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TA Heads in the works
Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 12:51 am
by Greg55_99
Jsut got this from the V8 Buick Board..... Oooooooo....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizkid45/s ... 492905026/
Greg
Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 4:56 pm
by ChrisJC
I don't know anything about this, but I would have thought that it could all be done with CAD these days, not making up stuff by hand.
Chris.
Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 5:24 pm
by HairbearTE
Nice link Gregg. I guess since they've done most of the R+D already with the V6 head it was left mostly to them just to make the tooling for the V8 head. Does anyone know if TA already have a UK distributor?
Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 5:30 pm
by ian.stewart
Im certain TA do not have an agent over here, when I delt with them, they had a EMail address, but whatever you ask, you get an email back saying please phone,
http://www.taperformance.com/www/PDF/TA ... atalog.pdf
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 8:24 am
by crayefish
ooohh very nice. I wonder how they will flow compared to stage III rover heads...
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 9:09 am
by CastleMGBV8
I think you can find flow data on the V6 heads on the TA Performance site and as the heads are effectively the V6 ones with one additional cylinder per head the flow potential should be the same.
The problem of comparison is getting any accurate flow data from any of the UK head modifiers.
The V6 heads have proved to be very effective and TA produce all the nice valve gear bits to go with them.
Kevin.
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 9:19 am
by Wotland
As I understand TA heads will be similar to Wildcat heads who itself are Buick V6 Heads with one more cylinder.
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 10:35 am
by HairbearTE
The problem of comparison is getting any accurate flow data from any of the UK head modifiers.
Kevin.[/quote]
Even if you could It would likely be Irrelavent. Certainly Real Steel used to use a flow bench that pulled only 10". DJE who did a lot of testing to make their own heads had a bench that pulled about 25" I believe. RPI get their headwork done for them so that is an unknown, so as you can see copmaring various guys figures wouldn't really be of any use. I spoke to Dave at DJE about this subject when I bought a piece of his old flow bench and he said once up and running he would share some of his data so I could see how my bench was performing etc., I'm sure he wouldn't want me to publish it on the net though! (and I wouldn't).
As to the performance potential of the TA heads vs stage 3 rover heads I would think the TAs will stomp allover the stage 3s. Buick V6s with those heads flow enough to feed 1000+ hp in turbo applications so we have to be optimistic! Another interesting comparison will be the time it takes TA to put their heads into production from when they first announced they would make 'em. The current record of 10+ years by Real Steel for the Merlin heads concept>shelf would not appear to be under threat!

Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 10:57 am
by CastleMGBV8
Bear,
Your absolutely right, the figures often quoted can mean nothing if not done back to back and not done on the same flow bench with all parameters the same.
The figure for the turbo V6 TA full race heads is 1700 BHP by the way, and this is proven in competition.
I think it will be interesting to see what a pair of TA heads will produce on a large capacity 5L + Rover engine, purely academic from my point of view but still quite exciting to see the development potential of the old Buick based engine taken a few steps further but of course Wildcat have done a lot of work here but there engine does not have much Rover left if you use their 4" bore block and internals as well.
If anyone went the TA route you could probably get the heads and valve gear for approx $2500.00 which is pretty competitive, all you need is money.
Kevin.