Just for interest's sake - Weslake SB Chevy 4-valve heads

[old_chopper]

To clarify, these are "Weslake" SBC heads. The patterns were purchased in England and rebuilt here. There were a few minor changes made including adding a boss to the front for accessory mounting. We were going to farm out the intake and rocker work to shops already in that business. We build cylinder head assemblies for aircraft engines so the head machining would have been an easy fit. I don't want to see this project die so I thought I'd bring it here for some feedback. I've considered investing my own money into to it but I don't know if it could be a profitable venture. My thought is that these would be a hit with the street rod crowd, especially the open fender bunch. Most racing sanctioning bodies have rules against more than 2 valves per cylinder so that's out.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

To clarify, these are "Weslake" SBC heads. The patterns were purchased in England and rebuilt here. There were a few minor changes made including adding a boss to the front for accessory mounting. We were going to farm out the intake and rocker work to shops already in that business. We build cylinder head assemblies for aircraft engines so the head machining would have been an easy fit. I don't want to see this project die so I thought I'd bring it here for some feedback. I've considered investing my own money into to it but I don't know if it could be a profitable venture. My thought is that these would be a hit with the street rod crowd, especially the open fender bunch. Most racing sanctioning bodies have rules against more than 2 valves per cylinder so that's out.

Where are you located, I might be interested to help you restore the foundry tooling given its historical significance.

Don't expect to make money on it.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

the bore spacing on the sbc and sbf are very close which is whats most important so the sbc weslake design will also work on the sbf with the diffrent bolt pattern, btw guys have been using sbf and cleveland heads on the sbc blocks too...
racing sanctioning bodies wont allow multi valve to run with inferior 2 valve dinosaur stuff as it cant keep up so i agree with you that this 4V tech would be more popular with the street rod/street car crowd.

Bore spacing matters, but so does head bolt location through the water cores and internal structure.

Seems like a better idea to get one working head before thinking about adaptations.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

do you think the foundry would mod the core boxes abit?, (extra material for diffrent head bolt pattern) so they could be used on the SBF?. more apps might help with interest on those. I have also had guys ask about moding my billet version for LS and FE apps. Anyway, very neat that those are newer castings.

I should of had a test set of my billets machined allready too but also ran into a issue with the cnc shop here that was going to cut them trying to milk me for more coin. I am hopeing to have test set cut in july making sure everything is good/correct with my cad/step files and from there i want to get some RFQ's from some China cnc companys we deal with here.

another option you may want to look into is just buying your own used or new 3-4 axis cnc for prototyping which is what i want to do now, im looking at buying a cnc masters MAX or possibly SUPRA to do my own stuff...

http://www.cncmasters.com/index.php/cnc ... alog-quote

http://www.cncmasters.com/index.php/cnc ... -knee-mill

Don't waste your time or money on machines like that.
You need a real CNC, that is just a toy.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

old_chopper

if you can get the foundry to cast more with extra meat in the water core for a SBF head bolt pattern I would be happy to buy a few sets of raw/unmachined castings and finish them myself here to help with your project as this head design has allready been proven to work well. pm/email me if you can.

Do you know of any examples where they worked well?

I read they had cooling and pushrod problems.

[Caprimaniac]

no they did not have cooling or pushrod problems...

again just internet lore/bullshat by some 2 valve internet experts that just dont get or want to get the tech.

I think you need to get a set of proto heads and show their superiority to the crowds.

It's a brilliant idea in some ways, in others not so good. (Already mentioned above.) The idea is old, but did it ever "take off"?

However, With som brilliant engineering and modern Tools, who knows the potential?

Afraid the 2V Tech is so good these days, and With the 4V OHC Ford engines available and possible sanctioning in dragrace classes I cannot see a big market for these heads. Is it interesting digging into? Yes. And there will always be a buyer or two.

Always interesting to follow the progression here, though.

[lada ok]

Oh, ok. I now realise they are push rod

The old Peugeot push rod Hemi head, allah 203 404 etc shows how easy it would be to alter the rocker gear to suit a 4 v

To me you maybe best to offer these heads as cast, ,,,, one being suitable for ford the other chev
Probably heaps of fellas would love to m/c and create their own take on it
I'd also look at having mods available so that the heads could be OHC ... that would certainly entice a larger customer base

[Kevin Johnson]

To me you maybe best to offer these heads as cast, ,,,, one being suitable for ford the other chev
Probably heaps of fellas would love to m/c and create their own take on it
I'd also look at having mods available so that the heads could be OHC ... that would certainly entice a larger customer base

Good suggestions ^^^^^

[lada ok]

To me you maybe best to offer these heads as cast, ,,,, one being suitable for ford the other chev
Probably heaps of fellas would love to m/c and create their own take on it
I'd also look at having mods available so that the heads could be OHC ... that would certainly entice a larger customer base

Good suggestions ^^^^^

Ah , thanks Kevin, stupid I may look,.... and I get a fair bit of stick on ST, why is that

[old_chopper]

I'm not sure of the possibility of building some for the Ford application. My buddy that owned the foundry was the pattern maker and he died a year ago. They have contracted with a pattern maker on some small projects, not sure they'd be willing to make the investment for this. I'm probably too close to this project to make an unbiased decision, I think everyone in America would want a set! I will contact my buddy's wife and pass this information along to her. Thanks for all your input.

[englertracing]

Looking at those, I'm getting an Ardun vibe. Lot's of engineering, casting and complication to work with the common short block of the day. Anyone want to wager today's better LS heads will make more horsepower per cubic inch?
jack vines

What are you thinking Jack?
Arao makes some modern versions. When I see these I think about rpm limits. It's the heavy pushrods and cam lobes... But, the two valve springs could provide way more return force than is necessary to control all the heavy parts. Then, the cam lobes have to survive. DLC coatings? Otherwise, the LS can either out rpm it or out cam it in terms of valve lift and acceleration.

with a mild cam..... the 4v head will easily out curtain area the ls.

[cv67]

with a mild cam..... the 4v head will easily out curtain area the ls]

Bet youre right
Always been intrigued by a 3-4v sbc head cost kept me away. Used to live few hundred yrds from Arao would hear them testing their Camaro here and there tearing past my place. That thing could rpm.
The cams in my old ZR1 were puny but made good power for what it was. Big honkin piece of metal but had great potential.

[will.t]

Does any one have any more info on the whereabouts or who brought the weslake small block, very interested to find out any more information on it. My dad was the original owner and was built for his jet sprint boat here in Christchurch, NZ

This sold for $NZ15k back in 2008 down in New Zealand - pretty sure some of you will be interested to see inside a Weslake headed SB Chevy....

[Paul Kirk]

Just out of interest I should mention that I was seriously involved with developement of that engine for the owner who had the most success with it in a speedway saloon, (Roy Grainger).
It was then sold on to 2 different Jet Sprint competitors.
Bruce Bellis imported from Aust, it was originally put together by Sydney mechanic Peter Molloy, (I'm reasonablly sure) but I don't think it was used in Aus. Bruce tried to race it (twice) in a circuit car but had too many problems and only did a few laps in practice at both events.
If there is some interest in details of the engine or the racing history of it I can put pen to paper.
Contact me on paul.kirk@xtra.co.nz, unless I recieve alerts from this site.
PK.

[shoedoos]

As I understand it, Willie Roach of Eagle Automotive in New Plymouth is the new owner of that Weslake combo.....if he isn't then it may be John Rae