1968 289 H2O

[mustangmutt]

Disassembly tip. Lay the head on your nice flat surface, combustion chamber down. Take a deep socket that is a little smaller than the valve retainer, set it on the retainer and smack the top of the socket with a hammer. The valve will unseat and the keepers will unstick from the retainer. Then the valve compressor will have no problem compressing the springs. I watched a heavy line tech disassemble a head in about 30 seconds because he felt comfortable enough to hit the socket hard enough that the keepers just jumped out and the retainer, spring and valve flew apart.

 

[mustangmutt]

It's not that the valve springs are incredibly stiff, it's that the keepers are stuck to the retainers. So by placing a socket on the retainer and striking it with a hammer you "shock" the keepers off of the retainers. I think a 5/8 to a 3/4 deep socket works best. I was having the same problem taking apart a head and this guy walks up and lays the head down, grabbed a 32oz hammer and a socket and starts pounding away. Once the valve contacts the Bench the retainer breaks loose from the keepers and the spring comes right off. If you have to hit it hard enough to bend a valve no spring compressor in the world would have worked. he told me spring compressors are for re-assembly.

 

[gregski]

Total Recall

The new rental valve spring compressor couldn't pull a bugger out of your nose, what a piece of crap. I guess it's perfect for removing valve springs off of brand new engines or something but not old crusty, rusty, stuck ones. The only thing this thing did was remind me of that famous scene from Total Recall where Arnold pulls the thing out of his nose:

 

[69SlowResto]

That is hilarious

 

[gregski]

My $5.00 Valve Spring Compressor I

So it was time to take matters into my own hands. And once again my funky little aluminum vice saved my butt. I bought it at a garage sale 20 years ago for $5.00 bucks.

Couple things to explain. I use a bunch of big washers to give me flatability in order to get perpendicular with the vice to the valve since the valves are recessed a bit.

The brake line or flare nut wrench I use as my compression spacer to press down on the top of the spring yet have access to the valve stem retainer thingies.

The Tennessee chrome holds the washers in place.

 

[gregski]

My $5.00 Valve Spring Compressor II

say what you will it worked...

 

[kylehamilton79]

Looks really good so far and I'm LOLing at work as I read all this. Thanks for the knowledge and entertainment.

 

[gregski]

Looks really good so far and I'm LOLing at work as I read all this. Thanks for the knowledge and entertainment.

Hold on to your enderwear we is just getting started!

 

[Hack]

Very funny stuff, but you could have bought a warrantied 302 from a junkyard for a hundred or two and been done quite some time ago, or you could have pulled one yourself even cheaper. 302s are like dirt - so common and cheap you'll probably spend more on wire brushes and broken tools than a running 302 would cost you. I'm not sure why you'd want to work so hard to save a 289 if you aren't doing a resto. However, I do admire your work ethic.
Good luck.

 

[gregski]

Very funny stuff, but you could have bought a warrantied 302 from a junkyard for a hundred or two and been done quite some time ago, or you could have pulled one yourself even cheaper. 302s are like dirt - so common and cheap you'll probably spend more on wire brushes and broken tools than a running 302 would cost you. I'm not sure why you'd want to work so hard to save a 289 if you aren't doing a resto. However, I do admire your work ethic.
Good luck.

It's worse than that man, I have a complete 302 siting on an engine test stand (as in I can run it outside of the car, dizzy, intake, carb, exhaust, all of it is on there) in my other garage, I am just tinkering with this for the sake of tinkerin'.

Also, I have been to six different Pick n Pulls in my area and I yet have to find a 302 to pull. I kid you not. There is a butt load of six cylinder Thunderbirds and old Ford FE trucks, but no 302s. The one 5.0 302 I did see was painted pink, which later I found out meant Cash for Clunkers pull. Also do not pay any attention to the online Pick n Pull inventory it is completely inaccurate, it is getting better but it is still way off.

 

[Hack]

It's worse than that man, I have a complete 302 siting on an engine test stand (as in I can run it outside of the car, dizzy, intake, carb, exhaust, all of it is on there) in my other garage, I am just tinkering with this for the sake of tinkerin'.

Also, I have been to six different Pick n Pulls in my area and I yet have to find a 302 to pull. I kid you not.

Ha ha - you sound like me. I have a 302 in my shop that ran when I pulled it several years ago. I have it "just in case". The girlfriend likes to tease me about my "parts hoarding". I also have another 302 I just pulled the heads off last weekend. I'm going to sell the short block. They are both roller cam HOs from Fox Mustang GTs.

Huh, your area of the country must be very different than Minnesota. Here most all the 80s stuff is rusted out and in the junkyards. It's super easy to find 302s here.

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Must be that part of CA. The last time I went to a big junkyard was probably six years ago and there were only a handful of good 5.0 HO cars there, but still a fair number of regular 302s. I remember several 2.3T cars and even a Taurus SHO, too. Maybe it's changed since then.

 

[mustangmutt]

Did you get the rest of the valves out?

 

[gregski]

Did you get the rest of the valves out?

All but one, I got all the springs off, but one valve is stubborn and won't slide out of the valve guide. Exhaust number 3, the one that is stuck in the open position in the earlier pictures. Trying to catch up with the photos.

 

[gregski]

Anatomy Of A Valve Mechanism

So lets take a look at the guts of the valve mechanism, what do we have there. Well the valve is held in via five things. That's it, very basic, very simple. We have the spring. We have a thick top hat washer looking thing. We have a thin bottom washer. And we have two valve stem keepers that sort of resemble a thick wedding band you would saw in half to get off your fat finger after you caught your second wife with your neighbor [but I digress].

Second pair of photos shows a paper towel with some labels on it. Sometimes it makes a difference if a part goes in right side up or not. I don't think it matters in terms of these springs, but for the heck of it I am showing you a note I made to myself to recognize the scarring or wear patterns on the springs for when I go to put them back. Some parts have a way of telling you which end is which, note the bottom has a recognizable wear pattern on it.

 

[gregski]

How does a valve work?

What is a valve? How does it work? Well a valve is a switch really, it's an off and on switch in a way. Or it opens and closes something. The switch in your wall is electrical, and it turns electricity on and off, or you could think of it as a valve that opens and closes a circuit. An engine valve is mechanical and it opens and closes a port or a hole for either the gasoline air mixture to come in through, or the exhaust gases to go out of.

For any MITers reading this, don't bother writing me letters telling me how wrong I am, I am reaching I know that.

What surprised me the first time I tore my first engine apart was the way valves sit and work. I thought of valves as mushrooms, but they are more like upside down mushrooms. Then I thought they resemble plungers a bit, so they work like a plunger you may use in your toilet. Well that's wrong too. See they don't push against an opening to open and close it, they go through the opening and are pulled back to open and close it.

Awh heck here's some pictures to show you what I am talking about, hope this helps someone out, no engine book I ever thumbed through used mushrooms and toilets to explain the modern combustion engine so what do I have to loose.

 

[69SlowResto]

Whoa..whoa..whoa you are getting a little bit too technical. You lost me at "paper towel".

 

[gregski]

Whoa..whoa..whoa you are getting a little bit too technical. You lost me at "paper towel".

LOL, man I knew I should have used toilet paper!

 

[65ShelbyClone]

If you want technical, we could always go back to the topic of why intake valves are larger than the exhausts.

 

[gregski]

If you want technical, we could always go back to the topic of why intake valves are larger than the exhausts.

LOL - Or someone could try and explain the bumpy stick to me.