Goldie will get her orginal heads reconditioned.

[Zymurgy]

I had a post about swapping out my original 516 heads and after you guys comments I decided to recondition what I have.

I got lucky last Sunday and had a beautiful sunny day in Ohio to work in the unheated garage. They came off without any issue. The good news I will hopefully have them back by the end of March. I am still kicking myself of not doing this last fall.

 

[65sporty]

I would assume your going to have hardened exhaust seats put in?

 

[Ripinator]

I had a post about swapping out my original 516 heads and after you guys comments I decided to recondition what I have.

I got lucky last Sunday and had a beautiful sunny day in Ohio to work in the unheated garage. They came off without any issue. The good news I will hopefully have them back by the end of March. I am still kicking myself of not doing this last fall.

View attachment 643258View attachment 643259View attachment 643260View attachment 643261

Mike: I think you will be very happy sticking with your original 516 heads. I did that with my '66 300, and it has worked out great.

 

[detmatt]

You should have the bigger exhaust valves installed.

 

[Lefty71]

I can see that one oil port is plugged on each head. Make sure that you either clean these passages out thouroghly or be sure to return them to the same side of the engine they came from. Don't assume that baking/soaking the heads will clean them out.

Personally, I'm not sure I would go to the trouble (more like expense) of upgrading '516 heads with bigger valves or hardened seats. It would largely depend on the use and frequency of use the vehicle gets. I'm sure we could all benefit from knowing how much you end up investing in them, but I won't pry lol.

 

[detmatt]

If you have to buy new valves and seats the cost to go with the 1.74” is negligible.

 

[amazinblue82]

my $0.02.

i have no skill so i dont do any of this work so forgive my superficial technical response .

---

my policy has been not to go into an "original" mill thats running well and do anything different to it. of course, I fix minor stuff that breaks, do general maintenance, etc., on all my stuff.

i have had to get into an original mill for being "tired" (smoking, compression loss, etc) due to age. if total rebuild (and everything that goes with that) is not needed, I "do the heads" to original spec except, if needed, where seats get hardened like @65sporty said.

if car does not have its original engine, i may swap/mod it with something "dialed up" without sacrificing "daily-driver" reliability/street-ability (mild cam, mild stoker, LA to RB, etc.).

---

if had your fine, drive-it-anywhere car, I'd do what you're doing, but add hardened seats, plus anything else that one might see (short of rebuild as I assume it does not need that) that could use "freshening" to its OE spec.

I like @detmatt's idea too - not much more $, and it'll likely breathe/maybe perform a bit better, too (folks i know who have done that with their 516's have been happy with that change).

Good luck with the work!

 

[Zymurgy]

I am at a bit of a quandary. The guy who is doing the work came highly recommended and has been doing it for nearly 40 years. He said I'll do what ever work you want done on the heads, but he feels new hardened valves and seats are not worth it, for the miles I will be put on my car. He said I personally wouldn't do it if I am only driving 2,000 miles a year on it, which is about my max. He charges $20 for each new hardened valve and seat so $320 total.

All that being said, hardened exhaust seats was mentioned by 65sporty. Can I just use the hardened seats and valves on the exhaust and not the intake valves? Also if I go ahead and the enlarged exhaust valves like dematt suggested, this is just helping the performance of the engine without having to do any other modifications?

More information, I currently have 77,000 original miles on Goldie. I would love to say I will be driving her for another 30 years, so probably between 45,000 and 60,000 miles. I don't mind spending the money now because I will never sell her.

 

[Zymurgy]

I can see that one oil port is plugged on each head. Make sure that you either clean these passages out thouroghly or be sure to return them to the same side of the engine they came from. Don't assume that baking/soaking the heads will clean them out.

Personally, I'm not sure I would go to the trouble (more like expense) of upgrading '516 heads with bigger valves or hardened seats. It would largely depend on the use and frequency of use the vehicle gets. I'm sure we could all benefit from knowing how much you end up investing in them, but I won't pry lol.

I noticed the were pretty gummy and some plugged. Will a good nylon tube brush do the trick? I let you guys know what I put into it when I am all done.

 

[furious70]

I missed the first post, what was the issue that caused you to pull them off?

Go to moparts.com tech archive and read Dwayne Porters posts about OEM heads and all levels of work to them and the gains.
Make a data driven decision then.

My 2 cents having had various OEM heads including 516's with work done to them would be to spend as little as you can. If you don't drive much the build up on the exhaust seats probably lasts you

 

[Zymurgy]

I missed the first post, what was the issue that caused you to pull them off?

Go to moparts.com tech archive and read Dwayne Porters posts about OEM heads and all levels of work to them and the gains.
Make a data driven decision then.

My 2 cents having had various OEM heads including 516's with work done to them would be to spend as little as you can. If you don't drive much the build up on the exhaust seats probably lasts you

Thanks, the valves are burnt from running unleaded gas for the last 10 years.

 

[Lefty71]

I noticed the were pretty gummy and some plugged. Will a good nylon tube brush do the trick? I let you guys know what I put into it when I am all done.

Looking for the small oil port on the block, you'll see there is one on each bank of the block, which feeds oil up to the valve gear on each head. Looking for the adjoining holes in each head, you'll see there are two small holes in each head. The oil passages go to two ports on the heads, so they do not need to be designated Left and Right......interchangable from new. But one port on each head is going to plug up over time because the oil flow at the unused one is stopped at the block (Gasket). That oil bakes to a crust and can become very hard.... it might even take a drill or screwdriver to break the crust and goo in there....after that a small nylon brush set will help you clean up to passages.

 

[furious70]

Thanks, the valves are burnt from running unleaded gas for the last 10 years.

Then the lead build up is already gone!

 

[mr gtx]

how many miles were on the motor ?

 

[Zymurgy]

how many miles were on the motor ?

About 77,000 orginal

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Thanks, the valves are burnt from running unleaded gas for the last 10 years.

Perfect reason to upgrade to 1.74 as Matt said. I personally would not go through the trouble with hardened seats, for a couple of reasons, but everyone will have a opinion on that your decision will be the one that makes the choice.
The move to 1.74 will put the seat up high again, (always helps flow in lower lifts. The new valves will not have that stupid emission ridge on them so they will flow better at lower lifts. For as cheap as they are I would get one piece valves, helping reliability.
As for hardened seats. It is the valves that burnt not the head casting. Sure the seat is probably in bad shape, but the valve has less mass to heat up and go bad, why they take more of a beating. Your not using high valve spring pressures and a long duration cam that will hit the seat harder. Lastly a new valve job will probably outlast me, so it becomes the next generations problem.

 

[mr gtx]

plus you can always add some lead substitute once and a while. i always add a little octane supreme it has real lead in it.

 

[cbarge]

I have a few suggestions since you are retaining the original heads.
1.They will machine the heads for the hardened valve seats. Since you are already there, go with the bigger exhaust valves.
Machining cost should be the same, and cost of valves should not be a big difference.
Stainless valves are an unnecessary expense.
2. Part of the process is magnaflux the heads and get them planed.
3. Today's head gaskets are thicker than factory original . Felpro had them at 35 thousandths.
Do some homework and try to use a thinner steel head gasket set--- if possible.
3. Ask how much to open up the bowls, and back cut the valves, typically a three angle cut.
Smoothing out any rough surfaces in the ports will increase air flow which improves effiencey and torque.
4. Get new valve springs and keepers.
5. Decarbon the pistons. Use lots of paper towel to cover everything and brake cleens.
6. Since the machine shop will hot tank the heads, get the intake done same time to clean out carbon in the heat crossover passage.
I did a top end rebuild on Rene's 66 300 in 2013. Drove her to Carlisle 2016.
That 383 still runs strong to this day.

 

[Just Carbs]

I went with 1976 440 heads on a 63 413.
It showed no noticeable loss of power that I could tell for usual driving habits. Plenty of torque left to move the car. So, I then put a long duration, wide separation, no overlap cam in it to get back some of the compression. It now has a lot more torque in the original power band than it ever did and is a lot more tolerant and receptive to timing curve variations.
It runs good on 87 gasoline, and I'm paying less per mile for gas now.
The heads were inexpensive and came to me needing no work. From a motor home.

 

[mr gtx]

I went with 1976 440 heads on a 63 413.
It showed no noticeable loss of power that I could tell for usual driving habits. Plenty of torque left to move the car. So, I then put a long duration, wide separation, no overlap cam in it to get back some of the compression. It now has a lot more torque in the original power band than it ever did and is a lot more tolerant and receptive to timing curve variations.
It runs good on 87 gasoline, and I'm paying less per mile for gas now.
The heads were inexpensive and came to me needing no work. From a motor home.

your long duration, wide separation cam will give you less compression not more. don't know where your getting more torque in the original power band it would move the power band to a higher rpm range. the new valve job could be why it feels stronger than with your old worn out heads you took off.