Head work

Hi,

after a little advice from those in the know please tbh more like some schooling.
I never seriously thought about getting an uprated cylinder head due to the cost but now I keep thinking I want one.
I would be looking to gain more low down torque especially better off boost performance to enhance my superspool turbo (Im stuck in traffic most of my driving life so im not after amazing bhp i'll be happy when hitting around 300bhp).
Can anyone advise on cost etc and where to go? Im feeling a little lost now Barbz has left.

Also would it be best to get a reconditioned head and send that off to get worked on (I use the car everyday) or is it best to get any old head in any condition as the person who does it will recon it anyway?
Thanks in advance for any help/input.

Cheers
John

I've just bought a flowed head from barbz so will have a spare head if you want to buy that to do the work on.

if you want more low down you could instead go for higher compression pistons - something like 9:1 would be fine with Super unleaded

Cheers for that John that sounds like an easier route and maybe cheaper even?
Im just not sure of performance gains compared with head work but its another option has or does anyone here run with higher compression pistons?

Kenno mate thanks for the offer but its still a thought at the mo if I do decide to go for it i'll remember your offer!
Anybody able to tell me if its worth getting a reconditioned head or a knackered one and let the person working on it rebuild it at the same time?

Cheers
John

A flowed head will cost a £1k upwards won't it?! Any idea's how much removing the old and replacing with new is likely to cost(ball park)?! Also, whilst the heads off, is there anything else worth doing/replacing at the same time?!

Just thinking about doing this myself at some point in the future.

Cheers,

Mark

Mine didn't But then again I didn't get any valves.




I think it's around £600 to replace a head on the car. New head gasket, head bolts, all fluids, cambelt kit.. umm sure they'll be more that i've forgotten.

When the head's off i guess you could open the manifold up to match the gaskets.

Thanks Kenno, that's a great help.

£1999 for me to go with my savings plan then for a stage 3 and fitting....

Cheers,

Mark

Pistons won't give you much if any more power but will improve the spoolup and off boost torque

Would it be possible to get more low down umph with a remap - in particular more aggressive ignition advance (with the condition that you'd always ahve to use optimax)?

yes.

Given the context - I was wondering whether or not this would give better bang-for-buck than raising the compression?

It depends how the car is mapped. Most cars that have had the compression raised will probably have headwork as well, and then have been mapped?

Novice question here but... wouldn't raising the compression ratio increase the likelyhood of det?

I suppose if its mapped correctly and cooling is good det shouldn't be a problem?
I would love head work plus a re-map with uprated pistons but its all to much £££

The std chip or a GTEC 1 with an increased compression will work much better than OE. Only thing is you would have to use Super unleaded but it would also be more fuel efficient.