It has been a while since we debated the merits and demerits of the lack of camshaft shell bearings and cam follower bore sleeves in the new Twin Cam cylinder heads made by SAS Engineering and retailed by Burton. Has anyone actually built an engine with one of these heads yet? If so, do you have flow bench and dynamometer data that might be shared?
for those that missed it the discussion is located
If no one can produce the test figures, I for one would settle for the actual dimensions of the ports… I still don’t have word on the delivery of my CNC ported head so may need an option.
George
New heads are now also available from Dave Bean. I have seen the head and also a Dyno sheet from MWE showing 204 BHP on a 1600 unit on carbs!! Torque was also really flat and high.
Check Daves site for availability.
Dave Hughes
26-R-9
These cylinder heads are made on the east coast (of the US) and I have seen one being built into a 2 litre turbocharged TC using a Jennings BDG block with Nikasil plated cylinder bores. Not a cheap effort. I don’t know how available these heads really are. They do not have iron or steel liners for the cam follower bores but are machined to take the standard shell bearings for the cams.
Hi guys,
Just to clarify regarding the other thread, we are still doing our new Lotus Twin Cam cylinder heads, fully machined at a cost of ?2,275 plus VAT (where applicable) and shipping. Our head does require cam bearings but we have done this as replacing the bearings costs very little when compared to the cost replacing cam caps and repairing the cam housing should the worst happen…
As I’m sure most of you know, our head is produced using the original Lotus tooling (for which we have the sole rights too) and is the only head that will ever be true to pattern. If you click the link above, you’ll be able to get a closer look at the head in a video we recently added.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask 
Thats a great thing to hear. That’s 3 completely different heads being produced for the market. I have not seen any tests done on the new heads from SAS or the Ted Wentz head sold by Dave Bean. I have heard that the first batch of 20 (Wentz/Bean) has been sold and another batch is in the works. I don’t know what the money is on the SAS or the Wentz head for that matter but they are all probably close enough that it doesn’t much matter. I guess if I were looking I’d be calling around to find out more on all aspects. The one thing I did hear was the Wentz head had done something done to make it a bit easier to get some high lift race cams in the head without breaking into the intake ports.
Gary
4 heads if you include the Weber conversion of Stromberg head done by John McCoy. A little competition is great !!!
I would love to get the 4 side by side with a good original head and measure them up properly to compare the differences.
The challenge of the inlet springs pocket base breaking through to the inlet port is no longer really a problem due to the need to lower the spring pocket with high lift cams as modern springs can accomodate 0.5 inch lift cams on a 0.98 inch base circle in the standard spring pocket. However the problem still exists as people want to open up the inlet port to take advantage of the bigger flow and they hit the original pocket base. Good porting changes the shape of the port to fit under the spring pocket but moving the port down in the head would also help. Not much room to move the spring pocket up without a major redesign of the whole head in which case is it really an “original twin cam”?
cheers
Rohan
As far as we’re aware, the Wentz/Bean head and the SAS head are one and the same - both made by SAS.