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Debi is one lucky lady ... she is going to have a very nice car when you are done.

Duane is lucky to have an understanding lady!
So was I.

Duane,

You have done a great job so far and your wife is one lucky gal. This thread reminds me of the restoration of my wife's Fairlane. Before it was restored she would drive it all the time, but once all the paint and body work was done she refused to drive it as she would always say "I don't want to scratch it" LOL. My response was that's why I ordered an additional gallon of paint just for that reason.

But back to your engine issues at hand. I would first suggest get your hands on a service manual if you haven't already. It is a great quick reference to have when you are working instead of stopping to jump on the computer.

Secondly do you know what kind of mileage is on the engine and did you have the engine running before you pulled it to start the restoration? In general before pulling an engine apart I like to do a compression test to get a general idea of what cylinders are having issues. Next I normally do a cylinder leak down test. This will tell you if you have a intake valve, exhaust valve, or leakage problem past the piston rings.

Since you have already pulled the head and discovered the intake valve issue I would pull your side cover to investigate further. You could have a couple of different things going on a bent or warped valve or possibly a valve that is frozen to the guide. At this point the only way to know is to dig in a little deeper and open up the side of the engine.

Again Kudos to you and your lucky lady on a very nice car.

James

That looks like a lot of corrosion inside the engine, particularly in cylinders 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8. I will leave it to the experts here for the a complete diagnosis, but to me it looks like there were gaskets leaks that allowed coolant into the cylinders.

Again, at least to me, this engine looks like it needs at least an upper-end rebuild.


Tom

The engine has at least 92,000 miles on it, but of course the speedometer is stuck at 50 mph! The engine has not ran in 5 years.
I borrowed a valve spring compressor from a friend and took all the valves out and stuffed the holes near each valve so I would not lose a keeper.
I spun each valve in the block and found #2 and #3 intake valves to wiggle. There are a few exhaust valves that were not quite true but I am not sure.
I got a 2x6 piece of wood and drilled 16 holes and put the valves in the order they are in the block.
The block itself looks good but I'll get a second opinion.
So now I'm looking for some new valves. Should I dress up the valve seats? If so, how? They look clean, but I'm not a mechanic. I have not rebuilt a motor by myself. My brother was the brains behind me rebuilding the 55 V8, but he moved so I need another mechanic to help with this one.

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Finally got to my valve problem. I had a friend come over and grind my valves and he gave me 2 intake valves that he had. He found that I had 4 exhaust valves that had a groove near the valve spring holding keys, so he gave me 4 exhaust valves that he had already ground down for me. He then proceeded to grind the valve seats in the engine and it looked pretty slick. It did not take too much time at all. We then lapped the valves in each spot. Now the problem I have is with a hydraulic lifter body that is stuck in a cam follower. See picture. I have sprayed it with WD-40 and another penetrating oil. I can only grab about 1/8 inch with my pliers. I need to pick up a set of vise grips. Do you have any suggestions? Has any one seen this before?

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They stick like that when the lifter has forced a stuck valve open. The hydraulic pressure expands the barrel of the lifter. You will need a good vicegrip and some violence. In one case I had to file a groove in the barrel so I could catch it with a thin chisel and tap it out. Be sure to clean the tappet out afterwards, and of course you will need another known good lifter.

duane.g - You are aware that the clearance between the valve stems and the lifters will need to be checked and adjusted, if necessary. A special tool is necessary to do this check. The valve stems are ground to give the proper clearance. This is necessary so that the lifter plunger is centered in its travel so that it will function properly, not too loose and cause noise and not too tight and cause the valve to remain off of its seat. This check is especially critical after the valve seats and valves have been resurfaced resulting in the valves being slightly lower in their places.

(o{}o)

JW, thanks, I did not know about the clearance and I now know I'll need to check it when I put everything back in.
I got back to the car and bought some dry ice to go with my vice grips. I put the dry ice on the hydraulic lifter hoping to shrink it, but it didn't work.
So I decided to pull the camshaft out to get the tappet out and remove the stuck lifter.
I didn't have a harmonic balancer puller so I went to Autozone and borrowed one. Of course it didn't work so I decided to modify the puller to make it work. I cut a piece of angle iron and put the base of the puller under it and bolted the angle iron to the harmonic balancer and it came out real easy.
I pulled the 2 bolts holding on the oil pump, after I marked the point on the distributor where the rotor is pointing to. Of course I lined up the timing gears (after I pulled the timing chain cover off). I did notice that I have a lot of slop in the timing chain, that is going on my list of things to buy.
I was hoping to leave the engine in the car, but it looks like the oil pump is not coming off easy so I will pull the motor out. I do have to pull the oil pan off to get the tappet and stuck lifter out, so with the engine out it will be a little easier.
I did get a little excited and put the clothes pins on the tappets to hold them up when I can pull the camshaft out.

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"I....put the clothes pins on the tappets to hold them up when I can pull the camshaft out"

Better than clothes pins on the fuel line!