Noonan Race Engineering Demonstrates Cylinder Head Repair

A few months ago, the EngineLabs Facebook page shared a side-by-side, before-and-after photo of a busted-up cylinder head repaired by Noonan Race Engineering of Australia. Due to differences in camera angle of the two pictures, many readers suspected a new head was used to show the after results. EngineLabs corrected the photo angles to clear up the misunderstanding, but Noonan promised to send start-to-finish pics of the next head repair that came into the shop.

Noonan is best known for developing the X1 billet cylinder head popular with Pro Mods and alcohol dragsters. One of its customers over-revved an engine using a different head, snapping a valve that carved up the combustion chamber. Some errant shrapnel also found its way through the manifold to another cylinder, again disfiguring the chamber surface.

The customer intended to upgrade to the X1 head soon, so he wanted just a basic repair to make the head useable for a few more races. Follow along the photos to see how machinist Alan McCoy and other technicians at Noonan Race Engineering repair the damage.