Day 19 - Day 24 - Valve Grinding

So I've concluded that the cranking test I did last was revealing a very weak battery. So I've decided to continue and proceed with the cylinder head service, which now means removing the valves, cleaning the valves, valve seats and that whole area, and it also means lapping / grinding the valves to ensure that they seal perfectly in their seats when they are closed. So time for some grinding paste...



A valve spring compressor is an essential tool for this job. Basically a massive G Clamp which helps to compress the valve spring whilst removing the little cotter pins that keep the spring seat in place.



Valve seat and cotter pins removed, along with valve spring...



I must admit this was a seriously tedious and boring task. Many movies were watched in the background whilst doing this over several days.


Grinding the valve down using a hand lapping tool. Basically you can feel and hear the roughness of the valve as you turn it in your hand, and as you keep going you can hear it becomes smoother and smoother until it sounds near silent. Rotate the valve 45 degrees and do the same thing, keep doing this until it's smooth all the way round. And to do that 15 more times....



A few of the intake valves had this really nasty orange powdery stuff on them, and this was also present in the valve seats - not sure what this was but I cleaned it all out...




Some dirty looking valve seats before cleaning...





And Finally all done with all 16 valves! (5 days later). Most of the time I would do one valve at a time, but then I got a little impatient and did about 4 in one go and laid the valves out neatly so I would remember where everything went when I put it back together.



Now to fit the cylinder head back to the engine...