LET THE LIGHT SHINE IN When I’m struggling to see the valve keeper groves on an overhead cam head, with “bucket style” lifters, I attach a small flash light to shine thru the top of my air operated spring clamp. This puts the light directly in the area needed. This...

GOOD HEADS I’ve heard many shops complain about the finish and quality of some of the new bare cylinder head castings that are imported into the U.S. No one ever complains about the price, just the finish. In my shop, I look at these new castings as “a good core”. I...

REMOVE OIL GALLEY PLUGS Most aluminum OHC heads have some oil galley plugs. Remove these plugs when rebuilding and blasting the heads with glass bead. When you remove the plugs after glass beading you will find that the glass bead will be clumped up behind the plug in...

BROKEN TIP A Volkswagon 1.8L turbo 20-valve cylinder head can be found in most shops across the country. Due to broken timing belts, new valves are often needed. If a valve tip breaks off at the keeper groove, after re-installation, it is not the fault of the valve....

GETTING TO THE POINT Trying to setup Serdi seat facing cutters with valves that have undercut stems can be difficult. Use a valve guide the same size as your valve stem and clamp the setup pointer on it. That way it will bridge the undercut stem. And it will slide on...

Guide to Tipping I keep about 15 different valve guides next to my valve-refacer to use when “tipping” the valve stems. By clamping the guide into the machine instead of the stem of the valve, I can easily insert the valve and use two fingers on the head of the valve...