What to do with cracked cylinder heads

A pair of cylinder heads that I picked up in hopes of using them on my Challenge car ended up being pretty badly cracked and unusable (or extremely unwise to use on a car that I plan to drive 800 miles to and from the event...). What creative things can I do with them besides just scrapping them for a few bucks or donating them to a friend with a boat to use as anchors?

Bookends.

Wine rack? Depending on the valve stem locations you may be able to enlarge them enough to fit the necks?

Take what spares you can use out, then use this for inspiration:

https://images.google.com/?q=car+part+furniture

Practice porting?

On a serious note, you can put them on a power hacksaw and section them so that you can actually measure the casting thickness of various areas. This can be invaluable in porting, to know where the meat is, or (even more important) isn't!

I got $40 at the scrap yard for an all aluminum BMW head which I then converted to Pulaner Octoberfest. It was a pretty good trade IMO.

GameboyRMH wrote: Take what spares you can use out, then use this for inspiration: https://images.google.com/?q=car+part+furniture

I wonder how much of this stuff i could make before SWMBO went crazy...

I agree with slicing them to examine and measure, and practicing some porting on them. Then scrap em.

do the bandsaw cutting thing, but also do it with a junkyard 350 and build a cool functional cutaway engine display with an electric motor to slowly spin it... it would be an awesome conversation piece in the living room..

In reply to novaderrik:

I don't actually need to find a junkyard 350, I already have one that I largely won't be using- though since the useless block (350 bored 80 over with pitting...) is part of my Challenge budget scrapping/selling it actually does me some good, unlike these heads which will simply never go into the budget.

I was shopping for replacement vortec heads for a set that were cracked. Most shops offered to weld them up and rebuild them.

then i found a new in box set of GM vortecs on craigslist for $300!! its a shame they went on my worktruck, which is now for sale.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Practice porting?

wspohn wrote: On a serious note, you can put them on a power hacksaw and section them so that you can actually measure the casting thickness of various areas. This can be invaluable in porting, to know where the meat is, or (even more important) isn't!

these.......

Boat anchors ?

jhaas wrote: I was shopping for replacement vortec heads for a set that were cracked. Most shops offered to weld them up and rebuild them. then i found a new in box set of GM vortecs on craigslist for $300!! its a shame they went on my worktruck, which is now for sale.

Lucky! These are Vortecs too, sadly. They're cracked pretty solidly into the chamber though, and the guy at the shop didn't suggest anything about welding them. All I've seen are other used sets in the $300 price range... I'm figuring it would be better to take my chances with another junkyard-pulled set for a quarter of that since I'm going to have to get anything I buy that's not NIB tested...

Stupid question, but can you take them back for yard credit?

Melt, mold, pour. Make something cool!

wae wrote: Stupid question, but can you take them back for yard credit?

Unlikely- I didn't pay the $5/head for the warranty on them that the yard offers. Had I, I'm sure I could have done so- and I will be on the next set(s) I pull...