hey I'm looking at finding an XR6 head to go in my EB, but I'm not sure if its worth the trouble or the money. If it is worth it what should I pay for a second hand head? Cheers

you need more than just the tickford head to get any benefit out of it.
head, cam, fuel reg and ecu from an xr6.

i can get all that stuff but the main thing i want to know, what would i expect to pay for a head and is it even worth it for the little bit of kw?

do a search for the price of the head.
have you driven a xr6? that will determine if you want to do it to your car.

quite simple really

from what ive found, the EBII stock does about 148kw (198hp) and the xr6 does about 161kw (215hp)
is it worth the extra 17hp? also how much could i benefit from a basic port and polish? thinking about doing it my self.

Most tickford heads i have seen for sale have quite a price tag (seen them sell for $250+ on ebay in the past), so it will be hard to find one at a decent price. I honestly think it isn't worth it, especially if you are going to get a head which will see some port work anyway. Money would be better spent on a cam regrind.

Better off getting your standard head ported if thats what your after. Little bit of cleaning up in the ports, flattening/widening of the short turns and some valve work and it'll be just as good, if not better than the tickford head. As for the benefits, it depends on what other mods you have to support it. A ported head on a near stock engine won't make too much of a difference as can be expected. Start working the engine a bit more, matched with an more aggressive cam profile and the head work will come into play. Also with the DIY porting, make sure you have the right tools and know exactly what you're doing before touching the head, it's way to easy to stuff up a perfectly good head. Do a search on here, there's a few threads on DIY port jobs with a few pictures.

cheers for that mate thats really helpful info. i know a fair bit about porting the head, but not much about valve work. ive considered a new cam for a while now so i think i might look into that a bit more, so far i have a 2.5 cat back, extractors on the way (still not sure what cat to get tho!), also got the Thermo fan convo. i started to get all the bits from a bbm convo but just never got around to getting the last few things as money is short these days. i might just go with the eb head port n polish and new cam. should i still do the bbm convo?