Mopar Muscle Association UK

Yep, thats FUBAR alright. It would be interesting to see how long it did last though, before cracks were initiated and failure followed.

Sure you don't want to run it and satisfy my curiosity for me?

Only if you want to pay for the clean up operation!

Bit of a mystery with the valve stem seals as well. Got two bags of different types, 8 only of each, one larger than the other. What do these normally look like for a 318?

Decided last night to use the smaller grooved ones for the exhaust valves and the larger smooth ones for the inlet valves. Seemed a good idea at the time, but now in the cold light of day without coffee, want to be sure...

Please don't tell me that's something else that needs to be ordered...

Bit more discussion on the stem seals HERE

and the replacement valve HERE

Nice shiny new valves turned up yesterday! (Obviously bitten by the bug, I find myself getting excited by delivery of engine bits these days ) They look a bit better than the f'd up one, eh? Decided not to just replace the one. It was the worst by far, but the others hadn't been great, so got a full set of exhaust valves to be safe.

What better way to spend a Friday evening than in the garage learning how to rebuild heads... (One of the few advantages of having a heavily pregnant wife who wants to sleep all evening! Shame she'd notice if I came back drunk... )

So back to my current favourite pastime of lapping valves... So grindey-grindey, twiddle-twiddle, cleaney-cleaney, ta-da! (I know, I know, boring and easy, but indulge me, it's all new to me, so I'm being pleased with myself!

It's difficult to show on photo's with a flash, but without a point of reference, does this look ok? Want to make sure I'm doing it right! Would appreciate some input from you experienced guys.

Ground v's straight out the packet to try and compare.

Was about to move on and had a final check. Suddenly found that although things had seemed ok with the intake valves previously, the arrival of new shiny exhaust valves came with the realisation that one at least of the intake valves was not acceptable. So before moving on, found a donated spare that looked in better condition, so got on with cleaning that up to see if it would come up better. I'm sure I'll get told off for the cleaning technique, but at least I remembered to protect the stem in the chuck this time, Dave!

Valves all done, so on to the springs, which caused a few minutes confusion... I remember being told that they have a top and bottom and something to do with a tapered end...

After much scratching head and turning springs over, decided that the "V" shaped end must be the top and made the executive decision to get stuck in and ask questions this morning!

This is what we got. Please tell me these went in the right way?

The valve seat should be a nice even matt grey with no grooves, scratches or any little dark spots.

It looks like you are doing a good job there to me.

Decision made, out came the second-oldest-in-the-world spring compressor! (Used the Oldest-contraption-in-the-world-compresser to get them out. What a polava that was... )

Springs in, called it a night, quite pleased with the way things are progressing for novices! Enjoying the engine side of things.

Dave wrote:The valve seat should be a nice even matt grey with no grooves, scratches or any little dark spots.

It looks like you are doing a good job there to me.

Thank's Dave. That's good to hear. Appreciate it.

Yep,valves look good to me. I like that spring comp.Much better than those you get these days (that always twist and jump off)

Tonights progress.

Am I missing something though? When the inlet manifold was offered up, it left two water jackets exposed. Don't recall anything else being under the stock manifold when it came off, so offered that one up too and it leaves the same thing.

Whassoccuring?

I think you will find that is not water jacket - it is heat transfer ports to make the thermostatically controlled chokes work (amongst other things).

BB's certainly have them (and people block them off), I am sure from memory SBs have them as well.