Just finished pulling the heads to send them off to get ported. The engine will finally have some decent heads that will hopefully allow it to come to life a little bit more. I just included a few pics of the pistons and heads to show the status of the internals after about 1800 miles. Can you tell it's running a bit rich AFR was between 12.1 and 12.9 on the dyno when it made 425/445. Spark plugs look pretty good, but was debating moving back to TR55's instead of the TR6's since this thing never sees juice. Any thoughts on that? Hopefully the new heads can put some more lead in this thing's pencil. Random comments welcome.

 

how hard is it to pull the heads off when using studs? Thanks!!

Ski

 

plenty of room to pull the heads with studs...

 

Plenty of room and the studs alleviate a lot of the headache of the coolant/crap that would otherwise get trapped in the bolt holes. Of course I'm gonna remove mine anyway just to make completely sure they are clean because a few studs came loose when removing the nuts, but on the average you don't have to.

 

Depends on the compression. If you run 11.5:1 or more, go with the TR6s. Not to mention, for every 100HP extra, you should run a plug 1 range colder.

 

I would stick with the 6's as well.
If you got 1800 miles with them w/o problems and are staying with the same compression or higher then the TR6's should be great.
Why fix something that isn't broken?

 

I will be staying 11.1 and would only go higher in the future, still debating on whether or not to have the heads milled and if the cost/benefit ratio would be worth my while (looking for people to chime in on that one as well). I was just concerned that the TR6's were leaving some HP on the table being that they're geared toward higher hp/juiced engines with the increased gap.

 

Quick question, do the plugs look like they should be replaced? They don't look bad at all but was debating whether or not to get a new set.

 

Nothing looks out of sorts to me. Looks like more of an oil burning issue than running too rich. Im running 10.9 compression on TR6's gapped at .045 with good results. Id keep the TR6s.

 

What makes you say there's an oil burning issue? And what I meant by new plugs was should I get new TR6's or put these back in.

 

It looks like caked up burnt oil in your combustion chambers. Not that mine looked any better, but thats why i went to breathers and then to a modified PCV setup.

And those plugs dont look too bad from here.

 

I've got the LS6 PCV setup already, it shouldn't be burning that much oil. Oh well.... what's the best way to clean that up off the pistons?

 

Might want to try a catch can or a oil/air seperator used for air compressors. As for cleaning it up, I use laquer thinner or acetone and a plastic sponge. Works great at removing head gasket remnants as well.

 

I used carb cleaner, mine looked worse after 2400mi. Just make sure to spray the RAG and not the pistons. Give the cylinders a little lube with tranny fluid when your done

 

Up your compression!

 

Oh ok.

 

Consider a thinner head gasket. You can run more compression with a tighter
quench(squish).

 

Well, I've been talking to Jake Fusion and have been contemplating a different route. Considering the extremely low DCR with my cam (7.4:1), Jake suggested milling the heads .018 and running a cometic .040 gasket to give me a .032 quench. This would bump up my SCR to about 11.8:1 and give me a DCR of 8.2:1 which would help gain back a lot of the lost power with my low DCR.

 

they are out of the motor. if it wasnt for a quick inspection and reinstallation, i would replace them.
only makes sense to me. why put used plugs?

 

Kinda on topic...kinda off topic.

11:1 402ci....TR55's made 526 RWHP N/A. Should I stay with what works? Or go to TR6's for a touch cooler plug?


Motor looks good BTW Arctic. Are you running the stock PCV?? Catch can??