Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Hardened Valve seats?

From another thread, not wanting to hi-jack it...



My newly rebuilt engine had the valve sink into the head and burned the valve. What is the option if installing hardened seats may hit the water jacket? I do not want this to happen again. Nothing special was specified on the rebuild, just stock, so that's how it was done and then this happens, I am just kinda confused...

i install hardened seats into all the heads i rebuild. also using the 1.6 valves/seats. never hit water yet. as twisted 6 has said in the past, if installing hardened seats be sure to use the shallow seats.

you could also buy a newer head that has hardened seats installed at GM. tom

I installed hardened seats on my 250 cyl head also.
I think the newer head does not have seats installed in them, they are induction hardened.

MBHD

I install hardened seats in all other Heads just not into mine.
Main reason is Most of mine Never see unlead fuel to start with.
But I just wanted to give a small warning as to what Can happen
Due to the bad core shift that some of these heads seem to have.
Depending on the yr some heads DID have seats in them.

So would one safely say that the standard for doing a valve job at a regular shop on a 1969 head would be to install hardened seats? Just trying to decided if I should take that rebuilder off my good ole boy list.

he could have recomended them to you. then it would be your choice. tom

Is there a way (other than welding / brazing) to harden the seat areas of the head at home, or is there a facility that does this? I know the factory 'induction hardened' some seats. But I doubt that is a viable process on a small scale.

I keep thinking of the case hardening compund I've seen gunsmiths use, but IIRC it takes more heat than I would feel comfortable heating he whole head to. Makes me think there might be something else though that could be applied to a local area.

I figure the obvious fix would be to tig some stellite to the head and cut yer own, but I figure if the casting is that thin, you would likely crack it with that too.

If the head hasn't had seats installed Before Or hasn't had a Bunch
of valve jobs done to it(mean sunken valves) You should be?? Ok to go to the 1.6 with a SHALLOW!!!!!!!!!!!! seat.