Re: Valve grinding tools

Posted by Ken_P On 2014/10/29 20:41:35

Gents, thanks for all the info. Keith, I was not planning on putting in hardened seats because I have a crack in the block, so I wanted to avoid expensive machine work. It would be about $80 to put in one seat, and $200 to put in all six.

The major downside that I see is that he wants all of the head studs pulled and the crankshaft pulled, which are both jobs that I was planning on not doing. My crank journals did measure out in spec, so I will have the crank polished but not ground.

I found a local machine shop with an experienced machinist- he has worked on Packards before and is familiar with the layout. Now I have to decide how much money I want to spend- he can fix the block with cast iron, but it is priced per inch, and I just measured the crack at 4.5"! The repair technique is something I had never heard of- lock and stitch cast iron repair.

Of course if I get the cracked fixed, maybe I should just rebuild the whole engine... and this is how a simple ring and valve job gets out of hand.

I am thinking I will have him install hardened exhaust valve seats, 3 angle valve job, and evaluate the crack. From there, we'll see.

As far as honing- I was planning on doing it myself, but he would only charge $80, and I paid $50 for the tool. How much better would a professional job be over a rookie one.

You can't have fast, cheap, and good all at the same time, so it's a good thing I'm not in a hurry!