Started top end rebuild

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Pulled her apart after my shop said I have an assortment of bent valves causing massing leakdown numbers. Here are some iPhone pics of the result.

Heads and Pistons for 1-2-3

Heads and pistons for 4-5-6

I was expecting to see some good whacks on the pistons, glad to see they are ok.. anything obvious in the (poor) pictures?

Flat6pac · 06-26-2011, 06:24 PM

lots of blow by, the heads were not tight to spec showing by the black along the face of the heads.
Bruce

rvanderpyl · rvanderpyl's Garage

Bent Valves? How did they figure that, I don't see any sign of valves hitting the pistons, but as Bruce said there is plenty of indication that the heads were loose.

BURN-BROS · 06-27-2011, 07:13 AM

There are some dark spots on the bottom of the pistons that may be from mnor valve contact....a mild miss-shift quite a while ago?. It is hard to say for sure with the pics.

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by BURN-BROS

There are some dark spots on the bottom of the pistons that may be from mnor valve contact....a mild miss-shift quite a while ago?. It is hard to say for sure with the pics.

Yep, there were a few "caught before critical" 4-3 upshifts in the last race at WGI. Shop did a leak down a leak down, and if Dan Jacobs says there is a valve problem... there is a valve problem. There is one blown out head gasket (#4 I believe) also. All in all I can't believe how well she ran the last race, I ran a personal best time!

BURN-BROS · 06-27-2011, 07:01 PM

I have had reports that the Victor Reinz CE ring quality is alarmingly poor. I use Wrightwood racing gasket sets that run a higher quality CE ring. Overall I'd say you did pretty good considering.

Maybe you were down enough on power that it complemented your driving style, giving you a personal best time?

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by BURN-BROS

I have had reports that the Victor Reinz CE ring quality is alarmingly poor. I use Wrightwood racing gasket sets that run a higher quality CE ring. Overall I'd say you did pretty good considering.

Maybe you were down enough on power that it complemented your driving style, giving you a personal best time?

My driving style is "slow"... so you are most likely correct!

ninesixfour · 06-28-2011, 03:32 PM

Doing it yourself Gary?

Chris M.

304065 · 06-28-2011, 03:52 PM

What was your leakdown?

Tell the old swamp yankee that I say hello.

When you mic those valves the numbers will show up. Can't see anything from your iPhone pics.

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninesixfour

Doing it yourself Gary?

Chris M.

Just dis-assembly and re-assembly (with the help of my mentor(s)). I was told the machine shop will send back the bent valves with the numbers. I hope the head with the cooked outer ring groove can be repaired. If not, anyone out there have a 78 big-port head? I sold a set last year, now i'm sorry I did...

IIRC the leakdown was in the 60%-80% range on a few, wasn't good. Obviously the head gaskets were in need of a change and she needed to be re-sealed in a few spots so it was time. She should run like a freight train at Thunderbolt!

304065 · 06-29-2011, 03:08 PM

Get in touch with Tom Butler (tom1394racing) here, he has a whole inventory of heads and is not very far from you.

GaryR · GaryR's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by 304065

Get in touch with Tom Butler (tom1394racing) here, he has a whole inventory of heads and is not very far from you.

Haven't heard back yet if I need to but I have spoken to him on several occasions, last one was to see if he wanted to buy parts I had!

ninesixfour · 07-09-2011, 11:10 AM

That one head doesn't look so good. I had to replace one and I ended up having Tom send one directly to Anchor Atlantic for me. There was another one with some damage that they were able to clean up but he had to take all the heads to the same level and then adjust the deck height accordingly. It's all in my thread.