Deluxe overhaul kit from Kanter

If you've got the heads off, it would be a good $70 investment in my opinion. Its just one less thing to worry about. I rebuilt my engine with the intentions of it lasting another 150-200k miles. I've already had my jeep since 1992, figure I will have it another 20 years or more.

 

Something to consider, at least IMHO, is that the quality of gasoline isn't going to get better in the future, only worse. We'll never see leaded gas again, except maybe aviation gas, and I'm not so sure about that either.

 

Sparky I would consider driving my jeep to work as light use, I would consider putt putt'in around Tellico as hard use, the engine never runs fast, it gets hot compared to most useage, it lugs, with bad fuel alot of times, gets revved, sometimes hard and slammed around with the oil foaming and running up and down in pressure.
Alot of this argument so to speak is a personal thing, I can tell you that after 160k miles my original valves were pushed back in my heads to some degree and worst of all the edges were wore bad. I would also consider the F4/L4 a so so candidate for the valve seats, the Dauntless motor is alittle different due to the idiosyncrasy's of the motor and its design and I personally think its a good idea, if you intend to have the motor apart and worked on, I wouldn't pull the motor apart to just do this, I think that is wasteful.

 

I agree that if your heads are off and are to be overhauled put seats in. On the other hand, the duty cycles a Jeep goes through no mater what the situation (unless drawing a plow across a field) could be considered light to moderate. Most valve seat damage occurs high RPM, high load. Much like a tow vehicle pulling a long steep grade under heavy load and geared down for extended time. I wonder if everyone with high mileage engines during rebuild have experienced major valve sink, my engine had over 100k and just one valve looked like the seat was drawing down, but not bad enough to cause problems, actually it just looked worn out, margin at the top of the valve and seat pitted. I see this problem in older IB/OB boats, and during overhaul I always get hardened seats installed. Also when buying a gasket kit for my engine, a major rebuild kit from FelPro I was surprised there was no valve stem seals, and I had to buy them separately. They used to come as part of a major rebuild kit!
Joe

 

Will all machine shops be able to install seat valves. I think I'll go ahead and get them done since I'm trying to do whatever it takes to make this engine run as long as possible once I get it it rebuilt.

 

They'll either do them on-site or know where to send them.

I dunno... that kind of attitude could get very expensive before you're done. I'd say that, unless you want to learn about engines or plan to eventually rebuild several more, you may want to buy a quality remanufactured engine, or pay someone to do it for you. All these options can get really expensive if you don't have the expertise to pick and choose what you want or need. Plus, IMO it's more realistic to decide how long you want the engine to last and build to that point. There's something called "the law of diminishing returns" that kicks in...

There's no better education about automobiles and engines than actually working on them, but you will get a big head start if you do a little research. I'd suggest you buy and study this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...104-1271324-5428720?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 - it will answer most of the questions you've been asking and give you some background knowledge that will help you to make better choices.

 

Ok let me rephrase my comment I want to do whatever it takes, within reason, to make this engine run good for 5yrs +. The only reason I'm doing this is to learn more about engines and hopefully to be able to continue doing some more projects. I think I'll go ahead and get that book you recommend.

 

LOL found out that exact ommision this morning at the machine shop. Even they were surprised that the stem seals weren't included. But they said they could find some. I went ahead and ordered the hardened valve seats anyhoo...they quoted ~$80 for that.

 

Buick motors this old did not come with valve seals from the factory, that is why they are omitted.

 

I am in the habit of inventorying my kits before leaving the parts store, and when I did that I noticed that valve seals were not in the kit, the counter person said there must be a mistake. But after doing research, they are not included. I guess it is just another profit center. And yes $40.00 later I had a complete kit!