1500 Cylinder Head on 1300 Block

[mydan]

Hello there,

I have recently come into a complete small crank GE 1300 engine block, and I have a near complete late 1500 cylinder head spare, not a 1300.

I am going to be stripping it down and rebuilding from scratch, but I am wondering what tweaks I would need to consider to marry the two - (i.e. skimming / timing advance/retardation etc / NOTHING!)... Hoping to work on the back of others experience or expert opinion!

Any advice would be very welcome!

Thanks

Dan

[Clive]

It will need skimming, or it will be running a very low compression ratio ( about 8:1)

1300 heads are not rare, nor expensive. I have give a few away recently........

Easiest is to get a 1300 head, or the 1500 skimmed if it has been converted to unleaded or whatever.
Bear in mind you will need pushrods to match the head thickness.

[thebrookster]

Yeah, as Clive says, it will need skimming, and therefore shorter push rods.

The 1300 and 1500 heads are pretty much identical AFAIK, other than the 1500 head being taller to account for the increased compression ratio the longer stroke gives. So if you skim the head to match a 1300 compression ratio, then you will only have problems with the pushrods, timing etc will remain the same.

You CAN run the head as it is, remember the American's had Spitfire with low compression ratio's to account for emission rules, but you will lose power by taking this option. (This option will require the engine to be retuned, I suspect!)

Cheers,

Phil

[mydan]

Thanks for the advice guys :)

I fancy the skimmed head route as the valves as far as I remember are slightly larger, and the head also allows the use of inch and half SUs, not just inch and a quarter.  (Open to being wrong on that one!)

As I don't have a 1300 head to hand, I need to find out how much to skim off, I'm sure I remember a site that either had exact measurements or a quick rule formula.

I would guess around 2mm to 3mm, but do you have any robust ideas?

Thanks again

Dan