I have a rebuilt 52 head and was wondering if I can use it in my 53. The shop manual says they are not interchangeable. ?????
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I have a rebuilt 52 head and was wondering if I can use it in my 53. The shop manual says they are not interchangeable. ?????
That is in the shop manual?! I would think they are interchangeable. I had heard that the '53 was slightly improved for a gain of 5HP, but I cannot confirm that! The parts manual shows the standard trans. head interchanging from '50 to 53 for use with aluminum pistons. Don't know why.
I would say yes too , its interchangable... like all 263ers...
I've heard, the only differend is that they start in '53 with testing the new alu pistons for the next year starting nailhead.
Hi Ben,
The manual says;
"For the 1953 production, slight changes in the shape of all piston heads and cylinder head combustion chambers have provided increased compression ratios without adversely affecting detonation characteristics. Modification of the combustion chambers permitted relocation of the spark plugs 5/16" nearer the center of the chambers, thereby shortening the effective flame travel."
"The 1953 engine is identical with the 1952 engine except for the non-interchangeability of pistons and cylinder head"
I am going to pull the head this weekend and I'll compare the two. Iknow the new head is from a 1952 263, but that is all I know.
If possible, perhaps you can take pictures of them side by side and post. Would be interesting.
Ben
You could probably do a quick casting numbers check on the 2 heads to see if they are the same casting number, this would reduce the doubt of interchangeability by at least half if they are the same.
Maybe time for a rebuild???
frank, thanks for the pictures. The piston/block pictures look good. I can not make much of the head pics. Was hoping for a side-by-side comparison. Can you see the difference?
May I inquire the reason you wanted to install the new [rebuilt?] head? From what one can see of the block, the engine is pretty clean. Is there much of a ridge at the top of the cylinders? Perhaps mic the cylinders to determine wear.
Ben