Guest Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 I have a chance to buy a pair of merlin heads that where made for testing. These are new heads never been used. The only thing they need to be enlarged all the ports are small. My question is what would a machine shop charge me to enlarge these heads. The guys asking 685.00 for a pair but if the machine work cost alot then I'm thinking its really not a deal. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 What you are looking at is a full port job, most normal machine shops can't machine a port larger, that requires a roughly millon dollar 5 axis cnc machine, and as far as porting goes, if they don't build race engines or port heads on a regular basis, don't let them try it. if ported improperly a set of heads can ruined very quickly. if these heads are that small you would be looking at about $600 bucks worth of port work to open them up. for that kind of money get you some dart iron eagles, the merlins are ok but the darts are better.did you know that Dick Maskin owner of dart and Bill Mitchell owner of world products used to be partners. they split due to different visions of the companies future, Dick wanted to be the industry leader in aftermarket performance heads, Bill wanted to produce replacements for factory hipo heads that were getting hard to find and replace. so if you want a stock replacement type head go merlin, if you want performance go dart. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 Thanks Don I wasn't sure but I figured it would cost more to machine them. You just comfirmed that. Thanks again Jason ------------------ Jason's 1971 Monte chicagorodfathers.tripod.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 I didn't know the difference between these two heads when I bought my BB dart heads. Glad I got the right ones. Because I'm running them on a bored 396, I decided to polish them out and port and bore match them only. They are awesome. ------------------ George Lines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 George, the merlins have a much less effeicent port design. and an old stlye combustion chamber design. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallaby Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 How do these two heads stack up on a street motor? I have a set of oval port Merlins, and they made a world of difference on mine. My old 71 heads came with small valves, and they couldn't be fitted with larger valves and hardened seats. The cost of repairing my old heads was more than what I paid for the merlins. My target was low speed torque and fuel efficiency, since mine is my everyday driver. I am very happy with the Merlins; my only complaint is that they lack a set of bolt holes near the intake runners that Chevrolet used for my upper AC bracket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 If you are running the iron oval port merlins there is no iron oval port dart. there is a 265cc aluminun oval port, it flows much better than the merlins do. on the street or track dosen't change which head is better, the dart's are still better just changes what cam's in the motor and how much compression its got. the merlins are better than stock, and they are the only iron oval ports aftermarket. If you want iron and oval ports then you have to use the merlins,changing to the small rectangular port dart iron eagles would really surprise you!! Don [This message has been edited by Rice Racing (edited 03-24-2002).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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