The Project Pad

Should only apply for speed density.

My friend who owns the shop dropped the head down on two intake valves 2 weeks ago while trying to get a bolt off the exhaust manifold. I didn't think anything of it at the time except "oh I'll bet he bent those" lol. I was right. I have to take the valves over on Thursday and the shop will be done on Friday other than that...

Dang, that sucks. Any reason you haven't remove the cams from the head? Could be a good opportunity to "rebuild" those lifters too for a nice tick-free 20v!

I tore the head down to the lifters prior to sending out since the mechanic procrastinated. I did that in front of him in his own shop even hah. This happened the very first day I started doing his job for him. I just didn't start with the cams. Actually the lifters were perfect before all of this! Sounded great

Would be a good idea to check for straightness now. Or did you plan to have the head milled to begin with?

yes, had .001 shaved off anyway because of some scratches I couldn't accept

Mill it .100 for MAXIMUM COMPRESSIONZ

Yes! To hell with the valves lol! I'll let the machinist know when I take the valves in the AM.

88a5tq wrote:Yes! To hell with HALF the valves lol! I'll let the machinist know when I take the valves in the AM.

Fixed that for you

I could probably just leave the hydraulic lifter caps out of 10 of the valves. stupid question time: there's a black rubbery cover on the top half of the headgasket. Seems like I shouldn't be the top layer but apparently yes?

Funny story time: I brought the Bentley with me with along with the two valves to the machine shop this morning. show the guy the Bentley page that talks about the cutting depth limits for hydraulic lifters and he's like "oh interesting, I'll copy this" meaning he didn't check that before recutting the valve seats on the head. I tried to give them the book the first time but they said they had all the info hey needed already. So if they fucked my "low mileage" head up by ignoring that, do I just refuse to pay them and eat shit? It looked so nice when I inspected it that thete were NO cracks on any of the valve-to-plug areas (that were visible anyway). Im thinking his could be god's last attempt at telling me to abandone this dream car adventure im on...

What's my recourse here? They already cut all the other seats except these 2 courtesy bent intake valves and they were last on the work order. I can't imagine every single valve guide was out of spec but they never did say how many valves they re-cut. I watched a YouTube video about cutting valve seats and it looks like in general, they only cut as deep as necessary.

Also, "my friend" the mechanic, who I drove a gas can to when he ran out of gas to be nice, said he decided to keep my $75 I paid him up front, because one of his employees stole their rent for last month, as a charge for use of his tools. He made up the shit right in front of me. Said he "let me" do his part of the work on the head and couldn't make a couple hundred off me because I called for a quote myself at the machine shop. Said if I asked again about the promised refund, he was going to beat my ass. Then he shook my hand... I did manage to mention he bent my two valves when he dropped my head on the damn table and I worked six hours after work and cleaned the shop fully twice and he said "ya well tough, shit breaks and you gotta pay to play" and that shit don't matter, I pay $1600 rent and $500 insurance a month and you're bleeding me dry." I couldn't help but laugh it all off right in front of him. Also he was willing to fight me right there outside the garage. Neanderthal...

Get it done and get outa there dude. Hah.

Yep exactly, read the second half of the previous post tho, I edited it for more info.

I was talking to Alex (Audi_Schwagon) about this shit and we both had a good laugh. I've always found that people who are wrong in a matter being discussed are most like to provocate a street fight...

It's amazing what happens when you have your voice recorder running on your cellphone or when you forget to hang up a call to your own voicemail. Would be a lovely thing for your... you know recourse.

At this point I would just eat whatever costs you have into this, take your things and find somewhere else. There is so much going on in this thread that is so over the top lol, why not cut your losses now instead of needing another page worth of these problems.

And if your head is fucked just find a used head in good condition clean it with some alcohol and put it on. You'll be fine and have a lot more fun driving

What's my recourse here? They already cut all the other seats except these 2 courtesy bent intake valves and they were last on the work order. I can't imagine every single valve guide was out of spec but they never did say how many valves they re-cut. I watched a YouTube video about cutting valve seats and it looks like in general, they only cut as deep as necessary.

Usually the machinist will grind the ends of the valve stems a corresponding amount to avoid causing a problem with the lifters.

Your head must have been really flat and the scratches must not have been bad if he only had to take off 1 thou. I had a similar issue once with some light scratches on the head surface where fire ring sealed. An engine builder guru told me if I was worried about it to just make a perpendicular scratch or two with a razor blade.

Mr. Magellan, welcome to the cesspool of retardation known as Erie, PA. Jeff that's pretty interesting. I hope this guy knows his shit since he's considered the best in the area! After I showed him the Bentley page he said the valves had barely any "play" whatever that meant.

I definitely would not have considered the razor trick to be a valid solution but that's cool.

Concerning the .001, that was the request. What they actually did is a mystery still since they didn't provide me much information. I told the owner I used to work in a machine shop and tried to become his busy but when I asked if maybe I could at least see the head out of curiosity he said it looks like a new one and pointed at an obscure one right next to me lol. Well tomorrow will be very revealing concerning all this stuff since that's the discussed pick up day. I'll ask alot of questions if the invoice doesn't say much.

I also thinkthis mechanic is about to tell me im not using.g the garage this weekend now

This thing is so.... Beautiful haha. The shop owner said they checked all the valves according to the Bentley page I showed them and they all checked out it did look as if they ground the stems on some of the valves. 11 guides were replaced and the total Bill was freaking $515. The milling was the cheapest on the invoice of everything!

My retarded mechanic acquaintance says I can't use anymore tools or the garage bay until I pick up and organize the tools the mechanic that he fired didn't put away. I said ok I'll do it all night Monday, since I plan to have the car done tomorrow lol. He can get fucked with his attitude

He was referring to valve guide play when he said "valve play"

Seriously get this done and back together. Spend all the time getting it done if you have too lol.

Let's go!! That thing looks cleeeeean. Here's to this being the last of your unexpected problems.

Aktapod wrote:Let's go!! That thing looks cleeeeean. Here's to this being the last of your unexpected problems.

That mechanic guy sounds like quite the mouth breather!

Lol sometimes I breathe through my mouth while im sleeping...

Things I would do differently next time (god forbid) include assembly of the valvetrain with assembly fluid AFTER putting head on.

End of list so far. That nasty spermy grease was dropping down from the head in a few spots. I cleaned them up my best and then the shit started running down the damn ARP hardware. Fortunately, I hope, it happened on the exhaust manifold side so I think the shit only went straight out toward the outside instead of across the entire head towards the intake manifold. Fucking made me nervous though. I pray that doesn't fuck me over in the end... Everything is on just about but I had to take a break since that ball buster guy was in my ear about being ungrateful all damn day. So sick of him. Maybe I'll finish the timing belt portion tomorrow. I didn't use his bay so I was outside and it was windy as hell so I went home to rest.

Now that's a tweaked WG flex pipe!

back up and running?

Im abut an hour or less away from first start.

Anyone ever rotate their crank pulley and find that it won't rotate more than 15 degrees right or left, pull timing belt, panicked about your new valves, then finally realize you had the car parked in gear?? Haha,that was me yesterday...

Sounds about right lol. BTDT only I had actually dropped a bolt into the cylinder and didn't realize it. Engine was on a stand so pulling the head was easy.

Strange as hell though