Re: maximum wear for 356 valve stems?

Posted by JWL On 2011/12/4 10:27:37

9 Mains, some years ago I had a '39 Cadillac 60 Special with the valve-in-block 346 V-8 that needed new exhaust valves and a new valve guide. I purchased a set of stainless steel valves and a new guide from Egge. I was nervous about replacing the valve guide as I had heard similar stories about all the bad things that could happen with this job from the Cadillac community as has been discussed here. I decided to go ahead and do the job and hope for the best. I had a drift made by a machine shop, as O_D described, and proceeded to pound out the guide. I struck it with low force and it came out easily and cleanly, and the new one went in the same way. I measured the end of guide to block distance of the other exhaust valve guides, and drove in the new guide to that measurement. As described by O_D, the valve replacement job on the Packard engine has one more step than I had to do with the Cadillac; in that you need to drive out the guide part way, break it off, and finish driving out the remainder of the guide. The Cadillac engine had enough room to drive the guide out in one piece. You should do just fine with this job and I encourage you to do it. Good luck, and let us know how thing go.

(o[]o)