1968 289 H2O

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One by one the valves came out...

old heads had some old valves
and those valves had to leave
with an intake valve here, and an exhaust valve there
here a valve there a valve
everywhere an old valve
old valves had to come out

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Introducing the starting lineup from left to right 5e, 5i, 6e, 6i, 7e, 7i, 8e, 8i

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bag 'em 'n tag 'em

then they was bagged and tagged

I know special super duper engine rebuild racks exist, and I thought about building my own custom one out of wood, but then I went into the kitchen to ****** (I said s n a t c h) another brewski, and ended up with a wad of ZipLoc bags, heavy duty freezer style ones - that would do (and the wife will never know)

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... when are we gonna peek at the Bottom end?
Ah jumping ahead Coupe we are...

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Say hello to my Big 25 Inch... breaker bar that is, I bought her and a set of 1/2" SAE impact wrench sockets in order to give the crank pulley bolt a spin, and going left loosened up the bolt, and going right tightened it to the point that if I went any further it would snap, meanwhile the engine spinning assembly did not budge, so I plan on draining the oil, dropping the oil pan and peaking up at it from down unda

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Valve Cleaning Station - VCS

after valves 5 through 8 were out I wanted to take a little break from all the compression and decided to clean them up a little bit, the aluminum and highly versetile vice found it's way back to my work station (old hard top kitchen table cut in half the long ways and mounted to the wall) armed with an old towel and an electric drill with a ... [wait for it] ... wire brush attachment I went to town

VCS 1.0 was fantastic for getting the towel wrapped around the drill, so I quickly dumped the towel and upgraded to VCS 2.0 using a green scotch bright pad to hold the valves in the vice (though I'm sure a red one would work too, lol)

VCS 1.0

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VCS 2.0

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a little after and before shot, lol

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one of the show stoppers... aka #7 intake valve

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Dancing With the Valves

well now is the time to meet our couples

Couple Number 5 - Miss. Exhaust cleaned up really nicely, but Mr. Intake is in bad shape

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Couple Number 6 - Miss. Exhaust looks reusable that green really brings out her eyes, but Mr. Intake looks twice his age, (get it over 80 years old)

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Couple Number 7 - Whoa, what happened to Miss Exhaust looks like she really let herself go, is this why Mr. Intake ran off

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Couple Number 8 - Miss. Exhaust showing off her beautiful figure even after 40 years, Mr. Intake on the other hand may not make it to the next round

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So who would you vote off?
 
Another Look At The Valves

Here's another perspective of the 5-8 valves. A birds eye view and then a close up, grouping them first by Exhaust and then by Intake. This way we are comparing the Exhaust valves to the exhaust valves, and Intake valves to the intake valves, apples to apples type of comparison.

So what's the verdict. Well, these valves will not be going back in that's for sure. As a matter of fact they are so bad I didn't even bother cleaning the ones in the other head. Now if we were stranded somewhere and had to run the engine with them being so pitted it could be done. The pitting on their back sides would not effect compression but it would make them heat up excesivelly, as the rough surface provides a larger surface area, and the sharp edges would flare up in no time. The hottness could cause potential pre ignition, so the engine would not be happy at all.

Where is intake valve number 7? We know we've seen it before, it was the one in the vice with the big gauge in it! Well it's not in the pictures because it's at work, I took it in on the first annual Bring Your Valve To Work Day! Makes for a lovely conversation piece.

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There's always one [again]...

All but one valve came out fairly smoothly. However number 3 exhaust had a bit of separation anxiety.

I swear I was gently tapping it out when all of a sudden it shattered the valve guide plastic cap. I guess all the banging flattened the end a little bit getting it out of round. So it was time for the old half round file, yes I used the flat side and I rounded it back to shape. And it did come out, but now i have a busted valve guide. (most likely the least of my worries)

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1-4 Passenger Side Cylinder Head Autopsy

Well here is the look at the passenger side cylinder head, ie combustion chambers 1 through 4, postmortem.

Chamber 1 - gorgeous

Chamber 2 - exhaust seat pitted, cylinder rim area pitted, maybe could be milled but that would increase compression maybe too much

Chamber 3 - exhaust seat pitted

Chamber 4- intake seat pitted and exhaust seat pitted

and that's being super optimistic and generous, basically the head is shot in my opinion

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5-8 Driver Side Cylinder Head Autopsy

And here's a look at the other side, the driver cylinder head, this one looks to be in a better shape but still nothing to write home about

When looking at these keep in mind they go from 8 to 5 from left to right.

Chamber 8 - clean, could work

Chamber 7 - exhaust seat pitted

Chamber 6 - clean, could work

Chamber 5 - intake seat pitted, and exhaust seat pitted

this head is not worth rebuilding to me either

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Thats actually not the guide that broke, but the seal. It looks like someone machined those heads to accept modern Valve Guide seals.
Regardless of that, those heads are going to require all new seats, valves and possibly guides.