So, tonight LTGal let me go out and play tractors again… She EVEN let me go SHOPPING!… Off to Princess Auto to pick up a valve spring compressor…
Of course, while I was THERE (unsupervised, bwa ha ha!)… How could I pass up on THIS, for sale 1/3 off
or THIS, on sale half off…
Whew! WRONG night for ME to go shopping! 
Of course, once I got home I HAD to try out the valve spring compressor…
So, here’s the intake valve….
Pretty bad, huh? Well, there was nothing in the service manual that said DON’T try to clean the valves up, so out came the trusty sanding block again! (which by now is wearing down to a really smooth finishing tool)
And just so you don’t think I ignored IT, here’s the exhaust valve…
Not as much crud on it, but I don’t have any pics of it cleaned up yet as my camera batteries went dead…
So, as usual, loyal readers, I have some questions!
1. Have I botched the valves by scrubbing them clean? I wouldn’t THINK so, as I don’t think a fine sand would take THAT much metal off… and I certainly wouldn’t want to put them back in as grubby as they were. AND the service manual says to clean the carbon off the stem, head and face with a wire brush…
2. NOW I see what you all meant when you said my el-cheapo measuring tools wouldn’t be up to the task (although they got even cheaper, as I got a price reduction from Princess Auto tonight on them)… They both LOOK like they still have a good margin, but I can’t get a good measure on them… Should I drop them back in, or should I be picking up a different set of valves (BillTheTractorMan, I’ve still got your valves in mind if I’ve botched these ones…)?
3. So, if I don’t have a spring compression tester, what other ways do I have for testing the strength of the springs?
4. Do ya have to lap the valve seats every time you do something like pull the valves and clean them? Or is that only when you replace the valves or seats? Like, should I just be able to (once I have the intake and the exhaust de-rusted) drop these valves back IN and off I go?
5. I’m figuring I should be concentrating especially on the intake valve for cleaning up, since THAT’S where the carbon buildup is going to cause problems with premature detonation… Am I off-base with this thought?
Next step, the flywheel! But first I gotta get a 1 1/16 impact socket… Not so easy, as I found out tonight at Princess Auto!
Oh PS… I also got a lot more degreasing done on the cooling fins tonight… Took out my grandfather’s beat up old penknife from forever ago (its been kicking around in my toolbox doing nothing for years) and used it to do some VERY productive (in so many ways) scraping of the cooling fins and the other hard-to-reach with a cloth areas… By the time I get this engine all back together, it’ll be squeaky clean! :fing32: