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Craig - Found your post about the vibration damper. Thanks for the tip as I never would have guessed. I posted close ups of mine below. I don't think it would qualify as perfect.

Owen_Dyneto - Never would have guessed the pistons rods would be number at the assembly plant. I feel better about it now.

Thanks for the input, both of you.

Got back into the shop for a little while today and pulled the timing gears and crankshaft. The crankshaft is showing some signs of wear from the rod journals. Got a couple pics below of the worse two areas. There did not seem to be as much wear on the bearings, just the shaft. Hopefully this is something that can be machined and reused.

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Jack vines.........

Great looking progress Stewart. Sure brings back memories for me!

yup i'm enjoying this blog as well!

I still have another whole weeks vacation ahead of me. All the work I had planed to do on the shop is already done. So tomorrow morning I am going to the Swope Auto Museum in Elizabethtown, KY.
Its only 30 miles away just never had time to visit and I even bought a car there two years ago.

I dropped by my local machine shop today and asked about having the block, heads and other items checked and cleaned.

Below are the note I came home with and the prices. Of course some of the items below may not be required. I've never had this done before so what do you guys think of these numbers?

Rods and Pistons checked/cleaned $104
Heads cleaned/checked $45
Heads milled $90
Valve job $140
Hardened valve seats $140
Block cleaned/checked $45
Block honing $120
Cam bearings and plugs $45
Crankshaft reground $140
Total $869.00

In another thread Jack Vines says my crankshaft may be to far gone. Will give him a call after inspection.

I'd be curious what the engine guys say about the hardened seats being needed. IIRC, there have been comments made here and other forums that hardened seats and regular valves are not the best combination. Believe consensus was unless you are going racing or having sustained high speed operation valve recession is not that much of an issue to require them. Are those valid comments or am I hallucinating again.

HH56 Quote:

I've never heard that there is some kind of incompatibility between regular valves and hardened valve seats. In 1972, Pontiac went to induction hardened exhaust valve seats on all their engines, but did NOT change exhaust valves.

I say: with the heads apart and having to do a valve job anyway, do the hardened exhaust seats also!

Craig

Just asking because I don't know. I went to the expense of hardened valve seats also and was wondering if it was money wasted after reading some comments.

IIRC, The thinking of those against is with hardened seats the valves will be what is taking the wear disproportionately. In a normal strength valve that is ground to a relatively small contact area it will degrade faster because the seat will be hard and valve will be softer and hotter so material will be easier to pull off or rearrange. With both components of a same relative strength then it would be a more even wear.

I had to replace the exhaust valve seats on my 55 Pat a couple of years after I bought it due to high speed driving. The original seats were pounded down quit a bit (+0.100IN, IIRC), but the valves were pretty much OK.

12 Years later after installing hardened seats and continuing with the sometimes high speed driving, there is nary a valve problem.

Craig