Good or bad luck today??
 

Well I am not sure if I had good or bad luck today. I decided to do my valve springs today and got to the very last cylinder and was just about to put the springs back on and noticed something was quite right with the valve seal. It was a little bit torn but wasn't to bad and was thinking about putting it back together but then noticed something else wasn't right and gave the valve a spin and the dam thing is bent!

So I am not sure if I just bent the valve taking the springs off or if its been bent for awhile now and I just managed to catch it before it did more damage. How easy it to bend the valves? I was pretty careful taken them off and I don't think I would of torn the valve seal either. Anyway my wife has been driving my truck for the last week so I just blamed it on her. [duhhh]
Either way I am glad I caught it before it took out my engine.

So off with the head again I guess, I just had it off a couple months ago to do the head gasket. So I am thinking I'll get all the valves and seals done and might as well get it o-ringed this time. Just need to find some place to get it done at. Kevin have you found anyone to do your head yet?? The only thing that I am alittle worried about is that the head has a few cracks in it so not sure if I want to put more money into it. Guess I'll see if the cracks have moved at all as they still had along ways to go, and it seems like these heads crack pretty easy anyway.

Both Tate and I have dropped our heads off at trac engine. I havent picked it up yet, but I was impressed with the service so far. In the span of 24 hours he became an expert in o ringing our heads (Manfred the owner) He took it upon himself to do the research to learn the hows and whys about this.,., the shop was very nice, clean and organized... so I am reasonably confident that I will get a good job done. ANd the price was right, they are definatly not trying to make thier first million this week.

All in all I guess I would recommend them at this point. If you go in there, tell them that you were talking to me

Kevin

Excellent, I just checked out there website and it looks like they should definitely know what they are doing. Do you know what size of wire and protrusion they are going to use? Also are they using a hand tool to cut into the head? Anyways I guess I will give them a call on Monday and see what he has to say. I really like the idea of them being local I was thinking I was gonna have to send it out to BC to get it done.

The dont supply the wire, but the wire is fairly cheap, I bought mine off ebay, I think it cost me 40 bucks delieverd off of ebay. It is just aircraft safety wire, .041 stainless... they have the specs at trac now for the rest of it.

Kevin

ps they are quite fast too,, just a few days turnaround

Here is the link to the stuff I bought

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...m=110352626967

hope that helps out

Huh that's all it is .041" stainless steel safety wire? I thought there was more to but I guess not. What are you doing for a headgasket dont you need to get a 12V gasket that is cut out for a 24V? I guess I will spend the day taking the head of and researching o-ringing.

Thanks For all the info Kevin

just use a 24v cummins headgasket, no cutting anything out for orings. I used the thickest cummins gasket with my oring 24v. the wire just presses the headgasket on the firering for a more positive cylinder seal. with a firering job (head and block cut) you have to cut the firering out of the HG so the wire does all the work.


NOW , wheres Trac engines?????? the hotrodding public needs to know. [coffee]

Edmonton, on 154th st.

No worries, you can use either a 12v or a 24 valve gasket, either one will work, Im going to use a 12v, just cause it is handy

I do have a fairly fresh new 24v head with orings if your in a hurry sitting in my garage.

Kev, Tate, you guys getting the deck of head machined true prior to the oring?

I just ran stock head gasket on mine and ARP's. Was good till around mid 70's psi on boost.

I wouldn't bend back the valves, you'll break the valve. The steel used in valves are very hard and that tends to make thing brittle. You'll might also need the valve guide re-done as well.

Yeah I had them check it.. it seemed perfect too me,, with the straightedge test,, but I thought I had better get the pros to do it

Can you get different thicknesses in the 24V gasket? Or just the 12V gasket? When I bought my last 24V gasket from Cummins they said there was only one size. But I am sure I have heard of 12V guys running thicker gaskets.

Well I got the head off and I am gonna call Trac tomorrow and see what they have to say. I plan on having them go through the head checking guides and new valve seals and o-ringing it. I also had the head deck last time so hopefully it doesnt need any taken off this time.

you must have just got a bad or new partsman!?! when i got my last 24v HG at Western canada cummins in Calgary, he told me theres 3 different thickness of cummins HG for the 24v. stock + 2 thicker.

very interested to hear how it goes with yours.

Well that's good to know I will make sure and find out this time. I should probably run at least one size thicker seeing as I already have 8 thou shaved off and what ever they need to take of this time. Or should I run the thickest gasket??

Running a thicker gasket will cut down your compression. Half a point for every .010 thicker. The .010 over will keep your piston/valve clearance and injector depth in spec, but you will lose compression. Going to the .020 over seems like it is gonna hurt you, as your fuel will start to spray out of the bowl with less timing than the thinner gasket, and a full point in compression, which is gonna hurt your bottom end power.