Hi Mike,

Just a picture of a CR head from my files.
Have you compared a 6.7L head to a 5.9L CR head? Any differences with respect to the intake manifold? Intake ports, exhaust ports?

Those spool-aid pipes get hammered & epoxied in place. Should be ok but only time will tell. Welding would be better but not easy with the head still in the truck.
If the head is off, you might as well get the intake machined off.

It doesn't look like that hard of a job for a local machine shop to mill off the intake. Humphries or Aerotech here in Calgary should be able to handle that procedure I would think.
Then a guy should be able to carefully drill & tap the head for a bolt-on side intake.


Does anyone else think that an aftermarket aluminum CNC ported CR head would sell like hotcakes? Fully ported, evenly matched ports, side intake, save approx 140-160lbs in weight.

Aluminum heads have done fine on the Duramax since the beginning. The aftermarket aluminum head market is huge for gas engines.
I've have TFS CNC aluminum heads on my 5.0L for over 10 years.

 

Well, you won't save 140-160 lbs, as the a fully loaded head doesn't weigh that. You'd have to make the head out of helium for that effect, and I don't think it would work well.

Brett has a friend that is looking into doing aluminum heads for the cummins, just needs an influx of cash to get it off the ground. I was gonna talk to him about it, but being unemployed for 4 months straight just won't let that happen.

 

Just hacking off the plenum cuts the weigh down by 20lbs. A good port job is probably another 20-25lbs. Yes it easy to hack off the intake, but has to be a decent job, as you need to bolt something back up. As for an intake, I would do a home grown intake or something that would have intake headers

As for differences between heads, is yes there are differences. I would need a dozen or so pics, but primarily the 24v head is unchanged from 98.5 to 11. Yes there are small things, the 6.7L suppose to have more coolant areas inside. There are few other differences as well, minor stuff.

I can easily show you a 24VP vs a 24CR head, as I have a 02 SO and 03 HO engines sitting in my garage. I been trying to figure out a way to get a CR engine into a 2nd gen truck.

 

Just rough numbers...

Doesn't a fully loaded cast iron CR head weigh about 280lbs?
Aluminum weighs about 1/2 of cast iron plus the cast iron intake gets replaced with a light weight aluminum side intake.

For my 302/5.0L small block Ford. The 2 stock cast iron heads are about 50lbs each. 2 TFS aluminum heads are about 25lbs each.

 

They are probably around 100 lbs. or so. I can lift a head by myself without too much strain. No way I could lift 280 lbs.

 

whoa. ah no.

I have 3 12v heads in my garage right now. maybe all 3 of them weight slightly over 280lbs. a series60 head doesn't even weigh 280lbs.

 

Luke, if you want those 12v heads adjusted, I heading out to the coast in the next few weeks. I can drop them off for ya. I'm going to try a chinese head out. They suppose to have more meat in the right areas. Haven't had too good of luck with used core heads as of late. Must go thru two to three cores until I find a good one.

Joe, we have to figure out a test for that spool air just to see if it actually works, without installing it on a truck. I have a few ideas...

 

Sorry gents, I stand corrected....


A 100lbs sounds really light though. 1 of my iron small block Ford heads is 50lbs.

Hey Mike, got a scale handy to weigh a fully assembled 24V or CR head??


BTW, my stock intercooler is still in my truck, haven't installed the new one yet.

 

Yup, sure do. How loaded of a head you want to weigh? Injectors, injector lines, fuel rails, heater grids, air horns.

Just incase your wondering, the CR engine/head is heavier than a 12v. I think the newer trucks slowly gain weigh each and every year. Once you get the two engines side by side, it becomes pretty clear which engine weighs less.

 

CNC porting on cummins heads has been tried several times, and always fails do to the same reason. Casting shift, the castings in these heads are terribly unrepeatable. One time you may run the program, and be left with an .080" wall and the next time you may go through a water jacket.

Yes once Dave he has some investment capital in his hands will start on an aluminum head, that I have no doubts will be superior to the current offering from indy. The guys that will be working on prototyping with him, builds top fuel Harley heads, as his business. As well as has a well renowned head porter that has done porting and head development for everything from turbo porches to the cummins, he has worked at a number of the big diesel shops setting up there head departments, and developed a lot of the current cummins porting standards. Dave has a good team in place, now it just comes down to dollars.

Aluminum is typically about 1/3rd the weight of steel, but an aftermarket aluminum head will have more meat and be taller for better port design then a stock head, and as such will probably end up at about half the weight.

 

[QUOTE=StealthDiesel;2901972]Just rough numbers...

Doesn't a fully loaded cast iron CR head weigh about 280lbs?

wieght of crd head loaded is 185 lbs i just shipped one

 

Brett, I think that worked head 12V down at Dave is around 80-90lbs. It noticably lighter than a stocker. Its one cool project that Dave has on the go. Been lots of interest out there for one. I'm not as interested in a lighter head, just one that flow decent amount of air. Probably the biggest reason why there aren't to many 1500rwhp cummins out there.

 

After I cut the intake off of my 12v head it weighed around 90 lbs. The chunk chopped off weighed in at 12.6 lbs. Just weighed it! Not much to report on getting work done on the 12v unfortunately....

 

Brett, those twins that we built last fall fit nicely on my 03 5.9L CR engine. Even the brace worked nicely. Going to try a 6.7L next....

 

I'm gonna need a set to fit in a superduty next year.