Message text written by INTERNET:Footfrek@aol.com
>I plan to have the head rebuilt for my 71 TR6. Should I have hardened
seats put in? would having them the seats cut or reground remove all
effects
of having used leaded gas. I drove older cars while i was in high school
a
66 dodge polara and asorrted land yachts with the occasional muscle car,
none of these cars had valve problem that i knew of and all the gas i
was
able to buy was unleaded. Just curious having valve seats put in
seems$$$$
to me and i want to drive my car in the next year or too.It is not
running now needs lotsa work$$$$, but if it really nessacary I'd rather
do it
sooner than later.
<
What else are you planning on having done? How do you plan to use it? If
you want to most bang for the buck start with a later model head. In fact,
even before you do that get Kas' book and read up on the head modifications
portion. He says the later heads are better in a couple of respects in
terms of flow and they have dual valve springs. They also have lower
compression but that is easily remedied with a shave. Besure you have the
sharp edges radiused. while your at it.
As far as hadened seats goes it depends on whether you plan to run the car
hard. If you plan on racing or driving the car a lot on the freeway then
you will probably be for the better with hardened seats. If you plan on
driving the car occasionally then probably not.
I had my (early) head rebuilt a few years back. I had it shaved for
(about) 9.5:1 CR, the sharp edges were radiused and the valve guides were
addressed. I did not redo the seats. I have not driven the car much,
maybe 2,000 or 3,000 miles but I have had no problems with unleaded
midgrade fuel. In fact, I have never had a valve problem with my TR6 over
the 30,000 odd miles I've put on it since I got it. The MG I drove in the
70's was always burning valves. And that was with leaded gas. I don;t
knwo what that means but quite possibly it means that the TR6 is not prone
to valve problems under normal circumstances.
Dave
|