No it is a spare cylinder head I have. It was corroded, as I mentioned, so it has been welded, but was without cracks, which is good since experience with repairing cracks is not good. This one should be perfect now.
I have a spare engine block sitting here, so I was thinking - should I mate this head with an even hotter cam, 45 carbs, forged pistons, polished conrods etc - and build myself a really high performance engine? But now, I'm thinking I'll have to try this head on my engine as it is with the Holbay cam and the DCOE40's - and see what I can get out of it. After all, building a complete engine could take me a few years (at least...
) and this nice cylinder head would then just sit in a corner waiting for the rest of the project, whereas swapping cylinder heads should only take a day, or two if I decide to take the engine out of the car. I might as well, as that would allow me to cure a few oil leaks.
The bevelling of the combustion chambers is also found on the standard cylinder head. The edges have been rounded though. I'll have to check compression, as the combustion chamber has been polished inside. From factory, it has a sharp edge between inlet and exhaust, which has been removed, increasing volume slightly. The head has been skimmed, though, so it probably turns out okay, but I'll check.
Price - well due to the fact that the work done with the head was far more than I anticipated and we agreed on, I got a good reduction from the roughly 7000 DKK he asked for it. A fair price, though, given the amount of work carried out.
I've taken a few more photos. Check out how the exhaust ports have been detailed in this photo, for example:
http://gallery.dinsen.net/v/biler/Matra/technical/engine/soupedhead/DSC_4788.JPG.html/Anders