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I got the truck in my drive way and the valve cover was removed and I found the No 6 intake valve spring had lost its valve keepers. They were beat to crap. The valve rotator/oil shield top was off the valve and beat up a bit. The push rod was bent.


Advice on the best way to tackle this job?

I plan on taking off the carb to protect it.

Then take off the manifolds to make the head lighter. Do they get removed separate or as one unit?

Then water pump.

Then the head.

What have I left out or got wrong?

Thanks. Jeffrey

Keep the manifolds together if they are sealing well to the head as they are. It wouldn't hurt to have a shop run them across a grinder to true them up if you are having sealing issues.

Pull side cover off to help get push rods out and back in when the time comes,
water pump
back off all rocker arm adjustments
pull push rods out
Might even pull rocker shaft off head,
drain the block using side plug, just to be sure its empty
have some help or a hoist to get head off
The head may stick, so long pry bar in one port and head bolt loosely in one hole for safety reasons, them pop head up with bar.

With push rods out, it's a good time to check lifters and camshaft. Pull one at a time and check the bottoms and clean each one.

Joe

Make sure you get a good machine shop to do the guides, seats and valves. See if there is a stamp on the inside of the head indicating it was milled. Have it magna fluxed for cracks. I would not recommend oversize intakes!!

Whats wrong with oversized intake valves?

Nothing, as long as some very precise measurements are made to avoid piston/valve contact. The clearances can get too close. People who think they're smarter than the guys who designed these engines sometimes aren't as intelligent as they think they are!
Jerry

Did some research on this today in regards to my Valve adjustment thread. Found an article talking about the size of the oversize intake valves. The article quotes McGurk and somebody called California Bill to not exceed 1 and 13/16 diameter valves. The valves I am wrestling with were 1 7/8. McGurk, somewhat of a guru in the old world of hot rodding the 216 apparently marketed the 1 13/16 claiming they were as big as you could go.


So for this particular case I would just go standard.

Those gentlemen had it all figured out on Inliners, the learning curve stopped with the advent of the 265, it would be well to heed their advice, valves are cheap and it won't make much difference for our use.

Ed

First problem

Wire that looks as if it goes to the temp sensor. Located top edge of the head near the no. 5 intake valve and the manifold.

The sensor base looks like a square head bolt and there is what looks like a spring wrapped around the wire from the sensor base up to about 2".

How to disconnect without breaking anything?
Jeffrey

That is not a wire, it is a tube. Unscrew the square nut and the tube and bulb come out it one piece. Do not try to separate them.

It took me a while to find all 4 water pump bolts.

Inline 6 head is a big chunk of iron. I don't lift stuff that big any more. I remove the rocker arm(keep it together). Pull the pushrods(keep them in order). Use the rocker arm support points to hook a chain to. Undo the intake/exhaust manifold(the pipe will support it most of the time) and bungee it out of the way. Pull the spark plugs(that helps remind you to disconnect the plug wires) and lift the head with an engine hoist. Now it can be moved safely and my back does not hurt. The Vacuum line and fuel line need to come off as well as the water pump..but it sounded like you were doing that any way. Disconnect the battery just to be safe.

Got the head off today. Had to also remove the thermostat housing from the front of the head and the oil filter bracket from the front of the manifold to get the head to have clearance without removing the radiator support rod.

One exhaust valve slight burn, another valve hung open a little bit, and another valve the head broke off and there is a hole in the top of the piston.

After seeing that initial damage I will be sending the truck out.

Definitely going to have the clutch done being the engine is coming out and will have the transmission gone through.
Jeffrey

Forgot to include why I think there was a valve train failure.

Lack of lubrication.

Where the two parts of the rocker arm shaft come together the part is the rocker shaft connector.

An oil feed tube comes up through the push rod area, inside the side cover. Then passes through an opening in the head similar to the push rods and on has a threaded fitting that screws into the rocker shaft connector an thus the rocker arm shaft is lubricated.

On the left side of the rocker shaft connector there is about a 1/4" tube/line that goes out about 1" then curves up and back over the rocker arm shaft then curves down toward the right side of the head so oil can leak down to the lifters.

Well that curved tube had loosened up and partial fell out of the rocker shaft connector. So most of the oil leaked out there instead of properly lubricating the rocker arms and valves.

The man at EGGE new what that part was but he said they did not have them for engines that far back.

I was thinking of getting a length of tubing, flaring it, then putting on a line fitting and tapping the old rocker shaft connector thus doing away with the old pressed in fitting that failed. Well me not actually doing it but have the machine shop do that.

Jeffrey