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Pulled the motor this weekend. Cylinder 3's intake valves, especially one of them was leaking quite badly. One of cylinder 2's intake valves looks like it got a little hot as well.

Cylinder bores look alright. There not perfect, but compression & leak down test showed ok. Cylinder 3 is questionable, but I don't feel like splitting the short block and redoing it. There was a small indentation in cyl 4's piston. I don't know if it was a defect or a result of detonation or something else.

The headgaskets didn't show an "obvious" signs of gasses leaking by, but it's hard to say for sure. There's a few spots that don't look great, but who knows.

So I know the heads will need to be rebuilt. I guess the questions I have is did I cook any of the valves to the point I should get new ones? Same question about the valve guides. Other thought I had was regarding the valve springs. Could they be worn? (I didn't replace them last time) Could the boost I'm running 20 psi have caused this?

If you have any comments, they would be welcomed.

Here's pictures from this weekend
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... t_headwork

Also, just for the sake of it, here's pictures of the heads after I got them back from CCR.
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... /ej22t/09/

man that motor looks so clean i could lick it, i got to move to a place where the sun all ways shines...

but those heads look brand new now, nice work you got going on so far.

I think it would be worth your while to change out at least the exhaust valves and get all the seats lapped, especially if you are going to run those heads for a while.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the valve springs for sure...20 psi is pretty hard on them. It's not too hard to check their spring pressure if you have the specs.

Seeing as I burnt an exhaust valve on an N/A, I think upgraded valves, at least for the exhaust, might not be a bad idea. And if you find them for the EJ22 let me know since I'm thinking of switchable lean map for highway cruising in Tigershark and melting valves and towing tend to negate gas savings. All I can find them for is the damned 2.0s and 2.5s.

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm planning to do some looking this weekend at some of the different options.

Did some looking at different parts to replace. I will probably just replace all the valve springs. They're only $2.30 a spring. Valves are a little more costly, so not sure if I want to cart-blanche replace all the valves. Same goes with the valve guides. Those puppies are expensive! I'm going to try and pull the cams and valves this week to take a closer look.

I am probably going to go back with the OEM head gasket. Since I can't resurface the block without taking it apart, I figure the stock gasket would probably be a better option.

Also, was curious.....what's a good engine head job cost? Checking the head over for any issues/defects, valve seat grind & lapping, head resurfacing, and testing of the heads to make sure the valves don't leak? I've been looking in town and out of town and seen prices range from $300-$600.

Legacy777 wrote: Also, was curious.....what's a good head job cost?

Just going to let that one go

Lunatech wrote:

Legacy777 wrote: Also, was curious.....what's a good head job cost?

Just going to let that one go

I figured someone would make a comment about that Fixed it just for you

It depends on where you live. I paid $150 for lapped seats, cleaned and decked heads, among other things that I can't remember. I bought the exhaust valves on my own for $90.

I wouldn't worry so much about the cost of the machine work. It's a WAY bigger deal to go to whoever you think will do the best work. The price difference means nothing if you end up with shitty work.

Well.....there's quite a big difference. A buddy of mine builds miatas for racing, and has guys that he trusts to do engine work. He said it'd probably be around $250 - $300. The shop that did the tuning in California gave me a price for $750. If I go directly to their machine shop, price is still around $550 or so. Price is almost double. I'm leaning towards having someone here in Houston do the work. However, I'd like to pull the valves on my own first to see what I find.

Yeah, $550-$750 seems really high. Unless they're including stuff nobody else does, it's not worth that much.

Been doing some work this week. Did some testing on the cams, thrust clearance and lobe height looks alright.

Also did some testing with rubbing alcohol, and there were definitely leaky valves. I brought the heads to the machine shop today, and they said the seating surface was very small. Much smaller than the stuff they do. The specs call for 0.7mm on the intake and 1.0 on the exhaust. I'd say it was smaller than that. So I'd say the previous valve job was not done well. I also checked the head and there was an indentation where the head gasket ring was. So the heads were probably not decked previously. Anyway, waiting for new valve springs and seals and then will bring them to the machine shop.

Here's some pictures

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... eadwork/01
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... eadwork/02

You'll like these
http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... eadwork/03

More fun

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43524