The V8 Owners Forum -

Maybe they are, but they aleady have a CNC machine capable of finishing off the raw castings. I strongly suspect that the heads are on 'back order'. i.e. whoever casts them will only take an order for a minimum of 10,20 or 50 pairs etc., and that Real Steel are no way going to place the order until they themselves have taken a good few orders (and presumably payments) themselves. It is quite common procedure in the parts industry when slow moving, high cost parts are involved. Real steel does not want £20K sitting on the shelf unsold for the unforseeable future, especially in these times.

shame they are killing off markret for them before they start by doing so! (see first post in this thread!)
Mike

Hi,
How about these on Fleabay in the 'Good Old US of A' will they fit a Rover block

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PAIR-Bui ... enameZWDVW

Postage wont be cheap though
Cheers John

yes they will bolt on but the combustion chambers are far too large so work has to be done to get the CR back up.

Combustion chambers on the Buick heads are by memory 54cc compared to 37cc on SD1 heads and 29cc on 4.6 with composite gaskets.

I got my 300 heads down to 36cc by welding up the combustion chambers behind the spark plug aperture, and milling the heads 080. With metal Buick 300 head gaskets the CR is 9.23:1 with standard 4.6 pistons.

Hi, that C,N C JOB, Is it going to happen! I cant see it , costs just aint goint to ballance out. Charls has been on this for years, is he reinventing the wheel!. lets just go for the easy point guys.DB

Well Im not impressed with Real Steel and their attitude.
They have been stringing me along for months. Even a week ago I was told that it could be as soon as 3 week until I get some heads.
Twice they said they would phone me and twice they didnt bother.
Now they say they cant afford a new machine and the next lot of heads will be next year at the earliest.
Their customer care stinks.

Rant over

I forsee a time in the future when the Real Steel merlin heads are among the most rare and sought after of all Rover speed parts! Has Gav still got his set?

Well Im not impressed with Real Steel and their attitude.
They have been stringing me along for months. Even a week ago I was told that it could be as soon as 3 week until I get some heads.
Twice they said they would phone me and twice they didnt bother.
Now they say they cant afford a new machine and the next lot of heads will be next year at the earliest.

Any recent changes ?

When I wanted to speak to John recently I was told that he and others were on a course on how to use the new CNC machine FWIW.
Kevin.

Excuse me for being thick, but what's the difference between the Wildcat and Merlin heads?

Rich,

Real Steel maufacture the Merlin Heads for about £1200 a pair and wildcat heads are from Wildcat Engineering and are more radical and much more expensive.

There will also be some new heads becoming available from TA Performance in the States which they suggest will outflow the Wildcat heads at around $2000 a pair complete.

Probably will be at least 6 months before they become available but they will be similar to the Buick V6 heads they have.

Kevin.

Thanks for the heads-up, Kevin. I thought the £1200 for the Merlin's were expensive enough .

I'll keep an eye on the TA Performance ones. Shame the exchange rate has gone t1ts up...

Rich,

Something I forgot to mention is that with the Merlin heads you can use rover type manifolds, at least for the inlet side, not so sure about the exhaust.

The Wildcats require their own manifolds, as for the TA Performance I've not heard what will be required.

Kevin.

CastleMGBV8 wrote:Rich,

Real Steel maufacture the Merlin Heads for about £1200 a pair and wildcat heads are from Wildcat Engineering and are more radical and much more expensive.

There will also be some new heads becoming available from TA Performance in the States which they suggest will outflow the Wildcat heads at around $2000 a pair complete.

Probably will be at least 6 months before they become available but they will be similar to the Buick V6 heads they have.

Kevin.

I'd be suprised if TA market a head that outflows a wildcat head without offering something a little milder too. Unlike the Buick V6 market 1 in every 2 RV8's is not turbo'd up to 1000hp and the wildcat head is already too much for most rover V8's. The Merlin is aimed at a much bigger market and they still can't get them built!