MTFCA Forum

I think I am going to stay with the stock cast iron head but does anyone make a cast iron high compression head for the T?

\If you shave the head you increase compression a little but the cooling system runs fairly close to the bottom. If you take off too much you coiuld cause a coolent leak into the block (cylenders).

A Low head has slight higher compression than a high head.

“I hopped up” my 21 Touring with a low head that I bought with a 17 engine. If I remember. the earlier T’s with the low heads had about a one HP boost then the later high head T’s.

Of course a T’s weight has a little to do with its performance. We have to remember a stock T is around 20 HP more or less and there is only so much you can do with 20-21 hp.

If you mill a high head you might get closer to the performance of a low head. BUT that’s my opinion and others will have theirs. Max milling on a high head is 60 thousands or so I’ve read.

Model T Ron wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 27, 2023 11:37 pm

I think I am going to stay with the stock cast iron head but does anyone make a cast iron high compression head for the T?

Altho I'm assuming you're not into a rebuild...but..why not use H.C. PISTONS? That's what I got on two of my Ts, but of course that was at rebuild time. However, "everyone" tells me you can swap out pistons with the engine in the car, it just aint super easy. Depends I guess on how badly you want this extra power I guess.

A period Waukesha head will have a vastly improved combustion chamber and yet adds very little additional compression. It gives very solid performance improvement with little to no additional stress on the bearings. I love them. And they're cast iron.

Compression aside, the stock T combustion chamber is about as bad as they get.

Scott_Conger wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:41 am

A period Waukesha head will have a vastly improved combustion chamber and yet adds very little additional compression. It gives very solid performance improvement with little to no additional stress on the bearings. I love them. And they're cast iron.

Does anyone make them today or do you just need to find an original? Does anyone have a photo of a Waukesha head?

some good pix and info here: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80 ... 1239063958
and here: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/25 ... 1350846062

they were made in the same time frame as the T for both T cars and some industrial engine/agricultural uses