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Head skimming question....BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Mar 12, 2005 21:38:26 GMT
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Well I'm almost ready to get the cylinder heads skimmed on the Merc.... once I can stop breaking spring compressors...  Just wondering what the going rate is? Last time I had a head skimmed was yonks ago. I'm gonna get some quotes on Monday but I was just wanting to get a ball-park figure.... anyone know?  |
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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Head skimming question....slater
@slater
Club Retro Rides Member 78
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Mar 12, 2005 22:06:56 GMT
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£25per head (my dad runs a engine recon buisness, hes not expencive  ) |
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Nick
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,483
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Mar 12, 2005 22:14:41 GMT
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how costly are headskimming machines? and how exactly does it happen? i always take head skimming for granted yet i don't really know much about it  |
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idea stolen from rattely eddie.
this weeks car count "5"
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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Head skimming question....slater
@slater
Club Retro Rides Member 78
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Mar 12, 2005 22:29:38 GMT
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Well a purpose build head skimming machine can be very expencive. like £10,000s but you don't need one.
Theres 2 main types of head skimming
- Flycutting
- Grinding
Fly cutting can be done on nearly any milling machine, all it is is a little pointed cutter (most of the time theres more than 1) mounted on a arm or disk that spins in a circle about 1 foot diamiter, as it spins it scrapes a small bit of metal off the head. Then head is fed through the cutter so these scrapes go across the whole head.
Grinding obviouly uses a grinding wheel, For heads you need a vertical surface grinder which are expensive. The good thing about grinders is that you can skim diesel heads with hardened inserts where the injectors. bolt in which you cant skim with flycutters
You could get good a mill to do it on for maybe £1000 2nd hand.
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Mar 12, 2005 22:31:47 GMT
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just a milling machine (a big flat drill bit that goes over it and makes it flat) ? unless its doen oin a surface grinder (basically a grinding disk that goes up and down, up and down, up and down untill its gone over the whole thing, then its flat)
i got charged £50 for mine to be done, but that included resealing and reseating the valves ;D
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Mar 12, 2005 23:01:51 GMT
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i thought head skimming was gonna be in the region of £2/300!!  is there any point in skimming an engine head if the engine is in need of a rebuild? |
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Nick
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,483
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Mar 12, 2005 23:03:11 GMT
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cheers for all the info btw guys.
i want to get into engine building and always put headskimming with very expensive machinery so out of my league
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idea stolen from rattely eddie.
this weeks car count "5"
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Head skimming question....BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Mar 12, 2005 23:44:30 GMT
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Thanks for the replies chaps - loads of knowledge and useful tips as always! is there any point in skimming an engine head if the engine is in need of a rebuild? My thinking is, if you have the heads off, might as well get 'em skimmed - if the head gasket blows again after 3k miles, you'll only regret not doing it the first time! Probably head skimming would be about £200 if you left all the stripping to them too, but to just hand over the bare head and get it skimmed is a lot cheaper. Slater - where abouts is your dads place?? And would he fancy doing a pair of Merc heads in the not-too-distant future?! (If he's not too far away from me that is! ;D) |
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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Head skimming question....slater
@slater
Club Retro Rides Member 78
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Exactly, all professionals will skim both the head and the block before building the engine 'just in case'. What alot of people don't relise is if the head gasket blows then it can warp the block aswell as the head. My dads in suffolk so i guess thats a bit far away from you |
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