Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Valves and head questions

The story so far: I have rebuilt my 261, .030" over with Langdon's Bulldog cam. I had planned on swapping the 848 head from my 235, onto my 261.

I recently discovered that my 848 head has a couple of broken valve guides, so I've pulled it in order to go over the whole head— milling, valves, guides, springs etc.

I know the 50-52 Powerglide 235s had larger intake valves, 1.94" I think, and my question is: are they worth installing over the stock intake valves? If yes, do I need to to find matching valve seats or can the machinist cut the existing or standard 235 seats to fit?

Thanks for any advice here!

I have used the 1950-52 intake valves before in the 1953-62 heads.
My machinist just cut the head for the larger valves.

Dunno if this helps, but my 292 head had seats installed for 1.50 exh. valves. Wound up using 1.60 exh. valves, and all they did was recut the existing seats. I would bet that if you're not going with valves that are way over stock size, then they'd be able to cut the seats to fit the valve. I'd hope your machinist would recommend hardened seats anyway, so there would be new seats going in regardless, one can assume? Only your machinist knows for sure.

Thanks for replies fellas, that helps me out a lot.

Using the 235 head on the 261 engine will require you to drill steam holes to match those found in the 261 blocks deck surface. Several of the holes are drilled into the head at an angle to intersect the water jacket, so you will need to study the 261 head you have to determine the correct and safest way to do this before you install the head.