TedH

... first indication was that the #1 exhaust valve was visibly moving laterally when I compressed the valve spring. Then, I found the remains of two umbrella seals on top of the cylinder head bolt just rearward of #7 exhaust valve in the lowest area of the cylinder head at rear of engine.

Pulled the left cylinder head and this is what I've found (I found I could remove the valve springs and parts with the cylinder head on the workbench):

#1
EXH guide worn.
INT - Valve loose in guide. (3)

#3
EXH guide WORN OUT. (1) (2)
INT - Valve seems loose in guide. (3)

#5
EXH guide worn.
INT - Valve seems loose in guide. (3)

#7
EXH guide WORN OUT (1) (2)
INT - Valve seems loose in guide. (3)

(1) Guide wear VISIBLE on top. Showing signs of lateral loading as the 'right' side of the guide is worn away.
(2) Crown of umbrella seal is GONE and parts are inside the spring damper
(3) Lots of crud on back of the intake valve. (3)

The guides on the exhaust valves have taken a BEATING on this head. More on #3 and #7 but #1 and #5 are loose also.

hugie82

How many miles did you get out of that engine before she started smoking? I see the valve was loading on one side it looks like. Did you have self aligning rockers or guides?

TedH

I have manley push rod guide plates that came on the heads. The rockers were Summit stamped steel 1.5 ratio rockers (not self-aligning).

The fully assembled DART heads came from Indy Cylinder Heads back in 2000.

I probably got 30K miles out of them. I had the engine rebuilt in 1999 and added the DART heads in 2000. 12 years and 30k miles. But, the car sat a lot and that probably didn't help.

I bought a retro roller K-cam kit from Comp so I am thinking of using the old valves with the all-new parts in either in these heads once I get new guides OR in a new set of bare cylinder heads.