Hi again guys. I got the new rope seal all in place and the oil pan put back on. Man, that "Sneaky Pete" worked wonders! It was a super easy process, too! Didn't even have to drop the crank! Also, the Graph-tite seal by Best Gaskets seems to be great. It cuts easily with no frays, isn't as big and bulky as traditional rope seals, and looks like it will seal good.
I've moved onto the head now. I got a new head from Old Car Parts in Oregon, and it came with hardened seats that he said were already cut. I had my old valves ground, and lapped them in. However, I am having trouble with a couple of the intake valves. One of the valves I have lapped 3 times and have gotten no seating area formed on the valve. I'm thinking the machinist must have ground it wrong. On 3 of the intakes, the seating area seems like the proper width to me, but on 2 of the valves they seem kinda narrow. I will try to post pics so you guys can see and tell me for sure. Then on the exhaust valves...when he ground them, the entire face of the valve is shiny, so when I lap them, I can't tell if they have a sealing surface or not. Again, I will post pics of those as well.
Attached first is an intake seat, after lapping. Second is an exhaust seat after lapping. 3 and 4 are an intake with what I think is a good seal. Not too much, not too little. 5 is the one with no sealing surface, even after lapping 3 times. I will post the rest in another post.
