engine and drivetrain Us V Euro Heads

[73touring]

Ive noticed alot of talk of matching the ports of the heads to the exaust and inlet manifold gaskets. From what Ive seen of heads on this side of the pond they already appear to be a very close match and in fairness fairly huge. Bigger than ford 2.0 pinto engines and they breath very well. My question is were the us and euro heads different?

[TobyB]

Nope, all the same.

 

ANd yeah, I started with 2002's and, now, getting into other makes, I'm starting to see why

all the excitement about porting, etc.

 

The BMW heads are very good, for the day.

 

The 4- valve heads are very good to this day!

 

t

[02Les]

I think the only difference is that the heads (in the UK) were "reportedly" not assembled for leaded petrol.

However, my RHD Touring (with original head) has been swallowing leaded petrol over here since 2000 with no obvious problems.

[Simeon]

Not sure I believe that thing about rhd heads having soft valve seats either. When I got my car it was fitted with one of those snake oil 'fuel catalysers' and had been from whenever they banned leaded petrol in Australia. I ran it on unleaded (not that I thought the catalyst thingy was doing anything) from 2005 to 2010 when I pulled the head. No sign of valve regression into the head (the seats looked perfect). Unleaded all the way though avoiding E10 ethanol mix fuels.

[PatAllen]

fwiw make sure you dont make the error of assuming the gasket is the reference to judge the proper size of the ports. the gasket is always larger than the port.

[TobyB]

 

the gasket is always larger than the port.

Shhh!!!  Don't tell tech!!!

 

t

[73touring]

I think the unleaded thing is a mith alright. My touring has been driven on unleaded since Ive had it about 8 years ago and shows no signs of wear on the valve seats the last time the head was off for a leaky head gasket. Think Jaymic were trying to get a couple of more quid out of punters! In saying that I use them regularly and are great to deal with.