Porting Heads

[pete walton]

Is that harder valve seat inserts installed there?

Is that best policy with no lead, even on US engines where they went lead free alot earlier than Europe?
I assumed the seats were hardened as standard or is that only 72 on?

To be honest i had them done just to be safe ,and the cost was not that great compared to a new set of ali heads ..All in i reckon the heads stand me in for about £850 that includes valves and work by the machine shop ... so in my book that is half the price at least of a fairly ordinary set of ali heads ....i am being told a hydraulic flat tappet cam is the way to go for my goal but if i step up and go all in a mech flat tappet is the option .....but that will mean chucking a good few quid at the valve train with ceramic coated lifters and fancy pushrods ....i have a real cool set of OEM MW rocker arms that have been bronze bushed and reworked at some expense ..I got them of a guy in Sweden who is a serious SS racer ..I did not want roller rockers one because its about factory parts for me with this project and two when they let go with them needle rollers its damage right through ....the old MW rockers are almost bullet proof i believe

[pete walton]

Are you going to run C12, or 99 octane with a splash of Race gas?

i will mix a bit of each and see were it goes

[pete walton]

I’d block the heat riser as well if I was me…

Blue i need educating here mate ,my inlet has no provision for heat exchange so is that closing them off in a way ???

[Blue]

Ah yes, I was forgetting you had a cross ram! No need to do anything else in that case.

[MattH]

Valve seat recession with unleaded fuel hasn't proved to be a problem with the limited mileage we do in these old cars Matt.

I thought that was the case, but doing it whilst heads off as Pete said is not a bad idea.
I've never experienced seat recession on any classic, and I used them as dailys for years, I found plenty of fully burnt out valves with big cheese wedge chunks out of them though.