Hi everyone.
I have been blessed by the Big Bloke Upstairs and am now the proud owner of what i think is the last pair of group44 head castings. Thanks heaps to supercharged tr6 from USA. I intend on getting these heads replicated so more enthusiasts may pull more power from their v12s. The real question is how many people would want a pair. Based on initial calculations they will probably cost around $4-6k aud bare. This is something that will take at least 8-12 months to complete. ..

 

Congrats, and thanks for sharing! Couple of questions:

1. which models years will these fit

2. are they bolt on replacements

3. which other mods are required / recommended to get the most out of these

4. how much HP / torque is gained just by these, and how much are they good for supporting?

Thanks!

 

What I know so far is they are flat head castings with massive ports inlet and exhaust. They do not have any casting numbers but do have something stamped on one end. There would be people on here with a lot more knowledge than me. What I can say is I will be showing them to some jaguar places here in Sydney and Melbourne to help authenticate them. After that I will have some moulds made after laser scanning them. At present I am contacting industry experts (jaguar officianados, pattern makers, foundry, cnc machinists etc) to assist with my venture as my pockets are not very deep. I can produce 2 pair for a reasonable cost but am thinking about 20 pairs. But I don't want to be stuck with them for the next 20 years... The final price will be cost plus 30%. Above costings are rough estimates.
In answer to your question, I believe they can be retrofitted to all V12 engines, however they will certainly require to serious engine improvements to make use of them. My personal engine is going to be a 7.3l but group44 was running 5.3 and 6l from my limited knowledge so far. I don't know if the original intakes will suit due to port diameters might have to use the group 1s or the itb setup. I think group44 used webers. the exhaust ports are not round they are more rectangular. When they clear customs I will post some fotos.

 

Be sure to take them around to Mike and Jordan Roddy's shop. I can't think of anyone in Australia who could possibly be more knowledgeable about Jaguar performance and racing cars & parts.
Just be careful. Jordan will likely make you an offer for them which would be hard to turn down.

 

Now for the photo shoot





Exhaust ports





Inlet ports





Exhaust vertical





Exhaust horizontal





Inlet horizontal





Inlet vertical





Valve diameters inlet





Valve diameters exhaust.

 

These are the real deal guys. I had the great fortune of meeting Lanky Foushee in person in 2005, spoke to him via phone numerous times over the TR6 project. I came across these heads, and called him. We talked at length about the power that was made and how they were outrunning the big guys really badly. Thats supposedly when politics, big money raised its ugly head, and these heads were outlawed. Lanky had many choice words to say about it, but told me they were outlawed over exsessive noise??!! I can still hear his choice of words, lol. He told me they did have a completely different sound than the previous heads they had reworked. Jaguar spent a fortune tooling and casting these, and Lanky told me only 20 sets were produced. And that only three pair remained on the shelf when he stopped working with group 44. These are bare, never built out. I really hope they can be reproduced and sold as I enjoyed having them the few years I did, but the economy forced me to sell my E-type. Maybe now,....who knows? Good luck, and keep us posted!

 

MY, YOU ARE BLESSED!

are you sure about the inlet / exhaust


as on my High reving 1275 sprite the inlets were Massively large and the exhast were a little smaller


and on these heads the exhaust valve(s) will be on each end of head...

 

The pictures and labels of the ports are correct however i think you are correct regarding the valves. I will double check as i cant ever recall an engine having smaller inlets than exhausts. Looks like i labelled the valves incorrectly...woops

 

na just the seats...
hahaha...


it's my birthday...


those inlets are MASSIVE.... and the ports for them...


can you say port matching for the manifold...


sorry to be a pain...

 

I too met Lanky around 2005 before he passed. A friend of mine purchased the last heads he had sitting on the shelf (and has since sold them.) These look the same. He also had un-ported heads sitting on the shelf with runners that still had lots of meat in them for future porting. I am under the impression that all castings came *un-ported.* Its my understanding that the porting development took place with Air Flow Research. Although they fit the standard V12 block, Lankey modified the cylinder liners to accept nitrogen filled metal gas rings to make the seal to the head. Also the cam trays were different allowing for bigger buckets and beefier springs. I believe the springs/buckets were either Triump parts, or a Japanese part (Toyota or something?). XJR5006 on this list appears to have just re-cast some TWR cam carriers that might?possibly? work in place of any original Group 44 cam carriers?


Paul Kobres
85' XJS V12
95' VDP X300

 

Daddycool, would you consider making the finished 3D files available (even if for purchase?) I know that's going to be a financial consideration after the resources to cast several sets has been spent, but I thought it might be worth asking for those of us who can't afford such a set now, or are across the pond and could one day conceivably have a 3D printed sand-cast mold made by companies that offer ExOne services in the more distant future.

Paul Kobres
85' XJS V12
95' VDP X300

 

I just met with the pattern maker and things look promising. It can be done at what cost yet i dont know. Off to the scanning place saturday

 

Thats something may be available in years to come. I will need to see what the total outlay is. I can tell you that freight and insurance was around $500usd and customs here was close to $1k aud probably similar your end. Funny the pattern maker pointed out a thin metal rod in the water jacket hadnt been removed since casting(apparently to hold sand in place whilst being poured). It will be prior to scanning though

 

very nice heads!

back 1995 i bought from Lanky a complete set of oversized valves for my engine build, they measured 3MM larger than stock , made of forged single piece stainless steel, he said it was what they used in there engines at that time mid 80s!
my heads are ported and smoothed , nowhere near as large as those race ports in your heads, valves are fitted and blended to bowl area (3 angle seats). inlet/plenums are Extrude Honed and port matched

it will be interesting to see the results of such large ports, hoping to still make usable torque in mid range, as some one mentioned TWR engines did not make good power till after 5000 revs!

and i saw Grp 44 many times in the pits/paddocks, slipp the clutch just to get rolling, fine after 30-40mph.

but never the less those are great pieces to have!

good luck

 

1995 ,,engine in build process!

 

The way to go these days for low volume casting, if you are going to get the heads 3D modelled (which will be hard for the cooling passages....), is to print the scans in 3D using wax, then use the lost wax casting method.
Anyone with a large enough 3D prototype printer could then make moulds for the heads.

 

Hi guys. Update. Did a few things today. Went to a performance head shop re flow bench testing. He said these were needing nothing but maybe a minor tidy up. He could see the HP that blew me away. I am getting some sample group44 valves next week hopefully as i apparently need guides valves and maybe coĺlets and springs to flow bench a cylinder. Secondly even more exciting is the 3d ct scanning i got done today. Lets just say im excited-WOO i now have nearly 2000 xray slices of each head showing detail of ports, water jackets etc i had to download some software to see it. I will post some pics tomorrow.

 

you're exitcited - were all excited! this sounds so cool!

 

To typhoon.the pattern maker mentioned something to me the other day which i hadn't thought of prior. Metal shrinks when it cools. So to counteract that they make the pattern a bit larger than 100% . I dont know how much larger but when i pay for it i guess i will. Ive thought about this a lot as i want a second pair for my boat. And finally i have a responsibility to modern jaguar society.,that is not to mess up the last pair...

 

To think these sat in the loft of my fathers barn for years, then in a corner of my small shop for years. I'm very very envious.