mk1-forum.net

Longman heads are back!

http://www.somerfordmini.co.uk/eshop/in ... chapter=20

Most of these heads appear to be sold out!
It would be interesting to know who is actually modifying these,unlikely to be RL himself ,although they may be to the same specification as those originally produced.

Interesting you should say that . I have a longman GT 15 head that I bought of Keith ripp personally . It was used on studs race engine for his 1480 rally car . It has offset valves 37x31 , etc . Thing is it has a 16.4 cc combustion chamber witch is how the heads were in the day . Been thing about selling it because it's ended up on the shelf . So it may be in the for sale section soon ... Ken

At a guess I'd say that it was Brett Simms doing them...

I guessed that but then why would he do heads under someone else's name when he's got his own reputation to promote. PLUS they're pretty keenly priced and he's not exactly short of work?

Are you sure there not litchard wrongman the chinese head massager

I first noticed them about a year back.

pad4 wrote:Are you sure there not litchard wrongman the chinese head massager

Well, we've seem so much 'new fashioned badge engineering (buyouts) in recent times, it wouldn't surprise me. I did read a few years back that someone had taken over the Longman enterprise.

I would say it is probably Brett, it is not going to be George or even Jeff Lawry. I understand Brett was wanting heads in the not to distant past.

I can't see Brett doing these, surely he is far to busy nowadays.

My guess would be that Richard has either come up with a licensing agreement with Somerford where he gets so much a head for using his name & they are sourcing them, or he is supplying them but a 3rd party is doing the work for him.

If they are truly old Longman spec heads then the prices are very keen indeed!

How are heads gas flowed nowadays??? Are they still done by hand or are they done by computer on a machining centre?????

All cast iron heads are modified by hand just as they always were. Some new heads, the Minispares 8 Port & the SC 7 porter for example are 5 axis machined from scratch.

This prompts me to ask the question then , how much is a original longman GT15 offset valve head worth ? .... Ken

Off the top of my head I would say around £600 but this would depend on chamber capacity, condition etc.

mk1 wrote:All cast iron heads are modified by hand just as they always were. Some new heads, the Minispares 8 Port & the SC 7 porter for example are 5 axis machined from scratch.

Mark , so every cast iron head would be different, even if done by the same person, I can see why they are expensive , man hours involved , heads day in day out , your own would be pickled

your own would be pickled.

Couldn't put it better myself.

A skilled head tuner will use various gauges & templates to ensure that his results are consistent, that & his skill & experience.

The image below is of one of Bryan Slarks demo heads that he did while at Downton, his "Hunger Gauges" can just be seen in the top of the image.

mk1 wrote: the Minispares 8 Port & the SC 7 porter for example are 5 axis machined from scratch.

the sc7 porter is chewed out of a solid lump, but the arden is a little more complicated

its cast 'just about finished', then the final bit is cnc'd (i.e chamber shape, the flat bits and the threads), with a tiny amount of hand finishing on the road version, a little more on the race version.

there is just enough meat left should the buyer wish to have a fiddle them selves

it would be possible for a skilled man to take a raw 'cast' arden and using the engineering drawings manually do all the finishing work - but it would take ages and cost a fortune!

goff wrote:How are heads gas flowed nowadays??? Are they still done by hand or are they done by computer on a machining centre?????

A few of the guys in these parts are doing some of the roughing out by CNC, then hand finishing. Barely worthwhile on one head, but on a batch it is. Of course, you do get a few heads that the cores had shifted beyond what the CNC program 'knows' about,,,,,,,

Your estimate on valuation mark is pretty much what I had in mind . ... Ken

mk1 wrote: A skilled head tuner will use various gauges & templates to ensure that his results are consistent, that & his skill & experience.

The image below is of one of Bryan Slarks demo heads that he did while at Downton, his "Hunger Gauges" can just be seen in the top of the image.

Hi Mark, would be really interesting to see these gauges/templates, but unfortunately the picture above does not show them...

What you refer to as "Hunger Gauges" (in the box) is the tool for cutting the valve seats. In the insert on top of the box we have the pilots and the cutters for this purpose and below in the box we see a blueish painted part which is the steady rest which goes along with the cutting head which should also be somewhere in this box...

The term "Hunger Gauge" comes probably from the fact that this very tool has been made by the german tool manufacturing company "Ludwig Hunger" from Munich.
(The box above is definitively one of theirs!)

Glad the Longman heads are back!

Ouch! These very quick green Longman short-stroke 850cc Mini's were driven by Neil Dineen and Peter Crouch,
photos were taken by me in the Brands Hatch paddock in the late 1970's.