Putting my head back together.

[jackag91]

I picked my head up this week and it looks like the guy did a great job on regrinding the seats and the valves to match.

I am going to put it back together before my next trip to work on the car.

I just wanted to make sure that I had everything I need.

Head
Waterpump
Temp Sending unit
Valves
Valve springs (they are the dual springs)
Spring retainers
Spring retainer keepers

Besides a gasket set is there anything I am missing. Looking at the parts book, there seems to be a lower collar but I didn't take any off the head when I took it in.

Is this needed or is this something I could do with out.

 

[Guest]

Make darn sure that you have the correct spring pressure for your particular setup. Any good automotive machine shop will have the gadget for properly measuring pressure in various points of closure. I don't have the specs at my finger tips but they are available. You might well need the collars, as well as shims. Mine did. I ran way too little pressure for about 5000 miles till I lost a cam and tappets.

 

[jackag91]

Thanks Bill

Is the information in the shop manual compatible with afetermarket cams? Or would a different cam effect the required spring height and/or rate?

 

[Guest]

I found the slip that I wrote down my specs on. With the valve seated, I needed 80-90 lbs of pressure and with the valve open with a .400 lift, I had the springs (double) set at 170-180 lbs of pressure. To achieve this, my set of double springs needed the stock lower collar added as well as a shim. Works for me. Before this, just checking the spring set the way they were placed before I lost the cam, the pressures were way, way below this. There is a little lever gadget that any automotive machine shop will have that can check and set these pressures by adding or subtracting shims. I actually bought a brand new set of "high performance" springs from a vendor that he swore would be all I needed by themselves. They were even worse than what I had. I am comfortable with my new setup.