Additional fittings in twincam weber head (exhaust)

[lotustastic]

Hello,

Hopefully this is not a silly question, but I haven't been able to find anything via forum searches. I'm preparing to reassemble my twincam weber for the first time for my 68 elan SS coupe. The engine and car was purchased in pieces so I did not personally disassemble originally. I would like any feedback on what these additional threaded fittings would be for as they don't appear stock and don't know what do with them. It appears that they were for some additional cam oiling between exhaust port #3 and #4? The engine has uprated competitive isky cam grinds with .040 pistons and I imagine the car was setup to be tracked so possibly the engine needed some additional lubrication or this may be to avoid oil starvation points stemming from original design? I would appreciate any feedback.

Thank you,

David D,

[types26/36]

I would take a guess that the fitting is not for additional oil but it is to get better drainage on the head, the drainage is not very good on TC heads and they tend to get flooded with oil in that area.
Dont know where it drained back to though.....was the engine dry sumped?

[el-saturn]

.especially EX 4 is an area where oil doesnt drain quick enough. I have a really frustrating, stuborn and sweating plug which made me think: ..................with a dash8 (an) hose i could a) get rid of the nuicsance and b) feed some oil to another one of those various plugs or pan where it would have to arrive via gravitational "pressure" - any ideas - i?m pretty tired of that plug so this?d be a quick solution. cheers sandy

[lotustastic]

I don't believe the engine was dry sumped as I didn't see any strange/addl pumps in the parts. Thanks very much for the responses, this makes some sense. I guess the two fittings were connected via hoses to some sort of Y fitting maybe and then fed back to the oil sump by gravity for better draining.

Thx.

David D.

[rgh0]

The head you have is a relatively early head. The later heads had a cross drilling just behind the No4 exhaust to drain the rear of the exhaust side across to the inlet side which drains better due to the unused push rod holes providing drainage. Without this cross drilling oil pooled in the rear of the exhaust cam especially if the car was parked with the nose uphill and leaked down the valve stem into the exhaust port leading to large clouds of smoke on start up.

I have seen a few heads where this sort of drain has been added to return the oil to the sump.

cheers
Rohan

[adigra]

Rohan is, as usual, 100% right. My early head has a drain at the back, but only that one at the very back.

[el-saturn]

thanks rohan, even though you aren't answering my question ............... and even though i haven't figured out HOW to elegantly get that dash8 hose down the sump I'm gonna follow that line of thought - greetings to australia --- is it kaola-burgers for free in certain places OR are they inedible?? sandy

[lotustastic]

The head you have is a relatively early head. The later heads had a cross drilling just behind the No4 exhaust to drain the rear of the exhaust side across to the inlet side which drains better due to the unused push rod holes providing drainage. Without this cross drilling oil pooled in the rear of the exhaust cam especially if the car was parked with the nose uphill and leaked down the valve stem into the exhaust port leading to large clouds of smoke on start up.

I have seen a few heads where this sort of drain has been added to return the oil to the sump.

cheers
Rohan

As always, Thanks Rohan for your wealth of knowledge and confirmation..

David D.

[rgh0]

thanks rohan, even though you aren't answering my question ............... and even though i haven't figured out HOW to elegantly get that dash8 hose down the sump I'm gonna follow that line of thought - greetings to australia --- is it kaola-burgers for free in certain places OR are they inedible?? sandy

Hi Sandy
I don't think you would want to eat koala as they probably taste like gum tree leaves, even if it was legal, which it is not, as they are a protected species.

I have never seen an actual drain from the head installed, I have just seen heads with drain holes and plugs installed, so I don't know how people have done it in the passed. It should not be to hard to install an elbow fitting in the side of the sump. You need to pick a location where its not going to get to hot from the exhaust. it may be better to run it around the rear of the head and into the head to block tube.

cheers
Rohan.

[englishmaninwales]

Except the Koalas have no Gum trees left down in Cape Otway

[rgh0]

Except the Koalas have no Gum trees left down in Cape Otway

Must have been a slow day in Wales for that to make the news. .

cheers
Rohan

[englishmaninwales]

But it made a welcome change from politics....

Malcolm