I have decided to go back to the original cylinder head. Yes, it was cack and the valve seats had receded so far they were almost in another engine belonging to a passing Peugeot, but at least it was a known quantity. So, I set about the head with some degreaser and a toothbrush.
After cleaning it up and scraping off all the welded-on remnants of the previous gaskets, it began to look okay so I had all the valves out. Obviously, the exhaust valve with the chunk missing would need replacing, so I nicked one out of the other head. The inlet valve on pot #2 was absolutely caked with shite, which would suggest a lot of oil down the guide, and lo and behold the stem seal was knacked.
I cleaned the valves up on the poor man's lathe (put the valve in a drill and use a screwdriver to chip the shite off) and they came up alright, though the exhaust valve in pot #1 was showing some radial cracks so I nicked another out of the other head and began the tedious and charmless lapping-in process.
It was while lapping in #4 exhaust valve (the one that had a chunk missing) that I spotted a tiny crack in the seat. It's so tiny I could barely get a photo of it, but if you look hard enough at the photo, at about 4 o'clock on the valve seat there's a bloody crack. God damn it. I don't think it actually goes further than the seat, and after all this mither I'll just have to live with it. I also found a tiny bit of play in all of the valve guides except #1 exhaust, where there was a sodding shedload of play - about 2mm at the valve head. This will get a new stem seal and it had better make the bloody best of it. I've ordered a new head set off eBay (which is due to arrive tomorrow) so, at this rate, I should just about have the poxy old nail up and running in time for it to fail its MoT in July.
In other news, I went along to the NASC Neil's Springnationals at Drayton Manor yesterday. What has happened to that show? There seemed to be about 150 cars, and despite the organisers' best efforts, the atmos was truly lacking. The weather was sodding miserable, raining, windy and cold, and everyone looked like they'd rather be somewhere else, but I spoke to some people who had done the weekend, and they said that the evening do in the clubhouse was just as lifeless, but for no good reason. Where has the spark gone from this event? It was such a blinder, back when the HRG crew helped the set-up and organisation, it really was what you spent all winter looking forward to. Now, I went along for the day, got there at 12 and had buggered off again by 3. Most of the showfield had thrown in the towel even before then. I don't know what's gone wrong - it doesn't seem to be a lack of anything on the NASC's part. What's the answer?
Eugene
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