Re: valve job on my 22nd series 8cyl.

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2009/5/8 13:26:04

Owen I think we are in agreement here.

If no valves are burnt or warped and all the valve guides are tight and the rings are good then it is not too hard to fix the car at home. Flathead Packard valves do have a tendency to stick if the car is out of commission for several years. In a sense sticky valves are a good sign as it means the valve guides must be good. If they were worn and loose the valves wouldn't stick.

In this case all that is necessary is to free up the valves and clean off any sludge or rust and lap in the valves with fine compound.

On the other hand, we are talking about a 50 year old car. If the problem is a worn engine then it will be necessary to reface the valve seats, grind the valves true, and knurl or replace valve guides and possibly replace valves and springs.

This is beyond the scope of the home mechanic simply because it requires thousands of dollars worth of specialized tools. I am perfectly capable of doing this work myself but I always take it to an auto machine shop simply because they can do it better and faster than I can. They have the right tools.

From the tone of the original question I get the impression the questioner is not an experienced mechanic. Further he does not give enough information to tell what level of repair his car needs.

If I had the engine in front of me I could take the head off and tell straight away what it needs.Until then the question of whether he can to the job at home or needs more extensive tools is up in the air.

What I was trying to do was inform the questioner of what his options are, and help him determine if he can do the job at home or not.

If he comes back with the head off I'm sure we can help him figure it out.