How To: Low Buck Cylinder Head Rebuild 

Oh Brother....you just saved me alot of bucks ...This was perfect. Thanks man! and God Blees

Now this is what you call a good low budget at home head diy. Nicely shot, step by step, knowledgeable and achieves a great end result. Nice job man!!!

Nice video, I know a lot of people benefitted from watching you show them “how-to”.....

10/10 on video very well detailed on everything for DIY every other video I seen does not go into detail like this and this helps a lot

Love the video big help man! I wish you had more ls rebuild tip videos. Im in the process now and this video helps a lot thanks!

That valve spring tool is slick as silk 👌🏻

Rebuilding a "Free". bike that only needed some carb work. This video sure is keeping closer to that free mark. Thanks

This was perfect. Thanks man!

The method I was taught for checking valve sealing was to position the head with the ports facing up, dry the combustion chamber with acetone or brake cleaner and fill the port with gasoline. Look for wet spots to appear around the valve. flip it over and repeat for the other ports. It's very effective.

Thank your for the knowledge and the time out of your life to pass it on . Wish you all the blessings in the world

Thanks for sharing this with me I'm replacing a burnt exhaust valve on my 4.0 jeep this was very helpful. Cheers from Jacksonville Florida

Great job man, really nice work and thanks for sharing!

I love that valve compressor tool. I don't own anything GM, but if I did, that's an awesome tool! Nice work and demonstration! 👍

I'm doin a set of gt40p heads for a 93 bronco w/ 351w. I could not find any specific ford videos worth a while, and decided a generic search (no brands) and I found your video. So far its extremely informative. I am going to buy new springs and valves, and I dont trust my local machine shop to do my valve seats or anything else. they have destroyed 2 sets of brake calipers on me. So I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do, but keep searching around. I wish we SBF guys had a fancy valve spring compressor tool like for the LS lol

I hadn't seen a set of head stands like that before, those are nice.

Great video! I also clean valves the same way, I would like to add I use the drill to spin the valves in the seats by the way with the grinding compound it's a little quicker. Then after wards I clean the seats and then use a Sharpie and put the valve into the seal and press down and turn it to make sure the sharpie rubs off from the valve onto the seat all the way around to ensure it's a perfect seal. As for the final initial cleaning I use a garden hose (or power washer) to blast the head and then I like to drown the ports with high pressure water to flush all of the grinding compound out.

Nice , my 2015 6.2 silverado just dropped lifters on 4 and 7. Doing a afm delete , back with stock cam. 117k miles and I want to freshen up my heads , they seem fine , but while I got it down. These DI intake valves build carbon so figure I will clean them too ,and lap valves. I'm doing a oil/water separator too. A ton of black gunk in intake ports. Thanks for the video , helps a lot.👍👍🏁🏁

Awesome video! I enjoyed watching it. Thanks for posting it! (And, I have to admit, I never thought of reversing the valves to check the guides so I learned something too!)

This is great, thank you! I have just about every bolt of a Dodge Magnum 5.9 and I plan to rebuild and tidy up the heads on the bench. I appreciate you explaining the lapping process. Cheers.

Very cool thank you for you know zooming in on the little things and I like to do stuff myself so I appreciate you showing how to do it without buying the tools

Great video, man! Loads of useful information! Just doing my iron heads and had to check I don't miss anything important! 😁

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on getting the valve guide seat and puller. I have a pair of pliers that I bought from Sears a good 20 to 25 years ago that seems to be perfect for pulling them off. I always used the deep socket method for putting them back on. I checked out the tools that you listed and found a full set like you were using for less than $20. So I just went ahead and bought it. I'm someone who is retired and was fortunately enough to do it at fairly a youngest age so I have tons of time on my hands. So in my garage since it is so large I have a habit of buying tools all the time. I'm a person that rather have it on hand then need it and then look for it to finish a job. I have things that I have bought years ago and never have used to this day then I have things that I bought many years ago that I need it this past summer and had it. I'd like your trick with the water on the cylinder heads. I always do that but with alcohol and I never learned to do the air trick until you showed it in this video. It's almost making me putting this huge Miller bobcat generator / welder in the garage and start working on it. I know I have a problem with one of the heads. Since it's mine I just haven't gotten around to working on it but now I want to pull the heads off and check them the way you did. I love that you use compound on each valve also. The only extra step I go and it's probably not needed but it was the way a friend of mine showed me. I have machine die and I put some either on the valve itself or on the seat of the valve. And I use the suction tool by hand not like some others I've seen on RU-vid who hooks them up to cordless drills. like you were saying you can hear a difference when you get there and you won't hear that using a drill. I do the same thing that you do to clean them up except I use my drill press so that way I have two hands one to spray and one to clean. I really enjoyed all your tips and cannot wait to try them out. Lucky enough here in Maryland it doesn't look like we're going to have winter so that leaves me more time in my garage before having to worry about getting some kerosene to heat it up. Look forward to seeing more of your tips. For people out there like myself that are not Chevrolet people there is a lot to learn that goes for any type of engine. A lot of the stuff that was used in this video are the same things I use on generators welders anything with a gas engine and a cylinder head.

thanks for all your hard work and explanation! great show.

Great video man 👍

Great video, helping alot of people thanks

Excellent work,

Very good no nonsense video. Well done! Thx.

Great video thank u for share

Thank you that was a very helpful video keep up the good work

thank you Great Video

Love this video. I'm working on a Subaru. Refurbishing the heads from a seized motor for my current motor that the timing belt broke on(interference engine, bent valves). I think it's great here how these concepts translate universally to pretty much any engine. Thank you so much for this video, it's given me all the confidence to tackle this project.

Great video! Just went through this with an LS1 I'm building for an El Camino. I used oven cleaner to get the bulk of the grunge off but I do like your technique for cleaning the valves.

I am replacing a head gasket and somewhere I read that I need a valve spring compression tool. I already removed the head and sent it to the shop! I am not tearing it apart like you are doing!: D

Great video!

Subscribed. Good job man!

I love it, The BFH but use it gently approach. Has been years since I used valve grind paste.

Nice job!!!

Question about the valve seat seal check: Why wouldn't you check the seal after you do the valve lapping procedure? Wouldn't the grime hinder the test before lapping? Would it be a good idea to do it before and after?

That was awesome I build my own motors but have never done a head Might try now, thanks :)

nice camaro bro i got a 73 but gray with cowl induction hood one of them tall ones

Super!

Good video brother

I need to rebuild my 79’ 350 sbc sometime soon

A couple other low buck cleaning tricks for aluminum heads. To clean up the oil residue, you can spray oven cleaner on the entire head and put on a black plastic trash bag in sunlight for a couple of hours, rinse with water, & then wash good soapy water & a coarse scotch brite pad. the gasket surfaces then can be sanded with a hand auto body long board with 120 grit paper in a "x" pattern & thorough cleaning with brake cleaner & compressed air. This makes the surfaces ultra clean while helping to make sure they are flat & straight. The scratch patterns are almost the perfect RMS for multi layer coated stainless (MLS) head & exhaust gaskets, silicone embossed intake gaskets. The same treatment can be used for the block.

04 cts v saved will be using this as i don't have much in the way of money tools or room. thanks

I’ve done this process on my LS heads with a couple extra steps, turned out great and only cost me some new seals and time. 👍🏻

Nice! I subscribed! 😁

Thanks for your hard work mate.ove what you do. Wish you all the best moving and hopefully one day you'll make a good living off you tube. You deserve it

Good video

When do you use the "wife's " dishwasher? :-)

the ls tip for valve seal intall is 1 water pump bolt,5/8th open end wrench,1 washer so the bolt head cant go threw the wrenchs head an a 12mm deep socket..you take the washer,slide the bolt threw that,then stick the bolt threw the closed end of the wrench..you then press the seal down with the 12mm under the wrench and over the seal..simple press till you feel it stop and you are good..this way makes it where you wont rip the seal like a hammer and socket can do if some one hits it to hard ps lq9 aint that bad i get 500-600 n/a out them depending on setup..i got a lq9 sbe one now that im looking for 700 out of with stock port ls3 heads,hyd cam,102mm ls3 intake extremely worked by me..13.5-1 comp,heads are 47cc,pistons have .150 fly cuts..

Glue some 1500 grit sand paper to a flat glass sheet and boom homemade resurface machine... hit the sandpaper with some wd40 and drag the head back n forth till the whole surface is even.. i do it weekly because i have a valve and seat grinder and valve guide removal/install tools.. that $30 paint can of berryman parts cleaner works wonders on the dirty parts with a plastic bristle brush and you can easily do 3-4 engines per gallon of berryman.. ballin on a budget man

If replacing the valve stem seals, what difference does it make if you tear them up getting them off? They're going in the garbage anyway...

great video, i am getting ready to have to rebuild my wife's LQ4 and don't have a trustworthy machine shop around. what about soda blasting the heads to clean them up?

First video of yours that I've watched. Subbed! awesome stuff!

Exact motor I am going to be working (2006 LQ9) on hopefully soon for an LS swap. Thanks.

I'd love to see you do a sbc budget build using old double humps or vortec heads or even good power pack, those are the types of engines us broke people can build at home

Great video. How do you check if the valve is bent?

Great video! exactly what I was looking for. Need to do the same to my 289 heads.Do you think the process of the spring removal is relatively the same for Ford?

Una pregunta se cambia el empaque de admisión de motor 5.7 chevi

The way you flip that head around kills me lol, I'm currently working on a Ford 460 big block with cast iron heads. No Way In Hell can you just casually toss them around XD. Good video though, thanks!

When you do this do you have to keep track of what valves came out of where like you do with pistons?

I like to fill a plastic tub with 50/50 purple or mean green water combo and soak the heads after removing the gasket, rinse with water and they look amazing....and for iron heads i spray engine degreaser and rinse with water then immediately spray with wd to prevent rust

Awesome videos man ! I love the extra knowledge, answered a lot of questions I’ve still had after messing with these Ls’s over the years and starting my ls1 build. I’m rebuilding my old 241 heads that were replaced by ported 243’s. Do LS rocker arms have to go back into the exact location because all of mine were mixed up in one box 😭 no one can seem to answer that question !

By just looking at the oily residue in the heads I say that this engine could greatly benefit with a catch can.

What gasket remover spray did you use? Looked like it worked awesome

You can also back grind the valves

Awesome video. Where do you recommend to buy a new cylinder head for a 2015 ram 1500. I bought one from the dealership and it was warped. Returned it for another one and the second one is worse!

Awesome video but, how do keep the valve from opening to remove the retainers?

I feel like everyone worries too much about getting every spec off the head gasket surface. It doesn't need to be shiny or anything. Even if there's a chunk or two of old gasket material stuck on there if it's not like 50 thou thick the chances of you having an issue are slim to none. Scrape it down until you don't feel anything significant with your finger, wipe it off and slap your gasket on. Trust me, save the energy for the other parts of the engine build. The heads gasket will seal. It's a pushrod engine, not a space shuttle. If you aren't making 700hp. Just get it back together and torqued to spec. Check the head warp with a true straight edge and feelers at home if you don't feel like going to the machine shop. If it's flat you're probably good. That's the true low buck way.

5:25 that's really important what you said here. If may I ask. I have an LT1 5.7 1996. What sort of valve seals does it have?

Is there anything you can soak the head and valves in to clean them. I've seen some other low buck options guys using brake fluid or that gunk stuff. Is there anyway to clean intake ports.

I subscribe!!! Please tell me what is the torque that you used. Gr8 video, I look forward to watching more and more👨‍🔧

Hello I have a question about cast-iron 202 fully heads for small block Chevy how about that most of us hot rodders can’t afford aluminum heads. Why don’t you think about it and have a section on small block heads like the powerpack heads as well as stock heads how to add performance to these heads! A gearhead with a passion for old school performance!

Only true friends tell eachother if they have a booger, I think you got one bud 😉

Where did u buy the cylinder head stand

Head valve seat blow hole problem wich effects please tell me

Might be a good idea to start the video with the key information of when disassembling, keep the valves and springs, and if possible, the push rods, organized so you know what cylinder they came from. Especially as these engines get older, you never know what someone has done to the heads / pushrods before you got them. With the torque down / non adjustable rockers, assembled valve stem height is critical. Other wise a valve that sealed without rockers bolted down, could leak because the rocker keeps it from closing, or it could have excessive clearance rocker tip to valve stem and you end up with an engine that sounds like it's got a collapsed lifter that will fail prematurely. Not being a wise guy, just thought it might save someone a head ache. I started building engines in the mid 1970's, and the big block MOPARS (383 / 440's) had those torque down rocker shafts. Without the individually adjustable rockers like the Chevrolet's, you had to measure the valve stem lengths in the heads and either machine out the seats and replace them and make the seat depth all the same, or if they were not too bad, you could find the worst one, grind the valves and the seats, then make them all the same to that worst one, then measure to find the correct push rod length, then make up a set of push rods for that engine. They'd run great if you set them up right, but it took a lot of measuring, and work. Most hydraulic lifters had .060 of internal movement, so you'd want to shoot for right in the middle of the throw, so you'd have +/- .030 so they wouldn't be loud when cold, and wouldn't hang open when hot. Here's a tip for you for keeping from gouging aluminum deck surfaces when cleaning off gaskets. Make a scraper out of wood, and clean the cutting edge with a sharp knife to keep impurities from embedding in the wood. Aluminum and oak are virtually the same hardness, but the wood will usually give first before damaging the aluminum. Again, not criticizing, just thought I'd offer a few tips I've learned over the last 50 years from machining everything from race car / hot rod engines to submarines, to robotic articulating arms for the now decommissioned space shuttle. I enjoy your videos. Take care.

Is that tool good on Vortec heads as well?

At the end you talk about taking the heads to your machine shop to check and make sure they're flat. Do you not trust a straight edge and feeler gauges?

When you use lapping compound to polish the seats do you use the old guides or the new ones? Or does it matter ?

Some people like to use acetone to test valve sealing because it is less viscous. Some brake cleaners are also a good choice. 6:16 It is worth having a dial bore gauge that can stick to the cylinder head. The factory specifies a certain amount of movement in the valve guide, and the number is so small that you need precision measuring tools to know if your valve guides are good. You could be out of spec and not be able to feel it. 7:39 You still need to measure the valve margin width and valve stem width, then compare to the service manual to know if you can reuse the valve.

When you showed the valve after lapping it showed that the seat is very high up on the valve, this could cause problems in the future.

Did you end up getting any machine work done to it?

seems like those rods on the work stand might dent the edges of the heads when pounding on the valves, maybe put some plastic tubing over them?

Thats exactly how we did it back in the day. Then ported the shit out of the old iron

What about a diesel head with no chamber? Diesel down the port and see if valves seat yeah. Worth a mention I thought.

Instead of water can i also use gasoline

A large piece of glass and sandpaper glued to it. will resurface head!low budget

You put enough lapping compound on one valve to do the whole head. Maybe even both of them.

where is the rest of the build

Why would 12 people dislike this? Oh well, I bet an older 98-02 F body gapped them with full bolt ons and they are mad. I’m not even a huge LSX fanboy either....

How much for a set of those head stands?

Just thinking out loud, couldn't you also clean the old gaskets off the deck surface by using a piece of wet/dry sandpaper on a piece of glass with some wd40 and work your way up the grits too?

I think quilifies more in the broke category not the budget build

Why didn't you check the deck first?

If you want a little more power 799 heads or 821 heads will help you out

Is this the best junk yard head for the 6.0L. I was hearing rumors that the 706 casting was the hidden gem to swap onto the 6.0.

How come you never dropped that 427 small block into that Camaro

Yes keep all the pieces organized, together, but you don't mention that until way late. I like to use a piece of flat card board like the top of a pizza box. That way you can write on the box the valve location and keep it organized from the beginning rather than an afterthought. Working on one valve at a time and having a place to put it when you go to the next.