MTFCA Forum

There's a LIZARD cast iron head for sale on EBAY, if anyone has $1,300.00 burning a hole in their pocket.

That is the one from the Cipriano auction in November, I think it went for less than $200

The aluminum head that you can just see the front edge of in the photo to the left of the Lizard head is for sale in someone elses listing for $375.

Same head cleaned a little.

Ran a Lizard head when first came out, had to use wire rope on a power drill to whip around in the water jackets, lots of sand and crud came out.

The spark plugs are located over the valves, *** correction “over the pistons “messed with advance lever but still lots of pings from poor combustion. Soon sold it at a swap meet for less than purchase price

I own several. Am running one now. No ping issues. Performs well.
They were available in different compression ratios. One of my heads is around 8.5-1.
(more than I would run @ that compression. Good candidate for 292 pistons)
It was obvious to me that the sharp milled edges would be a problem, so I smoothed & polished the combustion chambers.
In other words, not usable right out of the box. Every one I own has porosity issues in # 1 & or 2 spark plug hole. (leaks) Minor issue to repair.
I understand that's why they were discontinued.

Dan T's experience may be typical. I bought them all for less than 1/2 of their original price used.

DanTreace wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 19, 2025 2:42 pm

Ran a Lizard head when first came out, had to use wire rope on a power drill to whip around in the water jackets, lots of sand and crud came out.

The spark plugs are located over the valves, messed with advance lever but still lots of pings from poor combustion. Soon sold it at a swap meet for less than purchase price

Dan,

I believe the plugs are located over the pistons, causing the flame path to direct combustion pressure towards the valves, and not towards the piston, where it can do the most good.

A cooler plug might help control pinging.

Dan,

I believe the plugs are located over the pistons, causing the flame path to direct combustion pressure towards the valves, and not towards the piston, where it can do the most good.

Jerry

Yes, was mistaken as been years ago, here is pic off eBay site showing plug over piston, and weird flame groove to valve side.

DanTreace wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 20, 2025 9:32 am

Dan,

I believe the plugs are located over the pistons, causing the flame path to direct combustion pressure towards the valves, and not towards the piston, where it can do the most good.

Jerry

Yes, was mistaken as been years ago, here is pic off eBay site showing plug over piston, and weird flame groove to valve side.


IMG_0337.jpeg

Right. I think the ping that some folks hear is the sound of the expanding combustion gases being trapped in the valve chamber, then having to rebound back towards the combustion dome, where the initial fire began.

I witnessed a test using a freshly rebuilt engine. It was dyno'd with a "Z" head, a Reeder head, and a Lizard head. The first two performed as expected. At a higher rpm & load, the engine with the Lizard head attached, let out a hell of a clatter and all the dyno numbers dropped off severely. The engine's owner was scared that the motor had somehow been damaged. One of the other heads went back on and all was well again. There were no signs of piston clearance issues on the Lizard head.

I really didn't pay much attention to this head at the auction (nothing I was interested in), but I do remember seeing that it had been used/run before, Some of the photos from the listing are showing carbon in the combustion chambers, so it's "New-ish Old Stock"?

I think is best to have the plug located in the vicinity of the exhaust valve, which allows the advancing flame front to move toward the cooler part of the combustion chamber, preventing detonation of the "end gas". The pressure rise in the combustion chamber is fairly uniform regardless of the location of the plug, UNLESS detonation occurs.

Pep C Strebeck wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 20, 2025 10:27 am

I really didn't pay much attention to this head at the auction (nothing I was interested in), but I do remember seeing that it had been used/run before, Some of the photos from the listing are showing carbon in the combustion chambers, so it's "New-ish Old Stock"?


s-l1600.png

I saw that carbon too, so not even new-ish old stock. It is just used as was probably taken off either because it ran like crap or was leaking water around the sparkplug.