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Just need to tip the valves, and then it's time for assembly, my favourite part!

That's a shiny head!

When we measured the stem length on the '52, only 4 of them were out of spec (not enough clearance). Most everything was at the minimum end of the spec range. They all ended up between 0.030" and 0.045" of clearance. With the seat grinding and valve facing, my guess is they will sit lower in the seat, so depending on how tight they were before you may need to face the stems on a few of them.

Getting close!

I just had the head resurfaced. The shop also cleaned up above the intake valve for each cylinder. They're trying to make my 327 into a high performance engine!

I don't have a valve grinder, so my engine builder will tip the stems for me. (He also did the faces for me.) He's got a slick setup so once he knows how much to grind off, which I gave him, it doesn't take long at all. He's going to even them all up. They'll all be .050" + or -

Valves are going back in! 1,2, 5 & 8



A set of these would be handy! Maybe next time!



PS. That's grease, not blood. There might be some blood on #5 exhaust!

I bought one of the valve keeper installers and it was worth every penny. Made life so much easier. Hopefully you won't have the need for one again, but if you ever do end up taking valves out then I would definitely invest in one.

As a side note, I see you removed the fuel pump. I probably should have done that because it was super annoying to work around.

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Removing the fuel pump does make those valves easier! #5 would have been much easier it I had done valves when I had the manifolds off a couple of weeks ago!

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Yeah, seriously. #5 was mostly by feel for me. There's just no good way to get at it.

Valves are all back in! Keepers, checked and rechecked to make sure they're all in place!





Head in place and ready to be torqued down after today. (Didn't want to start that at 10:30 last night.)





Because there has been some discussion about valve clearance I wanted to measure and see just what the clearance actually is. I checked both valves on #3 and #6. They ranged from about .060"-.080" without a head gasket.

This is after the head was machined .025", which primarily came off the middle. The machine shop suspects the head hasn't been machined before. This clearance would be different as well if valves and seats were all new and to spec. I don't know how recessed my valve seats are, but I purposely chose #3 and #6 because the seats didn't require as much work as say #4 & #5 did.

Interestingly enough, I was told by the 3rd owner of the Cavalier that it had been parked in the early 60's because of a leaking head gasket.

I checked all my valve springs when I had my engine apart the first time, but something I hadn't considered was that every time seats are machined that spring loses some length/force. My engine builder gave me some spacers, we weren't sure of the correct size so he gave me a few and the correct one is in the car. I used the spacer for #4 exhaust which was the seat that was machined the most. In a perfect world spring length would be checked and compensated for using these spacers. I'm pretty sure that I would be fine even without the spacer, but every bit helps. My 327 is not quite like my machinist's GTO that has 700 hp!

I’m not really sure that these heads need to be machined as the studs will easily pull them down flat. The only real reason to machine one is if it has some sort of localized damage. I always use a coat or two of well-shaken CopperCoat on both sides, let it tack up, then tighten it down!

On the studs, you said you didn’t removed them but perhaps someone before you did as some do not appear to be threaded in all the way. Put in properly, no threads should be showing.

We had briefly considered using spacers on the spring seats but in the end decided not to. I'm really not sure how necessary they are on engines like ours. So far it seems to be working quite well without the spacers.

For copper spray, our engine builder friend told us to use 6 coats on both sides. We did not have the head machined. He may have been giving us an extra bit of security in case there were small defects in the sealing surface of the engine. '

Don - on both 327's I've had open (Rusty's and brother in law's '52) the head studs have all had at least 2 threads showing above the block. I know the '52 had the head off before, but almost 100% positive the studs were never removed. Rusty's engine has for sure never been opened before.