Monday, June 23, 2014

Cleaning the heads and lapping the valves on a 2.8 V6 ford pinto

I took the engine apart some time ago and I am now getting to the clean and rebuild stage. The valves were shot.
Crack in the valve this was the worst one
I I loaded up my cart and got to it . Purple power from the dollar store did a surprisingly good job Ill spare you the details of scrubbing and spraying and having grease water and soap sprayed up my nose.

Then back to the work bench and I spent some time with the dremel and several brass wire wheels.

Now I need to lap the new valves its a simple process. get the tool the tool the compound and the valves and get to it. I watched so many videos of people who all claimed either they were experts or just guessing. Here is the way I do it. i cant say its the best way but it works.
1. clean everything with prep all or any wax, grease oil remover.
2.I use my gun cleaning rod and swab to do the valve guides
3. I put some compound on the valve on the lip then oil the guide and the stem.
4, Put the valve in and attach the tool.
5. I spin it until the noise changes and it gets quiet.
6. lift turn 1/4 turn and spin again until the noise stops. I repeat this 3 times on each valve.
Then clean and repeat on the next one. I test the work by dropping in both vales in the valve bowl  then filling it with fuel or alcohol. If they hold liquid with just the weight of the valve its done. Don't forget to put a spark plug in. As I said this is how I do it. I don't build engines for a living and my rebuilds have always been stock or just a small amount of  modification.

That is all there is too it keep the compound on the lip don't get it in the guide, I did a final clean with break-free and the gun cleaning rod , then coated it all with wd40 until i assemble it.

Please feel free to comment.