hi there guys. i was looking at a thread on using the 16v volvo head on a 2.3L ford motor. it got me to thinking about alternative pinto heads. i went to the local parts place armed with a head gasket. the engines i found with the same bore spacing were mitsubishi astron (sigma/magna) ford sohc 3.9 amd 4.0 motors. the ford crossflow 6 and Holden 6.

the astron head is pretty close. some fiddling with bolt holes and driving the cam would be required. apparently the later astrons had reasonably large valves, and roller followers. the falcon ohc has similar issues with driving the cam. it's closer water passage wise though. also a custom cam could be $$$$.

has anyone seen or done anything like this ?

and while these heads may seem a little pedestrian compared to a cosworth head, they are both cheap and plentiful and seem to flow well. also few issues with cams and followers. efi gear is also standard on some of them. i'll post up some pics later showing the head gasket on a magna head.

The 2.3 is an American engine that looks like a pom/oz pinto and thats where the similarity ends, nothing is interchangable.I bought a Ford factory recon engine from Brazil, its still in its wrapping in the shed, was looking for a yankie wreakers engine for sump, rocker cover and fly wheel etc but have been unable to track any down at a reasonable cost.

i'm painfully aware of that. i only mentioned it as the inspiration for finding a similar thing for a 2 litre.

You would think that an engine that's been around for this long someone would have found a viable alternative.

On that note, a mate at work has strapped a twin cam BMW motor cycle head onto his Leyland Mini block without too much trouble (apart from a custom cam pulley set-up and redrilling a number of the head studs).

I'm sure there are options but........what is the cost etc for a reasonable gain?

that is a really good question paul. the heads are dirt cheap to buy. the work to make them fit may be the killer. the magna head looks to be reasonably simple to bodge up some sort of cam drive to and seal up the front.

i suppose the only way to find out is to do the mods to make a scrap head fit and take some measurements. i'll dig up a bare pinto block and see how it all lines up.

I had a bit of a play around with this idea 20 odd years ago with a Sigma 2.6 Astron head. I never actually got as far as bolting it all together, stalled at the cam drive modification stage - all projects came to a grinding halt when I got married

I'ld be really interested in where this thread goes.....

Astron has been done on 2lt. The guy called himself Sydney speed and machine he was in Castle Hill and used to advertise them in the trading post, complete engines for $3000. He has been gone for probably 10 years now and reckon he'd be dead from booze.

But the Astron head is still SOHC - is there much of a gain compared to the Pinto looking at the efforts involved?

Considering the effort and $$ surely the Zetec / Duratec options start looking good when you consider the advancement in design, durability and potential these engines provide?

The Mitsubishi head will fit with mods. As mentioned, it has been done before. You can also fit the 4g52 crankshaft (again with major mods) for a stoked pinto. Dont worry about them being SOHC as the later 4g54 heads flow very well. They have 46mm inlet valves as standard.

If you are going to go to that much trouble, you would be better of fitting one of the early Saab DOHC heads. These will also fit but again, you need to be handy with the alloy welder.

There are some others that share similar bore spacing and could work although you have to ask why? For an engineering excerise fine, although there isn;t much pinto left and you wont be permitted in nearly all race classes. Easier to fit an alternate engine.

Here is a pic of a pinto with the saab head. I have since lost all my files of the mitsu conversion. I have some more details pics of the saab conversion on my computer at home.


http://www.300power.com/forum/index.php?board=17;action=display;threadid=1989
Shaun