Kaiser Supersonic head for l134

[Bomb City Dave]

So I scored on eBay a Kaiser Supersonic head for my l134. I live at 6400 feet where STP is around 11.8 psi and doing less than 50 mph on County Road 13 puts you in real danger from high school Harrys driving dad's Ram diesel. From what I've read this head and milling .030 inches from the head should result in a compression ratio in the upper 7:1 range and hopefully reducing risk from my local high Harry's on CD 13. What are your thoughts of doing the milling on the head?

 

[General Eisenhower]

My personal thought is to leave it as is. The supersonic is already the thinnest stock head that I'm aware of and I'm mostly thinking of the resale value of it, if you wanted to go with a stock or industrial head down the road. I'm actually running an industrial head in mine currently and it just seems to have more chug. I just cant imagine that you are really gonna be much safer around those reckless drivers with or without milling it. But that's just my worthless opinion lol

 

[Otto]

Does it still fit under the hood, or do you have to make room for it?

 

[Mark W.]

The stock Kaiser Super Sonic head is a 7-1 compression ratio head. I would cut it no more then required to make it flat if any at all. The Willys uber rare high altitude head was also a 7-1 head. SO you should make up a little lost by the thin air. I went a different route taking an uncut std. head and having .035" milled off it and .007" milled off the deck. Combined with my .060 over bores and a thin Fel Pro gasket I am (measured) at 7.2-1 static compression ratio.

 

[Bomb City Dave]

My personal thought is to leave it as is. The supersonic is already the thinnest stock head that I'm aware of and I'm mostly thinking of the resale value of it, if you wanted to go with a stock or industrial head down the road. I'm actually running an industrial head in mine currently and it just seems to have more chug. I just cant imagine that you are really gonna be much safer around those reckless drivers with or without milling it. But that's just my worthless opinion lol

Thank you General for your thoughts. Am amazed by the number of different heads produced! Jim Allen had a good discussion about getting more torque from an l134 in the Dispatcher magazine a while back. It seems to corroborate your thoughts.

 

[Bomb City Dave]

Does it still fit under the hood, or do you have to make room for it?

Nice play on words

 

[General Eisenhower]

Thank you General for your thoughts. Am amazed by the number of different heads produced! Jim Allen had a good discussion about getting more torque from an l134 in the Dispatcher magazine a while back. It seems to corroborate your thoughts.

Absolutely, like I said I've got an industrial head and that is the thickest with the most room in the compression chambers. However, there is only so much speed those engines are going to hand you, and safety disregarded, I just dont think it would be possible, mostly stock to keep up with traffic. I gave up trying.

 

[General Eisenhower]

But yes Dave, I too was kinda shocked to find all the heads that they produced for the single engine, and while the differences werent great, they were there and still fascinating

 

[Bomb City Dave]

The stock Kaiser Super Sonic head is a 7-1 compression ratio head. I would cut it no more then required to make it flat if any at all. The Willys uber rare high altitude head was also a 7-1 head. SO you should make up a little lost by the thin air. I went a different route taking an uncut std. head and having .035" milled off it and .007" milled off the deck. Combined with my .060 over bores and a thin Fel Pro gasket I am (measured) at 7.2-1 static compression ratio.

Thanks Mark, I like your approach and you must of had fun on this build. What I find interesting is the interest found with this group in flat fenders and it appears no one has approached providing a new set/marketing aluminum heads such as the willywilly/Vic Hickey/Brian Cynthia heads!!! Am sure there are some entrepreneurial folks in this fellowship.

 

[Bomb City Dave]

Thanks Mark, I like your approach and you must of had fun on this build. What I find interesting is the interest found with this group in flat fenders and it appears no one has approached providing a new set/marketing aluminum heads such as the willywilly/Vic Hickey/Brian Cynthia heads!!! Am sure there are some entrepreneurial folks in this fellowship.

I don't seem to get along with my spellchecker!!! Brian Chuchua!!!

 

[Mark W.]

I think the problem with something like marketing and aluminum head is the cost to create is so high and the number that might be sold so unsure that no one wants to take the risk.

A head would have to offer something besides say 7.5-1 compression (as I think you could get there with a stock head milled and some other work like Decking. You can't move the valves so improving the combustion chamber is a tough one to do.

With out a doubt the 134L is limited in what you can get out of it if you stick with normal aspiration. A turbo while it would be easy enough to adapt one to a 134L is really onl y benificial at RPMS above what is used anywhere but blasting down the Hwy.

A Blower Roots style or Centrifugal will improve HP right from the get go. BUT Blowers are expensive. I have looked at some of the small import Blowers that you can buy for a couple hundred refurbished and thought that would be an option combined with something like the small Holley Sniper FI unit that is self contained and learns on its own. But again your looking at a pretty expensive engine that wouldn't do what a Bone stock 2bbl Chev 283 makes. But for MUCH more money.

No for me this is about as far as I would go with a 134L unless I could get a cam that improved the 1000-3000rpm HP and Torque. But hey bench racing is always fun.

As built I am expecting to see about 20-25 more drawbar HP.

I have done a lot of small things to gain that.

Increase engine displacement to 140 cu in 4.25% larger engine
increase compression from 6.48-1 to 7.2-1
improve carburation and true plenum manifold and cold air induction
improved the exhaust with a tuned TRI Y Header and 2.25" mandel bent exhaust and flow though muffler
Fan delete
Fuel pump delete
improved ignition Magnetic trigger, captive discharge spark box, Booster gap plugs, 40K volt Coil, and indexed plugs
The engine has been spin balanced from Crank Pulley to Pressure plate

 

[Bill D]

I think at some point we all have to make the decision for any particular flatly as to whether it is going to be basically stock, and kept off the highway for the most part, or if we’re after more of a “driver” that could get closer to keeping up with traffic. In my case that bridge was crossed by a prior owner back in 1979 when they dropped in the Chevy 153. I don’t think it is practical to try and get there with the L134, just too many limitations. I would very much like to own a flat fender that was original enough for a restoration, (an M38 in particular), but if I was going to build another “driver” I’d most likely swap out the L134 for a different engine, as the advantages of the 153 have become quite clear to me since I’ve owned this one.

 

[Bomb City Dave]

Hey Bill, thanks for your thoughts as it brought me back to being grateful for what I do have. my 2a is a blast to drive as is. twenty years ago I turned a cj6 into a pretty capable hot rod that gets up and down the highway pretty well and performs well on the trail. It was a long process building that capability. It struck me that I have good performance with the cj6, why go back through that process. so the kaiser head made a nice boost in torque and I'm enjoying driving it. what fun!

 

[Bomb City Dave]

A follow up, so I moved from the high plains of Colorado, 6800 feet to the panhandles area, 3800 feet. No changes to the 2a including af ratio and found a nice improvement in driveability. See my comments on brakes which was also a nice plus.