Lancia Motor Club

Because of various little niggling problems I decided to finally remove the cylinder head and see just what is going on down there. Apart from minor things like valve seats need changing the biggest worry is that in places the aluminium has been severely eaten away by corrosion leaving pin holes and diminished wall thickness in a couple of places.
There is a distinct lack of specialists in this part of the world so it is not possible to find anyone prepared to try welding the problem areas - if indeed it is at all possible. Has anyone had Aluminium welding repairs done to cylinder heads in the UK?

Hi John, nasty enough, this is something Chugga in N Wales could answer, if you want his number please pm me,

P

Hi John email me tim348@aol.com as I can give you two recommendations on alloy welding and not expensive. They in Essex UK. Tim

Thanks for the responses.
I'm now thinking  it may be more sensible to get a replacement head, Jim at the Appia consortium is looking into that possibility.
The corrosion is not just in easy to get at places, looking into all the various cooling channels it is now obvious that there could well be future problems. The sand blasting done by the people who were hopefully going to weld it has exposed some very weak looking areas. Even disregarding the corrosion the quality of the whole casting is very poor.

One other thing I've just noticed is what appears to be a date stamp on the head (see pic below) -  02 12 63. In which case it would not be the original, the car being a 1961 model, not important - just curious.

Sorry for the late response  just seen your post. An 814 head will be expensive to buy  there is a man near Rimini who may be able to help.
If you want his info please email. I have had Appia heads repaired they need to be silcone sealed as the aluminium
is really past it’s sell by date .

I have a replacement head on the way now but the silicone sealing option sounds interesting -
something for the future maybe.

Can anyone recommend a UK company to seal a B20 head casting I have which is porous please? I imagine this involves heat and vacuum and is therefore not a DIY operation.
Thanks
Chris

I've used these before for master cylinders. Worth giving them a ring first to discuss.

Impregnation Services Ltd
'Porosity Sealing Solutions'
Unit 1 Cowhill Industrial Estate, Cowhill Lane,
Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, OL6 6HH
Tel : +44 (0)161 344 1004
Fax: +44 (0)161 344 2428

http://www.impregnation.co.uk/

This can be repared with cold metal spraying - see my posts in the Lambda forum on the technical information thread.  I had extensive work on the Lambda block and it has been entirely successful.
http://dycomet.co.uk/about-us.html     explains the process and
http://www.cylinderheads.co.uk/    is the man (Nick Gilfillan) who does it in the UK and is thouroughly reccommended by me.