On Tue, 27 Apr 1999 jaltman@altlaw.com wrote:
> My .02. Last December I suffered a catastrophic failure of an exhaust valve
> seat. On pulling the head it was completely gone. Sure it took 30 years of
> unleaded gas to achieve this result, but I guess my question is: If your
> head is off and you are spending hundreds or thousands to rebuild and
> restore, why not take care of the known problem area right and spend the
> bucks to be sure you don't have to deal with in the future?
Ah, but this _is_ my point. There's a lot of folks out there, right now
from the UK especially who are facing the withdrawal of "four star" from
thier pumps. What I've been trying to say for something like 2 years is
that it really is not necessary _unless you have measurable valve seat
recession_.
So, if you're driving a car that had been running on leaded fuel in the
past - you do not, repeat _do not_ necessarily have to go out and
remanufacture the cylinder head to keep driving the car. Keep an eye on
it, and if you have a valve that has to have way more adjustment than the
others, or you start to loose compression, then you have to act fast.
And presumably, there are folks out there right now contemplating this
job and thinking that maybe they can't drive the ol' Triumph this year
because of the phase-out of no-lead. I say horse-cookies. Drive it!!!
Further, a lot of us are real backyard mechanics, and wind up tearing the
motors down for various reasons, in some cases because we screwed up - in
others because stuff wore out. In other words, there _will be_ a point in
time later where you'll probably have to do this job... but it does not
have to be _right now_. And for those of doing or having done a frame-up
- what's the chance that everything done to the car will be perfect???
I'll say in my case - very little. So I know I'm going to be tearing my
motors down again in the future. This, in a strange way, is part of the
appeal of these cars to me.
I guess I'm trying to allay (sp?) fears that the car is going to swallow
a valve the first time you take it out for a spin without leaded fuel in
there. It just ain't so.
And again, I'd like to put out the argument that spending an extra xxx
dollars to make a head "ready for unleaded" is a waste of money if you
don't need the work now.
So, it's your money, it's your car. Do whatever you like. Just be
informed that this step (drilling the head and putting in hardened seats)
is not absolutely required to keep your Triumph on the road.
BTW, I'm not trying to flame or anything like that. I'm just trying to
make sure that it is crystal clear that there is a valid choice _not_ to
drill out your cyl. head and replace the seats. I think a lot of people
on this list, while well intended are certainly misinformed on the
necessity of this particular job.
> Jim Altman jaltman@altlaw.com Illigitimi non Carborundum
> http://www.altlaw.com/metro/jaltman.html 69-TR6#CC28754L W4UCK
regards,
rml
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