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Harrington Head

lemansvk

lemansvk

Donation Time
Someone I know (who is not internet connected) purchased a Harrington LeMans a bit over 12 months ago. He has had minor overheating issues with it (not boiling, just running warm) and on my advice pulled the head. He found several things - first the bolts were not tensioned properly plus he found some minor corrosion issues and what may be a hairline crack between a water passage and combustion chamber. So he is looking for a replacement head. Potential sources in Australia include not only Alpines but some Humber Vogues and Hillman Gazelles, but the question is, did the Harrington LeMans have a standard Rootes alloy head or were they modified in some way?

Thanks in advance,

Vic
 
alpine_64

alpine_64

Donation Time
lemansvk said:
Someone I know (who is not internet connected) purchased a Harrington LeMans a bit over 12 months ago. He has had minor overheating issues with it (not boiling, just running warm) and on my advice pulled the head. He found several things - first the bolts were not tensioned properly plus he found some minor corrosion issues and what may be a hairline crack between a water passage and combustion chamber. So he is looking for a replacement head. Potential sources in Australia include not only Alpines but some Humber Vogues and Hillman Gazelles, but the question is, did the Harrington LeMans have a standard Rootes alloy head or were they modified in some way?

Thanks in advance,

Vic
Click to expand...

IIRC the cars were offered in 3 stages of tune by hartwell.. i think at minimum stage II had a modified head. Check Ians Harrington site for info.

As for this car.. after these years.. who knows what it had in it.. ro rwhat was done.. the harrington heads were just cleaned up and lightly skimmed IIRC anyway.. there are better mods out there now
 
65beam

65beam

Donation Time
harrington heads

both of my lemans have the original heads. both are low mileage cars and the only real difference i see is the intake and exhaust port work. both of mine have now had a few thousands of metal taken off over the years just to clean up the head surface when i changed head gaskets.
 
napa 1

napa 1

Donation Time
cylinder head

I'm also interested in this topic. I just began taking apart my low mileage engine from my Le Mans and have found that it is very clean and tidy inside, pistons, cylinder walls etc all look great, the only issue I found, and perhaps the reason the car was taken out of service sooooo long ago (sometime prior to 1970) is that the cumbustion chamber on cylinder one is not nice, neat, smooth and clean like the others, but rather has had some damage done to the area near the smaller valve, which has changed the shape (enlarged)slightly of the combustion area. Otherwise the engine looks like it could be easily restored and put back in the car. So, same question, if I needed to replace this cylinder head, what to do?
 
bernd_st

bernd_st

Bronze Level Sponsor
would consider to bring the damaged head to a repair shop for Alu welding the deformed section. Some grinding afterwards to achieve the proper & balanced combustion volume again. Think after all it would be less effort than to start from scratch with either a 1600 (smaller valves) or 1725 STD head...
 
RootesRich

RootesRich

Donation Time
John,
Talk to Stirtz Machine in Oakland. Carl repaired a Holbay head for my Dad last year and did a remarkable job. He's a straight shooter and if he can't fix it, no one can.

Carl's been doing work for my Dad and I since the early 70's.
 
puff4

puff4

Platinum Level Sponsor
napa 1 said:
I'm also interested in this topic. I just began taking apart my low mileage engine from my Le Mans and have found that it is very clean and tidy inside, pistons, cylinder walls etc all look great, the only issue I found, and perhaps the reason the car was taken out of service sooooo long ago (sometime prior to 1970) is that the cumbustion chamber on cylinder one is not nice, neat, smooth and clean like the others, but rather has had some damage done to the area near the smaller valve, which has changed the shape (enlarged)slightly of the combustion area. Otherwise the engine looks like it could be easily restored and put back in the car. So, same question, if I needed to replace this cylinder head, what to do?
Click to expand...

Are you sure that damage is near #1 cylinder, or is it near #4? More commonly we've been seeing that #4 has substantial pitting near the exhaust valve.
 
napa 1

napa 1

Donation Time
Yes you may be right, I was probably looking at the head upside down :eek: What's the reason for the common pitting around the 4th cylinder?
 
puff4

puff4

Platinum Level Sponsor
Well, nobody has quite the exact answer, but my hypothesis is that the #4 gets hotter than the other cylinders, and what you're seeing is a burned head.

I think this happens because there's a 'still spot' at the back of the head where coolant doesn't circulate as well - a flaw in the head's design. And this is a particularly bad problem on later cars, because when they made the change and removed the outlet at the back of the head (that used to go out to heat the manifold) it made this 'still spot' even more 'still'.

In addition, the back of Sunbeam blocks tend to silt up quit a bit (exacerbated by the reduced circulation), leaving one with a recipe for a rather hot #4 cylinder... and that means that little carbon deposits which eventually form on the head's combustion chamber become *really* hot, creating burn-marks (dimples) inside the chamber... and after many years it begins to look like the inside of the chamber was full of rusty water at one time and got all corroded, when indeed it was simply burned away over time.

And it happens next to the exhaust valve because (a) it's furthest back into the 'still waters' and (b) that little exhaust valve gets very, very warm.

But hey, it's just a theory.
 
R

RootesRacer

Donation Time
Its not a burned head, its from detonation.

Pocked chambers on cyls with poorer cooling is pretty common, as are broken top rings and broken top ring lands.

Has a lot to do with the aggressive factory timing curve and todays lower octane fuels (than it was designed for).
 
puff4

puff4

Platinum Level Sponsor
RootesRacer said:
Its not a burned head, its from detonation.

Pocked chambers on cyls with poorer cooling is pretty common, as are broken top rings and broken top ring lands.

Has a lot to do with the aggressive factory timing curve and todays lower octane fuels (than it was designed for).
Click to expand...

Well, I'd agree, except that I've yet to see a detonated piston as a result of this situation. I still think it's just hot-spots.

I definitely agree with the timing and fuel exacerbating things, however.
 
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