Pitted Seat and chamber

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iw378

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would it be safe to say this head is junk ?
 
You could get inserts for the valve seats and smooth the pitting to minimize hot spots and pre-detonation??? Maybe not the best for all out racing but perfectly fine for the street once it's repaired!! Treblig
 
Looks like they could use resurfacing too, but still, very fixable head.
 
Ok, I was just doing some garage cleaning and was goint to sell them as cores if they are serviceable.
 
As others have said,put some new valveseats in them and they will be fine for a mild build.
 
Wouldn't run it as-is. But with insert exhaust seats, 2.02 intakes, and a basic port and polish job, they'll be just fine. Is that pitting from rust or an inclusion in the casting.
 
I would be afraid of developing hot spots at those sharp edges of the pits.
I dunno how thick the chamber roofs are there but as long as it is not too near water, smooth them out.....not much loss of volume overall; probably less than a cc.
 
Mill .015 off of them, install hardened seats on the exhausts, polish the chambers and they are as good as any other 915 head.

Some tiny pours aren't gonna hurt anything.
 
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915's are pretty common and pretty cheap to buy. I would look for another one.


If the OP does that, he is just spending extra money. Most likely any heads he buys will need hard seats.

That pitting isn't ****. Hard seats under the exhaust, a good valve job for the intakes and exhaust, turd buff the chambers and run it.
 
I sold 8 small block heads including one J head and struggled with a lot of Craigslist jerks trying to get 60.00 out of them.
 
You'll be surprised how much coarse valve grinding compound will clean that up.
 
Get a set of 73 up heads. They come with hardened seats factory for unleaded. 587 and 974 last 3 casting #s all 1.88/1.60 w/ 65cc chambers
 
You gonna be towing with that car? I'm not so sure you're going to need hardened seats. I've torn engines down a lot and about the only times I ever saw seats needing replaced was when the guides were worn out. A bodies are light and yours is going to be powered with a hot small block. Not much resistance there and exhaust temperatures will probably be pretty low. If the rest of the seats are in good condition, I would try to clean them up and go. JMO.
 
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