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Crack in head, usable?


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Hi,

 

I have a head that is supposed to work just fine. While inspecting it there was a tiny crack in a coolant passage.

 

head.png.2b124e9a0ad89d8e75633aa47473bbc1.png

 

The crack goes away from combustion chambers and towards what I believe is the hole for the head bolts. If the crack would get much worse what would happen? 

 

Just ignore and continue?

 

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  • Technical Advisory Committee

Nope. That head is garbage. 

 

Seeing as you run a Z and heads are likely hard to come by, you could consider taking it to a machine shop to have that crack welded and the passage remachined.

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That's probably trash.  You can try milling out the crack itself to eliminate the stress riser, and the result might be OK for a street car, but I wouldn't run it in a race.  As soon as that crack crosses over to the head bolt, it will push water up the bolt shank and into the oil.  

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Reassessment time after looking at some pictures of a 240Z head. Right between the two centre exhaust ports.

 

That could be an issue and also the reason for the crack in the first place.

Edited by mender
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2 minutes ago, Hi_Im_Will said:

 

That's a much more elegant term for what I was trying to say.

If it works; looks like it's between the two centre exhaust ports, so might break into one of them or cause more issues.

 

I'm thinking that your original assessment (trash) is more likely the right one.

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2 minutes ago, Hi_Im_Will said:

 

That's a much more elegant term for what I was trying to say.

 

haha ok!

 

I will have a head expert have a look. I have another head but it's not ported so it would be nice if I could use this one.

The Z needs a decent head if you want to pass a stock NA miata on the straights :)

 

 

 

 

 

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