OK. Who did their own BB heads...

commando1

Old Man with a Hat
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1. Wish they hadn't, and sent them out instead.
2. Glad they did it themselves.



By yourself. Alone.
On your own bench.
With the basic tools.
Some specialized tools you never used before which you have to buy. :ImNewHere:
 
I've done a little bit of head work and to correctly "do" a set of heads, you're looking at some specialized tools. Most likely you'll spend more than you'll save over a lot of heads.

What you can do in your garage depends on what needs to be done. I've regularly disassembled the heads and had the machine shop grind the seats and valves along with installing new valve guides. Then I've assembled the heads myself, checking spring pressure and setting spring height. I also had the use of a valve spring tester at the time.

I've ground valves and valve seats using a friends Sioux valve grinder and there isn't anything you can substitute for that type of equipment. You can lap the valves with some grinding compound and a stick, but that really is OK if everything is in decent shape to begin with. If you have a GOOD straight edge, you can check for the flatness of the surface, but then you are still looking at a machine shop to cut the surface. Disassembly is easy as long as you have the valve spring compressor. Assembly isn't too hard, but you really should check pressure and assemble to the correct height. Then there's the valve guides. I've done those too and you need the various stuff to cut the existing guide and install the new guide and ream to size. Every big block Mopar I've ever taken apart needs exhaust guides at minimum.

To make a long story short, I can get the heads done at a price where it doesn't make sense to do much of anything on them myself. I don't even assemble them anymore... just let the shop do it.
 
I did this sort of head work in high school auto shop and that was the last time.
 
Easier to send them out. I have a reliable machine shop that does great work at a reasonable price. I gave my valve spring compressor, valve lapping tools, etc., to my nephew.....I don't have a need for them anymore.
 
If you know what you need to do in the port and why, then you can do them.

Then you need the tools, and you need more than one type of carbides, you really need quite an assortment, and quite a few inside calipers and you want a tool that can get high rpm, like 20k 30k.

I have done my own heads, but at times depending what you're looking for it is a tedious job and i won't do it at my shop or for someone else
 
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You talked me into it. Just got them back. Beautiful.

The heads:

2ceognp.jpg


2zjevb6.jpg


Look at how clean the plenums are.

Also notice the RV heads use the "peanut" plug only. That "nub" is to insure the unwitting don't install a normal RJ plug.

15849oo.jpg


The all important number. 452...

mi16a8.jpg
 
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Nope. They're going on my stock 78K mile engine that's in my NYB.
I call it "lots of low RPM swirl" plenums. LOL
 
Now I gotta decide whether to pop for lifters and pushrods...... Remember, I do 1,000 miles a year.
Cost/benefit ratio you know....
 
I can just see it -you keep the old lifters, start the engine after all that work and they start ticking!
 
Hmm....... yah.
Trouble is, new ones are garbage. Out of a set of 16, one will always be defective.
 
Agreed, the only thing going in favour of keeping the old ones is the build quality back then.
 
I KNOW these don't tick. The only trouble is I didn't keep track of which lifter bore they were in...
 
I KNOW these don't tick. The only trouble is I didn't keep track of which lifter bore they were in...

I know people do it... but to me it's not worth the risk of wiping a cam lobe or two by mixing the lifters up.
 
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