Page 13: Valves & Springs
April 2004
April 23rd: Some things just go slowly. I'm told that the new crankshaft will be ready in June. Work has started on the heads, beginning with an inspection of what I had. Gary checked the valves and found only three were good enough to use. All of the others were either bent, too thin, or the surfaces too uneven. It didn't make sense to buy 21 new and use 3 old ones. Although the seats and guides were essentially unused, the seat material wasn't compatible with the new valves, and the guides were not designed to take seals. So, Gary ordered a complete set of 24 new valves, guides, and seats. Believe me - you don't want to have a valve crash when there are 24 expensive valves involved!
Here are the new intake valves (left, next to the springs), some of my old valves (center), and new exhaust valves (right). The intake valves are a bit larger than the exhaust valves, and the piston cutouts for the valves are different sized. Yet, some shops manage to get pistons in backwards occasionally.
The new seats and guides have already been installed in the heads.
Next, Gary will test the springs to see if they are in good condition. I expect they will be, since the car only has 25,000 miles on it and the springs have been sitting in a box, uncompressed, for 20 years. These are not my springs and valves, but this is the instrument that Gary uses to check the compression curve on each of 48 springs.
