The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Rusty head bolt

Hello all, back at working on the truck after a 7 month recovery from broken heel bone
Earlier this year was having problems with temperature spikes and eventually poor running
After having the engine checked, I was told there is pressure in the head and either have a blown head gasket or cracked head. Decided to take head off since I never found out why the PO stopped driving it
My concern is the last head bolt near firewall on drivers side was pretty rusty and dry. All the others were a little oily with some dirt in there when taking out. The machine shop called and said the head was not cracked, but warped about 0.010”
Anyone else have rust head bolts? Do any of these go thru a water jacket or should my concern be the block? Also this engine suffers oil starvation and I had to run a cheater line from the driver side block and tee off from the oil line there. I was told that a 56’ did not need the special bolt tam hat is drilled, but there was one when I took apart, it just didn’t have the slot
Any advice is appreciated
I will ha e the head milled and rebuilt using hardened valve seats

Details
1950 3100
56’ 235 with 848 head

Thanks!

Yes, a warped head could let coolant get into the bore for the head bolt. If the proper mix of antifreeze is used, the bolt shouldn't rust, however. If somebody ran straight water for a while, the bolt could have started rusting if it was wet with coolant.

Hard valve seats- - - -unless the seats need changing for some other reason, the risks outweigh the benefits, and unless you're pulling hard with a max payload all the time or running on Propane instead of gasoline, hard seats aren't necessary. There's the possibility that if a seat is installed in an even slightly oversize counterbore, it can come adrift and trash a piston and/or a cylinder head. I would have to have a LOT of faith in my machinist to even consider letting him install valve seats of any kind, but Stellite seats in particular are very problematic. Get the head shaved until it's level, do a regular valve job, and drive on! It costs less that way, also.
Jerry

The machinist that I use gives the same advice as Jerry about not installing hardened valve seats. He will install them, but only if the seats can't be ground or if the customer insists. He compares installing the hardened seats to sleeving a cylinder...don't do it if you don't have to.

Pre68 Dave has a good article about this on his website. I use his advice and use stainless exhaust valves instead of installing hardened seats.

http://chev235guy.blogspot.com/search/label/Hard%20Seats

Others will disagree and will argue that hardened seats are the only way to go.

Matt

The stovebolt exhaust valves are identical to small block V8 exhaust valves, and even stainless ones are dirt cheap. No reason not to use 'em!
Jerry