hello everyone, jake over there in georgia, tuna on the coast, fellow scholars of the t-4 lifestyle. Believe me, i hope that there is a day I can actually write you guys, post a pic or two, laugh and drink as I reflect of the merry days of old when I tried to get my type 4 running...well, amongst all of your suggestion, including your jake, I ripped out my engine to find the vibrating sound coming from a newly rebuilt t-4, and what do you think I discovered? I had made erroneous measurements for the main bearings, which, given 15 miles of break in caused the entire crank assembly to vibrate. My equipment is ok, nothing damaged...so I've rebuilt it with correct bearings, and things are looking up sort of...Everything is geared for a mild performance on it except the heads. I cheesed on the heads and bought GEX mexican rebuilt deals...and yes, the suck the daylight out of a blackhole. I know that...this is where I am at...then engine runs real smooth with the right sized bearings...things look great but my compression is still hovering the 6 to 6.5:1 range. I have resorted to a very expensive porsche mechanic with a ton of t-4 converisons in my area to rebuild this the right way. He is reco that I first trash the heads and take them back for a full refund, which i can do and will do here shortly. He is suggesting that I look at two options. First, he has a pair of 914 1.8 liter heads he can port, polish and fit to the 2.2 liter engine. He said that he would charge me $400 for the pair of porsche heads and any additional machining etc...which sounds great...he said the reason behind this is that the combustion chamber on the stock crap heads from GEX have too many cc's for me to get the right compression ratio. Im at 9,000 feet altitude so my c.r. needs to be around 8 to 9:1 to equate myself to sea level driving. The porcshe heads offer bigger valves for the thinner air up here, but from what he said they also provide the chance for them to mill to spec for the correct cc's of the head chamber...does that make sense? My other option he said was to find a pair of 1800 t-4 heads that also offered the larger valves but the chance for them to do the same type of mill work for spec cc's...what are your guys reaction to this...and with what you think were can i go to get the heads i need...now, i dont need fat performance quality...ill never hit over 5k revs...but i need something better than the crap stock heads i have but need the room to have them milled...
As always im so appreciative of your alls feedback, especially yours jake, you guys spent a ton of effort trying to get me to see the light in the past over this ordeal...
Im almost home with this one...and i need a little bit more guidance...thanks everyone...
warm regards,
mike webber/teenytrout
cascade, colorado