valve job on 57 ford 640

Cpenn

Member
Hi all,

I'm doing an in-frame rebuild. Was planning on this for a couple of years as the compression and leak-down tests indicated that it would soon be necessary, plus a plug that fouled every 6 months. The decision to start the job was hastened after blowing the head gasket, haha.

So I have the head off and was planning on all new valves, guides, springs. My question is about seats and cutting or grinding. How do I know if I need to replace the seats? Can I leave the current seats in and just cut them with the fitted Neway cutters? Then just use the new valves? Do I even need to do cutting? Or can I use the grinding compound and do it that way to just clean them up? I'm taking the valves off this weekend and so I'll see what condition the seats are in at that time, but I like to know what to look for. I am finding so much conflicting information online that my head is spinning and I'm looking for some guidance here.

I greatly appreciate any insight, Thanks!
Chad
 
An experienced eye looking at the seats could tell you the best route to take. Consider an automotive machine shop for the valve job
 
Okay, I have located only one shop in town (Lafayette, IN) that does this. The main business is tires, the shop is in the back. His machinist quit and trained
him how to do it before he quit. It is clear that he does not know much about it. He just knows how to run the machine. I asked him about the 30 - 45 - 60
degree specification in the manual and he said he could not do that and that it was only for race cars.

So now I am considering just buying new valves and lapping them in myself. Any thoughts on that? Also, does anyone know if the valve seats for that tractor was
hardened or not?

Thanks
 
(quoted from post at 15:31:42 08/11/21)So now I am considering just buying new valves and lapping them in myself. Any thoughts on that? Also, does anyone know if the valve seats for that tractor was
hardened or not?Thanks
Lapping is not grinding. Won't change angles or really cut at all. All seats should be hardened. Some valves run directly to the head (or block on a flathead). That obviously is not hardened. Seats can be cut into those.
 
Okay, thanks. So it is safe to assume that I have hardened seats. If I use new valves, would the seats need to be cut to accommodate the new valves?
 
If you are willing to make a field trip up river to Ft Wayne, C&P machine shop will evaluate and do whatever the head needs and not be fazed. They did a 172 head for me early this year. Very professional.

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https://cpmachine.com
 
Hi everyone,

I hate to leave thread just hanging, so I wanted to mention that I did find a machine shop to do the head work, but I had to go out of town. Brian down at Custom Performance Machine in Mooresville (outside of Indy) seems as if he will do a fine job. I dropped it off with him. I'll report back on the quality of the job when I get it back. This is their website: https://www.facebook.com/buzzinindy/
 
I tried Banes. he must be semi-retired or out of business. He never answers the phone or returns call, and it is locked up and closed when I stop by during business hours. I think I contacted Custom and
they do not do automotive. I'll check with Anita. thanks.
 

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