DIY machine work for heads??

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mean318

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Hello there everyone, I got some 302 heads that I will put on my dart and I am going to do as much of the machine work that I can to them. I am just wondering if there is a way to do valve guides yourself or does a machine shop have to do it? I will be doing the valve job since I have a valve grinder and I will also re-surface the heads since I have access to a re surfacing machine. This is my first time but I have a few chevy heads that I will practice on first. I would like to put in bronze valve guides but the prices of any machine work here in Germany is outrageous! 65 euro (80 dollars) per head to resurface for example.
 
65 euro (80 dollars) per head to resurface for example.
Click to expand...
That is insane. I pay $35 for a head resurfacing. Sorry, I can not answer the question, but your right, that price is crazy.
 
You can buy a tool to neural the guides, or drill the old ones out,put chevy guides 11/32" so you can put chevy valves in little better flow with the chevy
parts.I'll post a pictures of the tools when I get back so you can see what they look like.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO DRIVE ON THE STREET ALL THE TIME YOU MIGHT WANT TO STAY WITH THE CAST IRON GUIDES.
 
Mean, if the performance really matters, I'd advise against doing anything yourself. Technology advances, and modern equipment is FAR superior to anything you might have, and most depend on good, straight guides. If you are doing a valve job with a stone and grinder, you're soing work that belongs on a flat head engine. Not a modern performance build. It costs me $75US per head to mill, but that's getting the ultra smooth surface finish, and flat within .001" accross the whole head. If it's a milling center like Rottler or Serdi or Sunnen, they do similar jobs and that is the going rate. If it's a small shop, with the large round wheel radial arm millers, that's why it's cheap, and they dont do any better job than the factory did, and many times, much worse.

as far as iron guides on the street.. I'm not sure where that comes from. Iron belongs in castings, bronze belongs in guides.
 
I think where he's coming from is that bronze guides can damage stock valves. If you are going to run bronze guides, stainless valves would be a good idea.
 
Ah. I've never heard that. They'll stick to anything if the clearances are wrong... but I've run a lot of stock valves in bronze guides or liners.
 
Bronze guides on the street are fine. Done it more times than I can count. Bronze works great with stock valves or stainless.

The reason stock engines run iron guides is because it's cheaper to manufacture and they work, but bronze is better.

71produster, FYI - it's called "knurling". It's a process where a tool is run through the guide that basically threads the inside of the guide, making the diameter smaller, then a reamer is run through it making the clearance correct. It's old technology and it doesn't last. Usually, the guides are worn out again in a few thousand miles because, while you have tightened them up and allowed for more oil to get down into the guide, you have reduced the amount of surface area of the guide and they wear out quick.

Regarding the question about doing it yourself - don't even try. Your valves will be pointing every which way but where you want them. The tooling is very specialized and it needs to be done on a professional piece of equipment by somebody with experience. The first set I did when I was learning in school turned out pretty bad.
 
Alrighty then I guess I will leave it to the guys with the machines then.

The heads that I have on there now are knurled and I am pretty sure that is where my power loss has come from over the years. Did the heads in 1996 and did not expect the engine to last this long because we were on a very strict budget.
 
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