Tim,
I have a 46 with the 216 and had problems with overheating. I took it to
the machine shop that EVERYONE in this area recommended. They pulled the
head and magnaflux it. Along with the large crack they saw there were many
smaller cracks. They had a OEM head in the barn across the road and rebuilt
it with my parts and a new valve. Totally cleaned the engine and repainted
it. The total cost was $787.28. The new head was $100.00. I know this was
on the high side but they did some other work - hardened seats, new springs
etc...
Good Luck,
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of J Forbes
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 11:05 PM
To: Old Trucks List
Subject: [oletrucks] Valve jobs, machine shops, etc
Tim--
The suggestion to do a compression check is a good
one...if two adjacent cylinders are not working
properly, the head gasket could be blown between
them.
Or, there could be other problems...the list of
possibilities is almost endless!
If you are going to take the head to a machine shop,
be prepared to spend some $$$ to get it done right,
and have all the work done that probably should be
done. I recently started working at a machine shop
part time, our labor rate is $55 an hour. Figure
about a hundred bucks absolute minimum just to take
it apart, clean it, perform a basic valve job, and
reassemble. However, hardly any heads need only
that...usually the valve guides are worn out (we
usually install bronze inserts), and you would
probably be wise to have hardened exhuast seats
installed if it does not have seat inserts already.
You may need to buy some new valves, or possibly
have the stems ground. It will almost certainly
need to be milled flat again. There may be cracks,
as these heads are notorious for cracking...so
you'll want to have it magnaflux inspected, and if
it has cracks, they can often be welded, but it
depends where they are. The valve springs may be
worn out, and need replacing, or at least be shimmed
to bring the seat pressure back to specification.
In other words, you could easily spend $400 (or
more!) getting the head worked on. I don't mean to
scare you, I just want to prepare you for what could
be a shocker.
If you hardly use your old truck, you could probably
get away with just doing the minimum repairs
necessary to get it running right again. You'll
have to make that decision yourself, though! If you
don't fix it now, you'll probably have a chance
again in a year or to to do it right, when it fails
again. Then again, in the old days, folks didn't
spend much on machine work, and their trucks usually
worked OK, though not perfectly.
To find a good shop, you need to ask around! If you
ask enough people, you'll hear horror stories about
*every* shop in town. The thing to do is find the
shop(s) that you know folks have been happy with the
work done, the time it took to complete the work,
and that the price was fair (not necessarily cheap,
but not a rip-off). We in computerland can't help
you much with info about your local shops, you'll
have to talk to local people for that.
Jim F
59s in AZ
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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