Hey guys,

For anyone who's not familiar, a few months back I rebuilt a j35a3 block, with oversized high comp pistons, j37a1 crank and j37 rods. However, due to issues with leaking valves I opted to swap the valvetrain from used p2r ported heads to resurfaced hand ported heads.

Now back to the point of this thread.... I recently took advantage of p2r's 4th of July sale to acquire new Ferrea valves, oem head gaskets and a few other parts.

Now for the dilemna. Unfortunately, with my v6 prelude project going on I don't have funds for a professional valve job. So, I'm planning to first clean up the chambers and valve seats. Then start lapping the new valves to the heads. Next check for leaks with water, then rubbing alcohol.

Couple before pics:



With any luck the cleaning and lapping will be enough to hold water. Wish me luck guys...

 

Well, cleaned up the chambers and valve seats. Dropped in some valves and checked sealing by holding a light to the outside.. Seems like at least one seat will need more than just a valve lapping. So, going to set these aside and clean up some other heads for now.

 

Well pulled out some j35a3 heads had laying around (same p/n as auto CLS). Seems like these will work out better.




Hardly any light coming through

So, new plan: have a local machine shop clean and resurface heads. Then, I'll lap the valves, check for leaks. Lastly, reassmble heads with RL valve springs, retainers, rockers and cams. Yes, I just happen to have RL heads laying around too.

 

^
Nice pictures!
Good luck with your cylinder head efforts

 

Well, got the heads back from the machine shop couple days ago. Machinist said the castings were really good condition, and the mating surfaces were not warped, so he only took off .002" - .003".




Overall, I think they turned out well for 20+ yr old parts. So, now on to the next phase, valve lapping. Lastly just to clarify, the new intake valves are 36mm, not 35mm.

 

Finally had a day off after working the past week. Valves are lapped, leak checks complete. Valve stem seals and cam seals were replaced. Also picked up a new timing belt and P2R spacers for the RL cams.


Quick progress pic before starting re-assembly.

For reference the heads will be for a j35 motor I built a while back: 03 CLS block, 05 RL crank, BC j35 rods, 12:1 comp pistons.

 

So you created another set of usable CL-S equivalent heads by using the extra 'P8E' J35A3 castings and transferring over a combination of CL-S & RL upgrade components?
Pretty innovative!
Gunny Highway would be proud.

 

Basically yes. P8E (j35a3) bare heads. 05 RL cams, rockers, lost motion assemblies and valve springs. Valves: Ferrea 36mm intake | 30mm exhaust.

Technically the rockers and intake valve springs are the same part numbers as the CLS, I'm just opting for a fresher set.

Lastly, I re-calculated compression ratio to account for .003" of resurfacing. Static CR est is 12.14:1, which adjusted for elevation should be roughly 11.66:1.

 

Heads are reassembled with the previously mentioned components. Although, it may be a while until I put them to use.







Lastly, due to some life stuff I may be selling some spare parts in the near future, including p2r ported heads and some RL parts.

Later all.