All Small Six Checking for Air Leaks

[StarDiero75]

Check the stem on that worst valve, even the slightest warp is bad.

All the intake stems are fxxxed. Every single one of them is worn bad. Also, apparently new guides were never installed, he simply knurled the old ones steel ones. Also, they're out of spec as well. The exhaust stems seem to be fine so far. Plus despite asking, hardened intake seats were not installed. Looks like she needs the whole works.... again....

 

[frozenrabbit]

I won't ask how much it cost for all the work they didn't do.
Hardened exhaust seats are more important as they take most of the cylinder heat.

 

[StarDiero75]

I won't ask how much it cost for all the work they didn't do.
Hardened exhaust seats are more important as they take most of the cylinder heat.

Yeah it was a good chunk for nothing done. I do know that exhaust was hardened, but both shoulda been.

 

[StarDiero75]

Alright so my buddy and I got the new bronze guides put in and reamed, new intake valves cut 45°, 30°, and 15°, exhaust seats all got a 4 angle valve job (75°, 45°, 30°, 15°), and did some porting cleanup around the valve guide boss. The head is at the machine shop to install hardened intake valve seats and deck .050" to approx bring me to 46cc head (9.4 SCR and 7.99 DCR). The shop is going to rough cut the intake seats and my buddy and I are going to do the 4 angle to the intake as well. This thing should breathe half decent for what it is and not leak now lol.

 

[jaan-e]

Look's good, it's gona be interesting to see it run

 

[Soldmy66]

Good job on finding the problem.
I once checked an engine that had a dead cylinder at idle.
One intake guide was so loose that it created a vacuum leak so bad that cylinder would not fire at idle.
While working in one shop I saw new guides looser than the ones that were just replaced.
I found this out because we sent the heads out bare to get new guides then did the valve job in our shop.
Some machinists just grab a reamer off the wall and use it without miking it.
Once I asked a machinist how tight he could get the new guides on a (small log) head that I wanted to bring in.
He got nervous and his hand shook. He said "pretty tight".
I took the head without the springs to a machine shop that did the heads on a famous 460 Mach One that was featured in many car magazines.
The machinist honed the guides and was proud of what a good job he did. (I'm not sure if he honed the guides but i asked him about it before hand.) He had me check what I good job he did.
The last log head that I had rebuilt the machinist said that "people don't know what we do to a head. They don't even check it."

I agree. His approach to diagnosing this was creative and commendable. Well done.

 

[StarDiero75]

So interesting news, while having the head milled, there was a porous spot between #1 and the pushrod holes. Will have pics later. Instead of the .050" I wanted, he got to .036" before the hole. There's now a pencil lead size hole going into the water jacket. I'll need to JB weld it from the water jacket side. He stopped so it's no larger, but now my compression isn't going to be as great. Anyone have a part number for the thinnest head gasket we got? The felpro I've had is a .050", I'd at least want to get near the .040" mark.

 

[bubba22349]

The Victor Reniz if you can find it is supposed to have a .044 crush thickness. Then there is also the newest player to the Ford Six market the Mahal head gasket unfortunately I don't yet know what it's crush thickness is, but the rumor is that is the same as the Victor Reniz since they bought that company out. Good luck.

 

[StarDiero75]

The Victor Reniz if you can find it is supposed to have a .044 crush thickness. Then there is also the newest player to the Ford Six market the Mahal head gasket unfortunately I don't yet know what it's crush thickness is, but the rumor is that is the same as the Victor Reniz since they bought that company out. Good luck.

According to summit, the Mahle is .050" and the Felpro doesn't have a list. But the summit guy answering says like .042ish. I'll probably end up using the Felpro since thats what I've been using and haven't had any leaks.
Unless the new intake valve seats raise up the valves a lot, looks like I'll be having 50cc chambers for a SCR of 9.01 and DCR of 7.65. Maybe this ain't too bad since gas is $5.00 for regular

 

[StarDiero75]

If you look closely between the chamber and the push rod hole, you'll see the pinhole. Would it be a bad idea to possibly fill the surrounding area with epoxy? There are plenty of other places for coolent to flow, plus its at the front so its closest to the water pump, but also the last part of travel for the hot coolent. Should this be drilled first to relieve stress then filled?

 

[wme013]

Know anybody that can weld cast iron, find an old timer, it's a lost art

 

[bubba22349]

I think it would be better to weld it up too, I don't really trust the Epoxy to be a permeant repair anywhere there is much heat. Or you could just use a crack repair pin if there is still enough material so that you could drill and tap it, they look like this.

 

[drag-200stang]

Being an air bubble hole, I do not think there will be much cracking is going on, but you can see better what is going on. How does it match up with the gasket, outside of the fire ring, does good gasket material line up there? How is that hole any different from the triangle water port, that port is sealed by the gasket, why not this hole?
Just make sure that you do not make it worse, If it looks like the gasket will seal it I would try JB but do not block water flow. May be a smear dab of the best RTV or that Hylomar on it when you install the gasket.

 

[StarDiero75]

So it seems I got it running. We ended up JB welding the hole. The cast iron plug wouldn't have worked and epoxy was looking at being the best method. Not 100% sure if the leak is fixed howerver. I got a Holley 2300 350cfm Street Avenger and it seems to want 64 jets so far to cruise properly (AFR high 14s low 15s), but my WOT is like 11. Are my jets looking too big, indicating a vacuum leak, or do they look right? How do I fix the WOT running so rich? Do I need a different metering block or some other tricks?

SCR: 8.99
DCR: 7.59
Schneider 256H cam, 1.5 rockers
Porting around the valve guide boss's