P79 Head : Your honest opinion

[mikemerkury]

About to press the trigger on what look like an almost virgin P79 head. Was told that it was removed from a 5k miles engine. The head look new including the cam, no apparent machine work done to it. Price is 150$ and i am on a tight engine rebuilt budget. Is this a good deal ?

[Arne]

Many people diss the round port heads automatically, but IMO for a street motor the shape of the chamber and size of the valves is probably more important than the shape of the exhaust ports. A good P79 should be a fine street head, has the best factory chamber design (shared with the P90). Any way you can have an expert assess it before buying it?

[mikemerkury]

Assessing is impossible because of physical distance (me being in Canada, seller in SF south bay area). I am relying on the honesty of the seller.

For the sake of discussion, would i be better investing these $ locally on my old N42 head ?

[Arne]

Is this an ebay head? Who's the seller?

[=Enigma=]

Hehe, hehe....Arne said diss....

Seriously though, I plan on going with the P79 on my F54 build. As Arne said, it has one of the best combustion chamber designs and the exhaust liners have not been proven to be restrictive. With a little clean up around the valve stem and seat along with port matching these heads are known to achieve some pretty good gains over stock. Diseased has built a few motors using this head. Perhaps he can chime in based on his experience.

Note that an N42 taken to the max (mods and $$$) will certainly outperform this head, but unless you're going there the P79 is a very economical route to some nice performance gains.

[mikemerkury]

Is this an ebay head? Who's the seller?

Not found on Ebay. Seller is zfanatics@yahoo.com (Hien Tran)

[mikemerkury]

Hehe, hehe....Arne said diss....

Seriously though, I plan on going with the P79 on my F54 build. As Arne said, it has one of the best combustion chamber designs and the exhaust liners have not been proven to be restrictive. With a little clean up around the valve stem and seat along with port matching these heads are known to achieve some pretty good gains over stock. Diseased has built a few motors using this head. Perhaps he can chime in based on his experience.

Note that an N42 taken to the max (mods and $$$) will certainly outperform this head, but unless you're going there the P79 is a very economical route to some nice performance gains.

My low cost exhausted 76 L28/N42 Engine Rebuilt plan :

-ITM flat top .5mm pistons

-L28 connecting rods

-Shaving P79 head .100"

-Installing 76 valves (longer stems ?)

-Shimming up the spring bases .100"

-Shimming up the cam towers .100"

-Motorsport 6 to 1 header

-Optionally : Isky Stage 1 Cam

Does it make sense ?

[texasz]

I have a P79 head for sale. What condition is your N42 in? Maybe we can work out a deal. Shoot me an email to discuss further.

[beandip]

About to press the trigger on what look like an almost virgin P79 head. Was told that it was removed from a 5k miles engine. The head look new including the cam, no apparent machine work done to it. Price is 150$ and i am on a tight engine rebuilt budget. Is this a good deal ?

I am running a P-79 that has been milled .030 this results with 9.5 to 1 . No Cam tower shims needed . Of course you can take more . I can run regular but run mid grade gas. the P-79 will flow as well as the P-90 for a street driven car. Full out track car P-90 as the story goes.