Welding K1100 Cylinder Head

[zeppelin builder]

Progress yesterday finally welded the head up, the amount of contaminants was unbelievable. Had spent ages cleaning the head, grinding out the water ways and finally giving it a wipe over with acetone. Warmed it up for a good 40 minutes on the camping stove, set the r-tech to 190amps, 40% cleaning, 2.4mm tungsten and 2.4mm 4943 filler rod with 8lpm argon. Probably would have been better with a 3.2mm tungsten but the garage gremlins seem to have had them away, anymore cleaning action just melted to tungsten into a massive ball.

View attachment 250613

i used to weld up corrosion damage on bently heads , usaly use the first as a sacrificial pass ie weld it and dig it out back to clean , i welded up a friends austin seven head recently for dry decking , it was much modified with extra studs as it had a centric blower on it it had a seperate cooling system for head and block too

 

[Popcorn]

Yeah that's what my idea was turning the cleaning action right up, tried just going around the water ways letting the cleaning action do it's stuff. But all that did was as I said turn the tungsten into a massive ball/blob.
I assumed it was coz I was at the maximum amps for a 2.4mm tungsten but not really sure why it did that ?

 

[ronan]

What type of tungsten did you use ?

 

[Popcorn]

2% Lanthanated ronan

 

[zeppelin builder]

2% Lanthanated ronan[/QUOTE

zirconiated is what you want and at around 200 amps continuous thats a bit much. better with a 3mm and a watercooled torch helps too well done you will get a feel for it

 

[minimutly]

Well I just bought a set of end covers, pulleys and some other bits from the mini turbo forum. Cleaned the threads of my block down to the blind hole bottoms, so ready to plug the unused ones. How deep are the new stud holes able to be drilled? Is the block deck flat, or are there inverted dimples where the existing ones are?

 

[Popcorn]

The thing to do with the block, is to drill through into the waterways and then use some Loctite 574 Multi Gasket on the threads to seal them.
Which is what Sprocket used on his build which is on TM, this is what I'm doing with mine.
Also gonna use it on all the plugs when finally fitting them.

 

[minimutly]

Hmmm, i can see why there might be a good reason to go as deep into the iron as possible for the studs (but why all the way through - unless there are dimples and getting max depth needs it?) but thread to full depth with the plugs should be fine?
I'll have to pull some core plugs to have a look up at the deck.
Someone on ebay is selling +20je flat top pistons, tempted....

 

[Popcorn]

The block is thicker where the standard studs go through, check out the waterways and compare them to the stud holes. The other problem would be the length of the studs, the longer studs from the a series are the ones to use. There's a problem with the depth of the head and the length of the studs and the fact that the fantastic design of the BMW head puts the studs right under the cams so there's clearance issues.

 

[Popcorn]

Finally got the Head skimmed and picked it up yesterday, also had the rocker cover machined off square with the head ready for the conversion plate.
Edited to add the other Pic

 

[mechman]

What was a K1100 originally fitted to.

 

[Seadog]

Unless I've missed something, it's a BMW inline 4 cylinder motorcycle engine.

 

[Woody.v8]

What was a K1100 originally fitted to.

A BMW motorcycle

 

[Popcorn]

What was a K1100 originally fitted to.

As above it was fitted this type of BMW:

 

[ronan]

I cannot wait until Allen Millyard makes a flat-8 out of one of those.

 

[doubleboost]

If any one needs a head welding . It would make a great video

 

[Popcorn]

I cannot wait until Allen Millyard makes a flat-8 out of one of those.

Or maybe a square 16

 

[mechman]

As above it was fitted this type of BMW:

View attachment 279571

Had an inkling is was the bike engine but couldn't link it to a mini (BMC etc). Are there an abundance of those heads around for some reason?

 

[Popcorn]

BMW have been making them since the eighties and they don't seem that hard to find. In saying that there are a lot of models that had what is basically the same head/engine fitted. BMW K1, the K1100 and the K1200 and the K1100 and 1200 are available in either 16 or 8 valve forms. I think the K1 which was a 1000cc was only available in 16valve form iirc.

 

[mechman]

I cannot wait until Allen Millyard makes a flat-8 out of one of those.

Wouldn't be surprised if he's already sharpening his hacksaw.