Here is what we found while working with a fellow T guy on his T today. Is this a reader head?

And are the two middle steam holes supposed to be drilled open like every other head?

Could be an alloy Reeder head. They were marked 'Reeder' inside the water outlet.

And that center extra long port can be an issue with gasket sealing... Ford heads and other alloy high compression heads only have one port in the middle.

See this older post.

http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/411944/441699.html?1401166099

Eric, it looks much like the Reader head on my speedster. If there has never been an issue with the head warping between 2 and 3 cylinders, someone has been lucky. In my experience, and others, that water passage between the cylinders is the source of much pain. The cure is to weld it closed, reface the head and drill just the usual steam holes.

Hope this helps.

Allan from down under.

Erich;

The short answer is 'yes'.

Erich,
That's a Reeder head. A nice find because it is an early one with the Ford script. Later ones didn't have that because of the licensing headaches with FMC.

I had one of those Reeder heads on my '15 Touring for the 10 years I had the car, with no problems at all. It had the same "4" near the water outlet. As far as I know, it's still on the car 5 years later.

They are good heads. Mine gave the car a lot of pep, much like a Z head.

I've used a Reeder head, with the wide water passage as shown, with no problems. Been on for maybe 5 years now.

I have had one on my 1915 since 2001. Runs great, no issues.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but is that head aluminum or cast iron?

Thanks
Justin

It's alu. Reeder heads are no longer in production. I think it's only Prus heads that's offered in both alu and cast iron.

(Message edited by Roger K on August 04, 2015)

Justin in South Africa....Not a dumb question at all..it is definitely an Aluminum Head.
Keith

The block had a steam hole plugged on one end, and the head has the two central stem holes blocked up solid. Could this be part of the reason this engine would spit out water after heating up a while?

Also, the surface has some kind of very hard "sealing" gunk on it from the head gasket. No solvent I have will deal with it at all. I think it needs to be surfaced. I've had this done with iron heads and the shop boiled them out so they looked new again. What is the best process to safely do this with an aluminum head? This has lots of rusty crusty in it.