Cylinder Head Overhaul, cont...

After your heads are disassembled and de-carboned, and the combustion chambers are examined, the valves are measured for stem wear, the intake valves are refaced and the margins are measured, the valve guides are removed and the guide bores are inspected and measured, the exhaust seats are removed and the seat pockets are inspected and measured, things can change.

Sometimes the intake valves have no stem wear and after refacing have .040” or more margin, then we can re-use them and remove the new intake valves from your work order which lowers the price. However sometimes a previous overhaul has made a mess of your intake seats as one example, so then we would contact you with an updated price quote for your approval before we replace your intake seats. Note: Exhaust valves will have pits and dishing in the sealing face as normal wear. We never reface exhaust valves because they need to be as thick as possible for long term durability. Exhaust valves are always replaced.

What we always hope for is that your heads were not damaged by previous head work. If they are virgin heads the work is pretty routine. If a previous shop did sub-par work and we have to correct that damage, obviously that changes things, and we cannot always see this until we get deeper into the job.