Paul wrote,
>From: "Paul Heuer" <p_heuer@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Alpines and Geminis
>
>Jarrid, and other OHC devotees,
>I placed the Alpine head gasket onto the Gemini head. It is near enough to
>convince you the motors are related, but there are significant differences
>too.
>
>I'll try to take some pics in the next day or two.
>
>For now:
>1. Head bolts. They line up pretty well in the centre of the head, but the
>bolt holes at both ends are off by half the diameter of the hole. Could be
>due to "metric-ification" of the design.
>
>2. Coolant passages. The crescent-shaped passages along the side of the
head
>match up. The Alpine has a passage between each bore, whereas the Gemini
has
>multiple, smaller passages further out to the edge of the head (probably a
>lesson learned there). The big coin-sized hole in middle of the Alpine head
>is not there on the Gemini head.
>
>3. OHC vs OHV gear. Obviously quite some difference where the tappets and
>rods were for the OHV gear. But there is nothing fundamentally in the way
>here. And of course the timing chain area means that the water pump doesn't
>mount to the head on the Gemini.
>
>4. I didn't have time to pull out my spare Alpine head, but judging by the
>cut-outs in the gasket where it fits around the bores, the valve layout is
>quite different between the two. I guess this is to be expected as a
>consequence of the change to a cross-flow design.
>Cheers,
>Paul.
Paul, this sounds very promising.
If I interpret your description correctly, it sound like the biggest issue
is with a misallignment of the
head bolts.
The 1/2 bolt diameter could be fixed by machining the holes in the head to
accomodate to different
positions.
Cant wait to see the pictures.
Perhaps we could get a rubbing too?
BTW, would it be possible to find the model number of the engine from which
the head came?
I wonder if there might be a closer match to an even earlier head.
Perhaps later models were just stretched versions of the earlier engine.
Clearly you have done us a great service!
Thx Paul!
Jarrid Gross
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