Flathead valve question

[19Fordy]

Years ago I took these valves out of my 1953 Ford V-8. I notice that the valve guides are different. Why does one guide have a rubber seal and the other does not? Also, what does the "R" and 'I" mean? I am thinking the 'I" means intake. Should all the valves have the "R" marking? ANY other info. is appreciated. Thanks, Jim

I am also wondering how can you tell that a valve guide is needs to be replaced. I have some old valve guides and they "look good". Are today's replacements as good as OEM?

Click on picture to enlarge.

[flatjack9]

The rubber seal is on the intake guide. The valves with the dish are intakes. No clue what I and R are for. Need to check stem OD to guide ID. Looking for around .0005 clearance.

[Karl Wolf]

I have had the good fortune to run across an occasional engine with low time parts inside. I save salvageable guides, but buy new valves. I have a couple of sets of near new spark plugs, may 30 years old. Sometimes reuse cam bearings.
The inside of the valve guides can be measured. A good machine shop will have a gauge and mics to get perfect measurements. Once you get a feel for it, you can put the end of a valve in 1/2 inch or so and wiggle it. Look for an ideal .001 to .002 clearance.
Karl

[Ol' Ron]

I knurel all the guids and ream them for .0005/.001 clearance. The i is fir intake and the exhausr valve has a flat top and is made of different material. I use RTV in the intake valve instead of the rubber gasket.

[Ross F-1]

I always assumed the "R" refers to the R-series engines, which includes 8BA's, EAB's. It may also include earlier flat V8's. "G" and "H" are the flat-6's.

[19Fordy]

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Could the "R" have something to do with the "rotator valve assemblY'
Ford introduced in the mid 50's. I found this on another site.
In mid'50, they went to a rotator style valve spring/keeper arrangement that is distinctive. You'd have to pull the intake to see them. The introduction of the rotator-style valves coincided with the elimination of hardened valve seats.

[Ross F-1]

Originally Posted by 19Fordy

Could the "R" have something to do with the "rotator valve assemblY'
Ford introduced in the mid 50's. I found this on another site.
In mid'50, they went to a rotator style valve spring/keeper arrangement that is distinctive. You'd have to pull the intake to see them. The introduction of the rotator-style valves coincided with the elimination of hardened valve seats.

Well, all of the valves in my EAB are rotator style... so maybe it is that.

[russcc]

If you want NOS Ford 1 piece guides, Jim Gordon had 7,000 of them when I bought mine from him several years ago. 626 288 3311. Specialty Ford Parts, Garvey Ave, Rosemead CA. Call him after 11:00AM PST.

[GOSFAST]

I'll post this again, if the guides aren't "broken" they are reusable!

Have bronze liners installed in your original guides (and some Viton stem seals) and you'll never experience another "hung" valve.

You have the initial cost of doing the labor but you save the price of buying new guides. Guide are probably around $80.00/90.00 per set, even that price doubled for the liners with the seals is still an excellent value when you consider the cost of repairing any hung valves.

An add'l "plus" is you end up with closer tolerances between the valve stem and the guides. We ball-broach the clearance into the guide.

(Add) Just got an e-mail this weekend from the owner (a close friend) of the ride in the "link" at the bottom, he has put over 12,000 miles on the engine in a short time and the only reason he opens the hood is to change the oil. His build got all the above and then some.

Thanks, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. Every Flathead we've built in the last 30 years got these installed, haven't had one single issue since we started using them.

[Ol' Ron]

I find this to be an unnecessary expense. The average person can't do it and their difficult to install, especially with a stronger spring. The knurled guide is a simpler method of accomplishing the same thing the knurl acts like an oil resivor and will last longer than the engine. However with that said, they do work because I used them on some earlier engines.
The next waste of money is Bronze inserts, but i won't go into that, cuz we're not building a piano.

[19Fordy]

Ross F-1, If possible please post a photo of the complete rotator valve assembly.
Thanks.

[Ross F-1]

Here you go.... not a great pic but you can see the rotator parts are noticeably longer than a regular retainer

[rtsidejohnny]

Ol'Ron, how do you knurl the guides? Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I like to hear how to keep expenses down with these projects and still have a quality build. Thanks, johnny

[GOSFAST]

Not Ross, but I put a shot of the valves side-by-side below. The valve lock-to-tip dimension on the rotater setup is .200" down, whereas the non-rotator one is .250" down. Easy to know which is which by these numbers! This also determines which spring is in the program, long or short.

Let me answer a few more questions about the bronze setup!

I have absolutely no issues with knurling guides, it flatout does work, BUT, in these Flatheads you still run the risk of a valve "hanging" in the guide. This is a very prevalent issue when driving for short peroids of time. You can see how many times up here people have posted this specific problem?

This is why I'll stand by my statement about using the liners. I haven't a single problem. I know the liners are somewhat expensive, but when put in perspective, it's actually "cheap". Remember, a valve decides to "hang" and the risk of freeing it up combined with the cost of the material for the repair just doesn't make sense to me??

Assuming one becomes an issue and you do manage a "quick" repair, there are always 15 more to worry about.

Thank, Gary in N.Y.

P.S. This is the exact reason I mentioned the Merc in the above post (and the link below), it has been over 12,000 miles in a relatively short window and not ANY issue whatsoever.

[19Fordy]

Thank you for posting the photos of the rotator style valves.

[El Rat]

Bronze guides are great! Nuff said...