I pulled out the new EMPI GTV-2 Cylinder Heads to prep them.
I’m so used to dirty filthy heads (at least with the ones from the AR, AH, and AJ engines, that a brand spanking new 0 mile head, even if it is EMPI, is a nice thing to hold. There have the larger stainless steel 40mm intake and 35.5 exhaust valves, as well as hi-rev springs and take 12mm 3/4″ reach spark plugs, They have a “competition valve job” but of course, I cannot find an exact detailed description of what that consists of at all. 3 angle valve job? 5? Who knows,
Both heads disassembled easily since there is zero grime or wear on any of the components.
There’s not much in the way of casting lines to remove, and quite frankly, the ports, though they aren’t polished smooth, are probably fine just the way they are for this stockish engine.
I figure I’ll find time later this summer to learn to port and polish one of the old heads off of the AJ2 or AR engines. Perhaps someday in the future I’ll come back to these.
Now my new SCAT C20 cam came as a complete kit, with SCAT lifters and SCAT high rev springs. While they were packaged as-is, they seem a bit taller (left side) than the EMPI ones I removed (center of pic), The EMPI’s are shorter but that may just be because they’ve been compressed for who knows how long. Both are definitely more robut than the stock spring (on the right).
The casting looks pretty much identical to the VW head that came off the AJ #2 engine. Perhaps a few small refinements but they definitely look similar.
I’ll get these washed up tomorrow and lap the valves.
Then on to prepping the SCAT 1.25 ratio 4140 forged rockers. I’ll probably clean up the original AH engine’s stock 1:1 rockers. I have a set of EMPI 1.4 ratio rockers as well. I’ve been told that any of the 3 will work fine, and the guy at SCAT said he’d go with the 1.25 ones. I still haven’t figured out if I’ll have to get and make custom sized pushrods if I go to the high ration ones or not given this engine configuration.