Bent valves

[dwhogue]

He all... long time no post...

When Sticky threw the cam chain a few years ago, the logical result was one or more bent valves. The valves were nearly new (less than 3k), so i do not want to scrap the lot. With the valves out, they look great... how do I measure them to see which ones are good and which ones aren't? Clymers talks about vertical stem runout measurement... but i can not find a tool to do this. Any help is appreciated.

[sambodie]

If you have the head off the engine turn it upside down and pour gas into the area around the valves, if it leaks past the closed valve out you have troubles.

[dwhogue]

Too late... the valves are out and the head is at a machine shop. Thanks anyway.

[TheDjost]

The best way I can think of without special tools, would be to chuck it in an electric drill and spin it around. You should be able to see if the head is bent. A bent stem might also be visible. Just make sure not to tighten it down too hard, as to not scratch the tip of the stem.
You could wrap a piece of paper around the tip of the stem to protect it. Just make sure that you don't induce the runout with the paper, and declare a good valve scrap, or worse miss a bent valve because it was accidentally "shimmed" right in the drill chuck.

Good luck


-Justin

[skids]

I wonder if you could use a drawing triangle. I don.t know how perfect the ends of the valve heads are from the factory, but if they are consistent, maybe you could stand the valve on its head on a payne of glass. Make a V out of two straight pieces of wood, form a wooden base to elevate the drawing triangle and bring the edge to the valve stem. Rotate the valve in the V and check the stem with the triangle edge. I suppose it would be a rough test, but if you have one way off, it might work.

[fusionking]

Where are those valves???

If they got the valves at the machine shop.... as soon as the turn that valve in the vale grinder they will know instantly it"s junk or it's not! If it was then it don't matter! If they got the head with no valves then someone is way off base anyway

[dwhogue]

Re: Where are those valves???

Originally posted by fusionking
If they got the valves at the machine shop.... as soon as the turn that valve in the vale grinder they will know instantly it"s junk or it's not! If it was then it don't matter! If they got the head with no valves then someone is way off base anyway

No... the valves are on my workbench... the head is at the shop..

They ain't doing a valve job... they are fixing a broken exhaust stud...

I'm doing the valve job.

Anyway... thanks to everyone for the advice. Onward...

[dwhogue]

Originally posted by skids
I wonder if you could use a drawing triangle. I don.t know how perfect the ends of the valve heads are from the factory, but if they are consistent, maybe you could stand the valve on its head on a payne of glass. Make a V out of two straight pieces of wood, form a wooden base to elevate the drawing triangle and bring the edge to the valve stem. Rotate the valve in the V and check the stem with the triangle edge. I suppose it would be a rough test, but if you have one way off, it might work.

As usual Sid... your advice is awesome... I'll give that a try. Thanks. I am also gong to try Justin's tip... that should give me a visual clue as to where i am at.

No post in over a year and y'all step up like I'm a homey... thanks!

[fusionking]

Whatever...You could chuck it up in a drill press and put a dial indicater on it. Otherwise do the leak thing when you get the head back.

[Ken Talbot]

I think you can also check the stems just by rolling them on a sheet of glass. If they're still straight, they will roll with no 'bump', and you won't be able to slip a feeler gauge under them anywhere. Good to see you're working on getting Sticky back to life...