2stroker wrote:
The heads are interchangeable, the combustion chamber size difference is negligable however the valves and ports are bigger in the F10A head, the F10A block is taller than the F8A block to allow for the longer stroke.
I measured all this up the other week to see if there is any advantage to using an F10a head.
Inlet valves are 31.6mm on both.
Exhaust valves are 27.7mm on both.
On both the inlet ports measure 23.7mm diameter, measured inside the port past the machined bell.
Exhuast ports are 24mm wide x27.5mm high, measured on the gasket face.
Cams appear to have identical profiles, the rockers are identical and the rocker shaft spacing is the same.
The combustion chambers are pretty much the same except the F10a heads (or at least my F10a heads) have a machined cut about half a mm deep that matches the bore. F8a heads have this cast in to match their bore. I don't think there's actually any difference in the combustion chambers aside from that, if you measure the distance from the rocker cover surface to the head gasket surface and take that difference into account (to account for machining ect) than the chamber depth varies a very small amount. The 2 piece (F8a) heads in scottiej's post on LJ10.com have been skimmed (IMO), hence the perceived difference.
Both blocks measure the same height, 223mm. I've got some rods kicking around somewhere, I'l measure them up if I find them.
As far as I can tell there is no performance advantage (or disadvantage) to using and F10a head over an F8a one. The only difference is the front oil seal housing and the cut for the bore size. Of course the F10a/1l sierra exhaust manifold is about 8000000000 times better designed (being a 4-2-1 design, like most extractors) but it doesn't fit in an LJ (chassis in the way, if you merged it early like a Maruti does for the cat converter then you might get away with it, I can't remember how much clearance there was though). Both engines breathe through a 32mm carby. The carbs have different venturi designs but I think the surface area is roughly the same.
I've read a number of times you can convert an F8a into an F10a, I don't know if I'd trust an engine with a 3.5mm overbore though. 303zuke said LT250f pistons will fit in an F10a, giving some larger over bore sizes and potential for a massive 1.1 litres (huge!

).
Using F10a parts to increase the displacement of the F8a would require an engineers certificate but you would never ever get picked up for it. Putting an F10a in would obviously need an engineers certificate too.