa #359

wow, those are in rough shape.

wow, those are in rough shape.

 

Were... they're in much better shape now and are even better. The welding is going great. They said they should be done by thanksgiving. You should see the head gaskets that I took off.

 

Last bit of cylinder heads should be wrapped up by wednesday. Got the progress pics today. Will post later tonight. I am now officially convinced that my machinist is a god welder from another universe. It's the only way I can describe that he's been able to make this much progress. So clean... so very... very... very clean.

 

Pics... SOON.

Great news!

 

 

Those headgaskets

Great news!

 

 

Those headgaskets

 

Wait till you see the heads However, like I said, my machinist seems to be some sort of wizard. I am astonished and blown away at his work. I understood that this car was going to be no easy task, and that it is going to take a lot of time and money, but I've been extremely patient thus far, and it has payed off.

 

This is where we started. As you can see, not pretty. Oddly enough, the combustion chambers don't look anything like this. Just the heads where the aluminum is. I think "Holy shit" is a good caption for this one.

 

After disassembly and light cleanup.

 

The heads after that needed to be media blasted (in this case, soda blasted) to get rid of contaminants and make it clean enough to drill and weld. At this point, all corrosion, pitting and damage had to be extracted.

 

As the heads were welded up, the imperfections in the alloy basically were cooked out. This had to be done over and over, until the alloy blended well with the weld and could be milled down.

 

Round #2734817 of welding (I have no idea, but I can tell you this was 15 hours per head)

 

More close up.

 

Before head #2 was welded up on

 

Today, after much welding, milling, more welding, more milling, on and on and on. All I can say is, "DAMN." Keep in mind the bulbous areas with lots of material are there so that it can be blended by hand later on the flowbench, so nothing is going to look "perfectly smooth" at this state. But as you can see..... wow.

That last pic doesn't even look like it should be possible!

That last pic doesn't even look like it should be possible!

 

Right? His understanding of metallurgy, welding and machining is out of this world. Granted, it has come at a steep cost of about 15 hours per head... BUT, it's cheaper than new heads, and it will feel nice to know that everything will be numbers matching/original part of the car. Still, astonishing work he has done thus far. I know where I'm taking my Porsche motor next.

Great to see the transformation of the heads. I cannot believe Lamborghini used such porous material for them.

 

Now that you have them all tidied up... port and polish them.

Great to see the transformation of the heads. I cannot believe Lamborghini used such porous material for them.

 

Now that you have them all tidied up... port and polish them.

 

Yep! Next is valve seats, port/flow work and then comes the block. At this rate, so long as it continues smoothly, I'm hoping the first start will be this summer!

That's a great timeline and the work will give you more power and better intake and exhaust sound.

Looking good and very promising D. Congrats!

 

That's a great timeline and the work will give you more power and better intake and exhaust sound.

 

I'm optimistic at this point since the heads were the largest concern. The block is in fantastic shape, so are the cylinders. I'm obviously going aftermarket with pistons because if I'm already going that direction with valves/etc, I may as well go the whole 9 yards with it. I want the engine to be like new, and even better than it was.

 

Looking good and very promising D. Congrats!

 

Thanks my friend It feels promising and now that the heads are out of the way, the real motor work can begin.

Wow thats awesome!! That was a huge step!

Woke up to an inbox message this morning from my machinist.

 

Hey, so I have attached a couple of pictures for you. We are getting ready to do the final wash & then they will be ready for you to pick up.

 

WHOOHOOOOOO!

 

Now, I told him cosmetic flaws were fine, so long as performance would not be affected and that they sealed and corrosion was not going to be an issue. My expectations were far exceeded and they turned out fantastic. Finally, it's time to finish the motor and get crackin' on rebuilding it. This was the largest concern of the build so far, and I'm so glad it's going well.

 

 

Great news!

Heads made it home safely and are tucked in all nice and cozy.

Heads made it home safely and are tucked in all nice and cozy.

 

that is fantastic work, awesome job and a long road to get those heads cleaned up.

that is fantastic work, awesome job and a long road to get those heads cleaned up.

 

Yes, the guy really knows his stuff and I 100% recommend him. If anyone needs to have aluminum heads repaired? The place is M&B in Portland Oregon. His name is Brian. 15 hours per head in weld repairs and another 10 to fix up the ports and do seats and all that good stuff... BUT, it was much cheaper than a new head(s) and now I can keep everything numbers matching.

 

He checked all the jackets to make sure they sealed and everything is 100% in check. Welding was done at around 200F (so no warping concerns) because he uses an extremely high end inverter welding machine.

 

Just for the sake of before and after. Now that I can show a contrast worthy of going, "Holy shit!" So if you ever think your heads are gone, you're probably wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

After Brian touched them. You can see that the factory alloy is quite porous, but if you notice the areas he welded up, it blended very very well.

 

 

 

 

That's really impressive work. Aluminum is a difficult material to work with.

 

Just curious what would new heads cost?

That's really impressive work. Aluminum is a difficult material to work with.

 

Just curious what would new heads cost?

 

Last I checked, they were about $6k a pop. That's an empty head, no valve seats or anything else.

 

Fantastic work, I can't wait to see it running, keep up the updates.

This 12 cyl head was repaired as well...but quite a bit more money

 

Paul

This 12 cyl head was repaired as well...but quite a bit more money

 

Paul

 

Yikes! That's not a very fun looking failure to deal with.

Big day everyone. The entire motor is headed to the machine shop for the big rebuild. Time to order parts and assemble. Gotta say... I'm excited. No truck? No problem. Toss your Lambo motor into the back of a 924 Turbo. It'll fit.