Joeyboost

And its a fresh water cooled system or closed loop?

F-2 Speedy

iTrader: (6)

Call around to some of the engine shops and see if they have a nice set of 088 heads

BBYSTWY

502 bad block iron rectangle heads sw florida - Offshoreonly.com

Might be worth checking into this? Not sure what's there or if they are in good shape but maybe worth checking?

Not sure about anodes in the aluminums in fresh water...just sharing advice given to me when I was in the market for heads....I'm sure there are plenty of people that run them with no issues in salt and fresh just sharing what I was told by a couple people.

Knot 4 Me

Fresh water 489's. No anodizing. Runs on a Central IL lake and LOTO.

Joeyboost

Spoke to my machine shop again and hes going to confirm he can source all that is needed to repair my stock iron heads and if not then I will worry about aftermarket I just don't want to find out when its too late. I have the edelbrock performer RPM's in my summit cart waiting to hit send.

Can I put inconel valves in my stock iron heads and just make them the best possible? I don't know who could port them for me in my area with a quick turn-around. Quick turn-around these days doesn't seem to exist.

But I would be into the edelbrocks for well over 4K if I have to go that route and to have to worry about corrosion I kinda don't want that. Anodes im not sure how you could do that for the inside of the engine?

F-2 Speedy

iTrader: (6)

dont waist your money trying to port those iron heads the juice ain't worth the squeeze

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

Keep in mind the edlebrock 61559 out of box unported are stones flpwing ONLY 284/207 cfm at .500 lift and 297/228 at .600 lift coming in almost identical in perfomance to box stock iron rectangle ports! So dont expect any measurable performance gain if you dont have them ported. I dont want to scare you on this either BUT as another engine builder said to me, for some reason they seem like they "melt like sugar cubes in coffee". Some heads advertise " A356-T6 virgin alloy", edlebrock just says "aluminum" in their description. I rebuilt a 540 that had them a while back, 100% fresh water open cooling use, they were quite eroded around water ports. They cleaned up enough to seal when we milled them but told him you probably wont be so lucky next time. I have another set that saw salt water here, of course there unrepairable. I have 2 sets here off a pair of 540s Im rebuilding for a OSO member from Virginia that has closed cooling, there fine fwiw, Smitty

xlint89

I've been in the same boat as you for going on 2 years now. Couldn't source parts to get the engine together last year and keep getting pushed back this season. I'm getting really worried now. Although I've been told work has begun on mine.

New to me/used HP 500 engine. Ran it for 1 season and developed a tick in the top end. Called it an early season and yanked the engine. Long story short, was a salt engine, had rotted intake manifold that couldn't even hold a thermostat. Block was in poor shape, very thin between the cyls, so it was replaced with a new one. Valve seats were pitted from water intrusion. (most likely reversion) and needed to rebuild the stock heads, OR go A/M.

Wanted Iron Eagles but builder didn't want them unless they were new old stock. Said Dart switched casting foundries and were going through problems with them.

Merlin cast irons I was told didn't perform much better than the stock heads, and were very heavy. Not worth the additional cost.

Ended up finding a set of bare Promaxx aluminum heads. Was told getting valves for them was difficult last year.

So yes, I do feel your pain.

As far as anodes to protect the internals, they sell pencil anodes that can be installed into the intake manifold.

https://www.cpperformance.com/p-2748...it-w-plug.aspx

ICDEDPPL

iTrader: (1)

Aren`t all mercury engines aluminum heads ? I don`t see people changing them every 3 years .. ive never heard of that on lake michigan either .
Iron heads you can forget finding those .
Id Call Teague and ta;k to them , they are very informative and sometimes I get BOB himself on the horn.
Is Big Al still on here ?
he sells a nice set of heads marine ready ..

smokediver

mercury close cools aluminum headed engines