Pix added: Best way to clean up valve seats & a couple other questions

[Patrick L.]

Why do you want to replace the valves? The seats look pretty good from I can see from the pics, so maybe the valves are as good. If the valves have enough margin left when refaced then they should last for many years to come. I'm a believer in facing and grinding rather than lapping. You can set/put the seat contact area where you want/need it that way. I don't even lap anymore when finished like I used to. Again, previous questions weren't answered [ pretty normal]. Have you located a grinder ?

[700rpm]

Originally Posted by Patrick L.

Why do you want to replace the valves? The seats look pretty good from I can see from the pics, so maybe the valves are as good. If the valves have enough margin left when refaced then they should last for many years to come. I'm a believer in facing and grinding rather than lapping. You can set/put the seat contact area where you want/need it that way. I don't even lap anymore when finished like I used to. Again, previous questions weren't answered [ pretty normal]. Have you located a grinder ?

Five of the valves are pitted or slightly bent; only three look good enough to reuse. I have an ancient valve refacer, and it works pretty well, and a reciprocating tool with a suction cup for lapping the valves in, but I don't have a grinding machine, or even know what one of those is. I'm just a shade-tree mechanic.

I have kept the valves and guides in order and together. Three guides have carbon blacking on the inside journals.

The head came off because there was a ticking noise near #3 and my original hope was that it was just a valve that needed adjustment. When I opened up the valve chamber I realized I had non-adjustable tappets. I pulled the head to get the valves positioned properly for a valve clearance measurement. That revealed the situation shown in my first post, which raised all my questions.

The compression was good (about 55# on each cyl.) and the car was quite peppy. It just had that annoying ticking, which might have been tappet or maybe piston slap. There was a leak from the rear, probably the main, so I thought I might end up taking the engine out anyway, especially when I saw the non-adjustable tappets.

If I could find a hand grinder I might try adjusting the valves with the non-adjustable tappets, but those grinders are hard to find.

I'm not opposed to just pulling the engine and having new seats, guides, tappets and valves installed. It would also give me a chance, since I don't know the history of the engine, to take a look at the bearings and rings.

Given this information, any new thoughts? Patrick, did I answer your questions?