Reco Heads are on their way!

 For a long while now I had been tossing up which heads to buy for the 351 Clevo. I read in the 351 bible somewhere that Open Chamber heads suck, and Closed Chamber were the one's to buy. That narrowed it down a little, but then there was the option of buying factory untouched 2v heads (And we are talking off a 302 Cleveland here in Australia) or buying something that had been worked over.

Pavtek make a beautiful 2v cast iron head from the original casting. Their quality is world famous, and the price is reasonable when you consider the work that has gone into upgrading these heads. At around $3500, they were a little pricey, especially when I initially did my search for alloy heads.

Whoa! What did I discover? Heaps! I learnt this: CHI are the reigning Clevo kings when it comes to heads. I learnt that if you want the best, you have to pay for it. I put in a request for a quote for their lowest spec stage one setup and after handing over ten grand, I'd have enough to buy some fish and chips and a half dozen scallops with lemon and two bottles of Pepsi. I'm not kidding.

So, off to second best. And I mean that respectfully. AFD heads have an enormous reputation for producing outstanding heads. The only problem with AFD is, I have no idea who to contact. I tried three times to leave messages. I left messages on their facebook page. I even rang their number and was told it was a wrong number and to ring some guy called Zoran from a mob called Competition Engines in Victoria. Mind you, they have a lively website and much better than the AFD facebook page which looks for all money to have been abandoned. So, I have no idea. I rang Competition Engine and I emailed them as well. Of course nobody bothered replying.  Beginning to wonder whether AFD is somewhat of a spent force these days? Correct me if I am wrong. 

There is also AFR, another company that makes excellent heads, and then there's Edelbrock, 

And then I discovered Procomp heads. And from what I learnt, discovered they were very hit and miss (mostly miss). Which led me to Speedmaster heads, Detroit Racing Product heads, and so forth. And I discovered they were one in the same.  That is, their aluminium casting came from China. 

And it all became too confusing and expensive.

So I went back to basics. 

My engine builder advised me to stick with a nice set of closed chamber heads. After all, I am only wanting a cruiser not a rocket ship. And so the search begins...

Curiously enough, they are not that easy to find. Plenty of open chamber stuff, but not many 302's around. In fact, hardly any engines.  And forget about looking in wrecking yards. This is not 1980 any more. 

Once we secure a set of heads Phil is going to commence the engine build. 

So, what else is going on? 

Well, the tailgate is almost at a stage where I can say it is at painting stage. Going to need a little more work, but it's manageable now. The MAR-K latches fit okay and all is well there. 

The handbrake cable is in and works well.

Brendan (X Piggy) is welding up my engine mounts soon and that can't happen soon enough. 

Phil, the mechanic is on board and nearly ready for the engine. 

The new wheels and tyres are on and look a treat!

Made up a funky locking piece for the battery cover out of a piece of spring steel from work. It was a bit leftover from our dead laminator. It was a piece of bar that was designed to allow the laminated page to slide off without catching. Well, I put it to a different use!

Works like a charm and just as ugly as the original. 

Another success story with the rocker covers. Finally gave up trying to clean these things. They were just too tarnished and old and after literally weeks of trying to get them shiny, gave up and hit them with some primer and some nice satin black paint. And then I just cleaned off the Holley logo for contrast. Whattaya reckon guys? 

Stay tuned! 

Things are starting to hot up around here!