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What's most accurate way to measure valve guide wear at home?

Started by WH23G3G, July 24, 2005, 01:24:08 AM

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WH23G3G

I'm just cleaning up the cylinder heads, springs, guides, and valves while I've got them off my 400. I'm just putting new stem seals on from my gasket kit,  but I though I might as well clean it up and replace anything worn. The valve stems were standard and all right at .372 all the way down, but I bought new exhaust valves anyway. What's the best and most accurate way for a home mechanic to check valve guide wear? The books I have say to do the wiggle test, a small hole gauge, or a dial indicator. I didn't figure out how the wiggle test works, don't know where I'm suppose to wiggle at and how far down the valve should be, there's no illustrations in any of the books I have. I can't find a small hole gauge shown in the books anywhere around town. I do have a dial indicator, but it doesn't show how to set it up. Do I need a stand for that?

Chryco Psycho

with the valve slightly open you can measure how far the valve moves side to side , the problem is I have no spec for this , I know what it should feel like

WH23G3G

Well I've never had to do this before, so I'm not familiar with feel as to how much "wiggle" makes it worn and how much is still good. I believe I tried that, and it moved in the guide, but if I imagine measuring that movement that it made, I don't even see how it could be measured because it was still pretty solid, but I'm guessing it's not suppose to be tight and hard to move up and down in the guide. The dial indicator method says to do what you're suggessting and measure the movement on the dial. I have the factory 73 service guide from Chrysler and I'm sure it has it and also the book I'm reading by Don Taylor, says how much movement is acceptable as far as for a number.

Chryco Psycho

the # will change depending how far out the valve is extended
you only need a thou or so for the intake & a little more on the exhaust for heat expansion

max

Quote from: Chryco Psycho on July 24, 2005, 01:57:35 AM
with the valve slightly open you can measure how far the valve moves side to side , the problem is I have no spec for this , I know what it should feel like

same here i know what to feel for but i don't have the specs either.
since you have the springs off get some valve grinding compound and reseat the vavles.

i use a battery powered drill and put some compound on the valve where it seats and then pull it up to the head with the valve chucked up in the drill and i use the drill to spin the valve for a few seconds then clean it off and if it looks good then i put the spring back on and spray some carb cleaner in the runner the valve is in and see if i get any leaks between the valve and seat.

if any of the cleaner leaks out go back and do it again untill it doesn't.

Plumcrazy

The maximum allowable wobble is .017.
Thats with special tool C3973 installed which opens the valve the correct amount.

How far is that?  Don't know.
I'll look around at work and see if I can find it, maybe I can come up with a number if I do.

It's not a midlife crisis, it's my second adolescence.

WH23G3G

My local speed shop guy, says if it doesn't wobble then the guides are good. I told him there's extremely little movement if at all, and he said then the guides should be fine. He examined my engine main bearings and rod bearings and said they extremely well and that it probably only had 20,000-30,000 miles on the engine. I can still see some of the crosshatching at the bottoms and the bores are all still shiny. I decided to replace the exhaust valves and 1 of the intake valves on this Driver's Side cylinder head, the 1 Intake valve got dented very slightly on the top of the stem because I used the "hit & run" method of remove the keepers, and I'm sure the socket I used knocked into the head. All the others are fine, and they're all standard size valves.