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XE Coscast Heads
scootz - 9/10/10 at 11:31 AM

... I've noticed that they go for around the £150 mark.

I appreciate they are considered to be less porous than the GM heads, but are they worth it at this late stage in the game?

Or is it just a case of buying a 'name'?

Ben_Copeland - 9/10/10 at 11:52 AM

Bit of both i should think. They are supposed to have better flow but i'm unsure how. Plus they arent supposed to go porous, but i cant imagine every GM head has or will go porous.

If you can afford it get one,otherwise get a couple of GM's just incase lol

P.s i have 2 coscast heads

[Edited on 9/10/10 by Ben_Copeland]

deezee - 9/10/10 at 01:31 PM

Coscast was a casting technique for creating an aluminium casting under pressure. Both heads are virtually identical. Its just that Cosworth branded one head so people have created a hype regarding them.

Its the same grade aluminium on both castings and it doesn't become porous, it simply has had a couple of cases of minor cracks leaking water into oil gallery. If the oil galleries haven't got water in by now, they probably aren't ever going to.

MikeRJ - 9/10/10 at 02:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by deezee
Coscast was a casting technique for creating an aluminium casting under pressure. Both heads are virtually identical. Its just that Cosworth branded one head so people have created a hype regarding them.


The 'coscast' heads were actually cast by Cosworth, the later ones were cast by Karl Smchitd in Germany. The Karl Smchitd heads have a few external differences as well as their propensity to internally combine their coolant and oil circuits

Charlie_Zetec - 9/10/10 at 06:16 PM

The 'coscast' heads were actually cast by Cosworth, the later ones were cast by Karl Smchitd in Germany. The Karl Smchitd heads have a few external differences as well as their propensity to internally combine their coolant and oil circuits



Agree with the above. The original XE Redtop heads by GM were sometimes prone to corrosion or deterioration of the wall separating coolant and oil, which when it went wront, mixed the two together with unfortunate results. The Coscast heads, as casted by Cosworth, avoided this problem as they had minor differences to the OE head that separated the flow of different liquids.

Agreed, there is a lot of hype and people often buy it because of the "Cosworth" branding, but there is a common cure for the OE heads which makes them just as good as their counterpart.

But as has been said, there's no guarantee the engine will turn into an oil and water mixer, so I wouldn't worry about it until such times as symptoms start occurring!

scootz - 9/10/10 at 09:58 PM

Cheers guys... just out of interest - what is the 'cure' and who does it?

westy turbo - 10/10/10 at 07:08 PM

Thats the mod ive done
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/engines-transmission/340906-thought-id-have-go-porous-cracked-head-modification.html

scootz - 10/10/10 at 07:16 PM

Ta muchly!

westy turbo - 11/10/10 at 04:51 AM

so what u up 2 ?

scootz - 11/10/10 at 07:06 AM

Nothing much... I just have the cam cover and exhaust manifold off the XE just now for painting and wondered if it was worth swapping heads.