NB1 head on NA. What should the machine shop do?

[— kung fu jesus —]

There is no right or wrong. It is just opportunistic. If you had to remove your transmission, a rear main seal, maybe a clutch/flywheel combo would be under consideration because the opportunity presents itself to do so. Preventative maintenance is one thing, but additional performance is something these situations add value to because it would be hard to go back later and do it AFTER it was already installed. You may not have been planning on doing any headwork, but given your goals and opportunity, having it done is like a capital investment AND peace of mind. That's a rare win-win in car performance. I do understand the budget creep concern, though.

[— Willywongka —]

Sorry to bring this thread back to life, but I have a 99 head that I have had sitting around for around 2 years and decided it was time to start researching the parts I need and what steps I need to take to do a proper 99 head swap on a 96 engine. I am planning on keeping the build naturally aspirated.

I have a few questions:

1) Is it worth doing a port and polish?

2) There are so many coolant reroute variants, which do you guys recommend?

3) Are there any NB1 gaskets I should get to properly install the head?

4) Are all NA headers compatible on the head?

That should be it for now, sorry to thread jack. But I figured it would be good to keep all the info in one thread.

[etikoner]

Might be if they know what they're doing. You wanna keep the ports small to keep good velocity. Cleaning up the castings help out a bit.

M-tuned coolant reroute is standard and comes complete, but you can do it the DIY way following what threads have done it for much less.

You can go for a cosmetic MLS gasket and ARP studs for security.

NA8 Headers will be compatible. na6 - no.

Should also install a MS to see the real benefit.

Others can chime in here as well.

[Hyper]

Sorry to bring this thread back to life, but I have a 99 head that I have had sitting around for around 2 years and decided it was time to start researching the parts I need and what steps I need to take to do a proper 99 head swap on a 96 engine. I am planning on keeping the build naturally aspirated.

I have a few questions:

1) Is it worth doing a port and polish?

2) There are so many coolant reroute variants, which do you guys recommend?

3) Are there any NB1 gaskets I should get to properly install the head?

4) Are all NA headers compatible on the head?

That should be it for now, sorry to thread jack. But I figured it would be good to keep all the info in one thread.

Buy my coolant reroute, are you doing to build for IRTB or turbo?