[1980Ttops]

Would like some opinions on repairing a set of heads. I was given a set of 6X-4 heads today, they were free because someone broke through one of the pushrod holes while porting them. Thankfully they stopped at that point and didn't do them all. What is the best fix for this, have a tube pressed into them? Thanks for your time to respond

[Jay S]

I have copper tubing pressed in all the pushrods on the set of 6x-4 in my T/A, I mushroom the ends a bit then epoxy to blend the wall. My heads flow 291 cfm@ 28” all in by .6” lift.

Pontiac pressed in tubing on the 70s SD engines on all the pushrods. On purpose.

[Tom Vaught]

Very common on Ported Heads to have a thin wall copper or bronze tube pressed into the head to seal the air leak. Since the heads were free, was that the first port worked on or was it one of the last ones to be worked on. If one of the last ones I would finish the heads to the same port flow as the other ported ones and install similar thin was pushrod tubes for those spots if the porting also broke thru. A good sealed tube in the head is like solid cast iron material.

Tom V.

[Skip Fix]

Worse would have been hitting a water jacket!

[grandam1979]

Most hobby stores have thin wall tube that’s what I did.

[Half-Inch Stud]

8 tubes to press in. No biggie.

[steve25]

Easy fix !
Drill all 8 of the push rod holes out to 1/2” then get 1/2” OD copper or Aluminum tubing, cut it to length and then Gray gasket maker them in place.

I prefer Copper since it’s thinner wall then Aluminum.

Once dry you can grind or polish what’s left of the stock bludge in the center back to the tube incert if you care to.

If you look close at the left port in this photo you can just make out the Brass tube that I used in this number 13 casting.
This is the way yours should look when polished back,

[1980Ttops]

Easy enough fix, thought I had read about installing tubes before. I don't mind doing extra work on free heads. As far as any other porting done on the heads it looks like the exhaust ports have been cleaned up some, I'll have to take them apart to see exactly what has been done to them.

[Formulas]

Foot long I actually found it in a hobby store in Saint Louis

[Sirrotica]

If you, or someone you know is proficient at brazing, I have repaired 6X heads before by brazing the holes shut, then covering the repair with epoxy just in case there would be some porosity in the repair. Last ones I did in 1988, they're still holding fine after all these years.

Just an alternative method to pressing tubing into the hole, entirely your choice.

[Jay S]

When I port through the pushrod area on a BB mopar I use JB weld only, layered on the pushrod side and port side, then blend both sides to get the shape I want. If there are no plans to do much porting and you need to fill the port back in anyway I would suggest just using JB weld on both sides like I described. I think that method would tend to help hold in place if your trying to fill back the port, probably quite a bit better than having all the epoxy all on the inside with the tubing. If it tries to lift down the road it can’t go anywhere. Could do that then drill it out and still do tubing. Not really necessary imho, but coper tubing is a pretty minor procedure. Anymore if it is any kind of serious porting I don’t even make an effort to not grind through the pushrod pinch, I grind thru, and use that as my depth gage to know they are all equal.