I've picked up an oval port A14 head (no water galleys to carb manifold) and the rear water ports have corroded through too close to the cylinder.

I'll probably take the head to get sliced to use as research into porting and flow.

How do they cut these normally? A drop saw sounds a bit rough, can they be laser cut?

I need a clean crisp cut to show wall thicknesses throughout.

I plan on drawing the head in sections for the benefit of other members so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would assume cuts through the ports would be the most valuable sections, agree??

Laser or water cut would be the nicest with minimul material loss. Or a good engineer on a mill with a thin side&face cutter/sliting saw

Cheers, thats waht I'm looking for.

The university has just installed a laser cutter. Now I have to get friendly with the workshop technicians so I can actually use it for the benefit of research!

Doubt you'll get it laser cut...most laser cutters will cut no more than 10mm in aluminum due to refraction, even then you get a slightly angled cut.
Water cut has a max of around 150mm... could be a go, but maybe if yr strapped for cash just chuck it on a bandsaw eh?

The ones I've seen were cut on a bandsaw.

Cut mine on a bandsaw.

Cheers.

Band saw it is.

A wood band saw will cut it ok.Metal better but reasonably hi speed ok.
Skip tooth blade best.Remove the valve guides esp if using a wood saw.
I have some cutting grease I used to apply when cutting a lot of Al so it wouldn't pick up on the blade.
If you are stuck I can do it for you at work.(Civil Eng. Sydney Uni)
I have a few old a12 heads I plan to do similar to re a crossflow design.
H.

Hey old fart,

That sounds like a good plan. I could post the head to you and you could cut it along with the A12 heads and re-send (postage on me). You'd get the AutoCad drawings first.

I have access to the workshop at uni but at the moment things are quiet so it's hard to sneak work in.

PM me if you want to go ahead with this?

Chris

I sliced many vw heads with a "drop saw" but with it standing up like a normal bandsaw, you only need a little platform to support the material.