93 to 97 850 head interchange

Post by **phat78ta** » 15 Aug 2014, 08:52

Now that I have my wagon up and running, I am on my next project. My wife's 93 850 normally aspirated. It jumped time, and bent valves. There is a 97 850 in the boneyard, and I can get the head off of it cheap. As far as I know, there is no issues with interchange , but is there any issues I should look for? Heading up there tomorrow to pull the head off the car.

Post by **erikv11** » 15 Aug 2014, 11:33

93's (and early 94's) have some intake quirks but the heads should be all the same. They are certainly machined the same but I don't know about for example the little port in the top of the head, is it open on a 93? But it will work. And you may need to pay attention to the timing path, there are differences. I would use the head, cams and cam cover from the 97, but the cam sprockets from the 93.

Those 93 NA cams are of interest to tuners who want to drop them into their turbo engines.

Post by **precopster** » 15 Aug 2014, 14:39

It may well be a VVIS head in a '93. Look for a solenoid behind the fuel rail closer to the head. If it's one of these it will have larger inlet ports without the little bump at the top of the shape. If you're replacibg it with a non-VVIS one be sure you get the matching intake manifold if this is the case.

Post by **erikv11** » 15 Aug 2014, 14:48

Bingo, Mike to the rescue. I knew intake played into this ... pretty sure all 93's are VVIS.

Sounds like a good chance to get rid of the VVIS.

Post by **precopster** » 15 Aug 2014, 14:54

I have a VVIS head that Volvo Australia used in '96. Very heavy manifold.....great weight saving to get rid of it.

Post by **JimBee** » 15 Aug 2014, 19:36

I have a '93 head pulled from a parts car that blew the head gasket. What does the VVIS refer to?

Post by **phat78ta** » 15 Aug 2014, 19:39

It is a VVIS intake in my 93. I had planned on getting the intake as well to ditch that.

Post by **phat78ta** » 15 Aug 2014, 19:41

erikv11 wrote:93's (and early 94's) have some intake quirks but the heads should be all the same. They are certainly machined the same but I don't know about for example the little port in the top of the head, is it open on a 93? But it will work. And you may need to pay attention to the timing path, there are differences. I would use the head, cams and cam cover from the 97, but the cam sprockets from the 93.

Those 93 NA cams are of interest to tuners who want to drop them into their turbo engines.

Damn, wish I had remembered that when I was redoing the turbo wagon. Grrr....
Well, I'll have a set of na cams as spares I guess. Lol...

Post by **JimBee** » 15 Aug 2014, 20:10

The camshaft sprockets on both my '93 850 n/a and the n/a head I mentioned look just like the sprockets on my '96 855. How would I know if they're VVIS?

Post by **rspi** » 15 Aug 2014, 21:49

I have one of those '93 heads sitting in my parts closet, just ready to bolt on. Lol

There is a chance that the cam cover won't fit right from one head to another. The cam lobes may bind and cause issues.