How to stop your valve seats from dropping. 

Used to take a seat and put it in the lathe with a grinder and put a taper on the outside of the upper edge. Then bake the head, toss the seats in the freezer, Press in the seat and when the temps stabilized it had a nice lock. Then swage. Then straighten the head and do the rest of the machine work. But then I've been around since folks were taught to knurl pistons and guides! Dress that seat driver!!!!

Very interesting. But I sold my 2005 Dodge Magnum Hemi last year...... Bought new and put 122K miles on it. Loved that car.

Makes perfect sense. I've been watching all your shorts on the topic of swaging but wasn't completely understanding, This video explains it all in full detail though. Sounds like good cheap insurance to account for design issues, among other things. Maybe Chrysler/Stellantis/whatever will watch this video and start swaging their seats at the factory!

One of the biggest problems with the valve seats now is not crush fit. It is the material that the valve seat is made out of. Chrysler dodge Mopar used powdered metal valve seats. This is why they explode into 100,000 pieces. And why you should replace them with a good quality valve seat like this man is showing you.

Good video Danny. I for one approve this message and tutorial. Economics call for the necessity of doing and performing smart budget saving alternatives!. Have a great weekend. 👍

The Briggs and Stratton workshop manuals describe how to refit a dropped seat ( therefore it’s a factory approved repair. ) . It involves 3dot punches to centralise the seat , and a fair bit of peening ( they were very loose ) . Mid 80’s 4 valve Honda motorcycle engines suffered from distortion of the aluminium around the hottest part of the exhaust seats - the answer was to peen it back down ( and recut the seats ) . Not perfect solutions , but solutions that worked .

I was wondering about this very problem. Thank you for taking the time to explain this!

Thanks Daniel... Your videos always make logical sense, especially to the performance oriented crowd.

I swedge them all the time. never had one fall out.

I didn't knew about this but now i do; hope Elaine and you have a good 4th of July, take care and stay well.

Yes, the Al expands more and faster. Another issue is the cooling, which also happens quicker. What happens is the Al gets stretched, and the steel gets shrunk, the molecules get pushed closer together. This lets the seat get loose and fall out. Years ago, a friend was ice racing a Corvair and spun out and went backwards into a snow bank. This cooled the head almost instantly. When we got it pushed out, the engine would not start. The quick cooling caused the valve seats to be shrunk and they fell out, predominately the exhaust seats.

Also they keep making smaller cooling systems and different antifreeze.... But thank you for all this information and no worries the smartest men I knew and learned the most from weres 6th and 7th grade education to help their families but worked their asses of to educate their selves

Daniel thanks for the information there are some people you can not tell anything. Been working on cars for over 35years always open to new information back in the day you could not get this kind of info. THANKS AGAIN

The aluminum heads have a greater COE than the seat. This is why cast iron heads last longer. Even if you don't drop a seat, that seat will move around more in an aluminum head. Detonation will move the seats too. Good video.

Thanks. This needs to be done on all Aluminum heads. There is no idea proof what the press fit by OEM or Aftermarket.

I learn a lot from your vids.

This was really informative, thanks for the video. Youre an excellent teacher!

Looks like a pretty good idea , at least on aluminum heads . And it doesn’t really take that much to do it. Thanks, Danny.

Daniel, Awesome video. Learned a lot. I’m just about ready to get my Chrysler 440 completely done. Putting in larger valves, new exhaust seats, so your press fit info is invaluable right now. Just wish I lived near you to have you do everything. (damn it) Anyway, Thank You for taking the time to upload the vid. It is very much appreciated!!! Hope to see more in the future. Love the longer vids.

Daniel I Like your videos & instruction. I don't want to lose your humor and Love Shop Mom.

Am I the only shop owner both swaging*and* applying green loctite? I was taught a L O N G T I M E A G O by a master who’d seen a seat or two drop, and thus we swaged iron and aluminum both, with loctite. Like you, in nearly 45 years, I’ve never, ever had a seat drop; and if you do it right, only a true machinist/mechanic can tell by looking very closely.

Yes that is right good valve all new seats valves guides new springs and yes I remember straightening cylinder heads torquing them to a plate and putting them in an oven that's a good quality valve job from what I can remember

I worked in a machine shop back in the early nineties I remember also seeing a lot of valve guides falling out of heads

Another great video my friend. Every day's a school day! Regards to you all from the UK

Are still grinding valves seats old-school we had a machine I don't know what it was called but it would cut all three valve seats at once on a dial gauge all the intake and exhaust valve seats with exactly the same it was pretty neat

Thank you. I didnt even know all of this.

Many Valve Seats have Dropped out of AFTERMARKET Pontiac V8 Aluminium Racing Heads also. I said for years every single Racing engine parts should come with ISO 9001 -9007 Signed off Paperwork especially CHINA Made. Never got a good response to my Requests from CHINA. All Racers have seen or experienced Dropped Valve seats. Probably the single Reason why I have stayed with old school cast iron heads no seats to drop out any. Swedge in Seats as you do will do little to hurt airflow with 5 angle valvejobs. Most not going for 700-5000 Hp.

I Love this channel. I watch this channel because I want to learn. Thanks!

Good honest advice thank you very much for sharing very informative 😀👍👌

The easy answer is to just start making cast iron cylinder heads for the engines with these issues.

I agree with all you said !

Thanks for your insight!

What's the interference fit for valve guides in aluminum heads?

Thanks Danny! :)

A great process

I pulled the head on a 2004 Focus with the 2.0 sohc that dropped a valve seat and it broke the piston at the top ring land and bent the connecting rod went to the junkyard and got a piston and rod and a reconditioned head and put it back together as I could not find a good used engine anywhere but it worked out and the owner of the car was happy and never had a problem the 5 years he ran it and he sold the car and I don't know where the car is at now

lazy assed shop make me man i been told once a set of 460 ford oem head seats were to hard to grind i guess lol . straightening heads is a must do its just they are to lazy to build a fixture

He gets to the point at 17:45. Did anyone count how many times he stated how he has never had a seat drop?

Hello Daniel. I appreciate your videos. I do that job too, but I recently moved and I'm looking for that job again. Could you tell me what workshop does that work in Florida Naples.

Seems like there disposable most people just buy new vehicles and in oh they are rusted so badly it’s not worth the effort . Good information tho .

I wish you could come by our shop and teach our guys. We have a hard headed old guy that thinks he knows everything and he is teaching the young employees bad habits.

Who are you getting the swaging tool from?

thanks,, need to remove and replace seats in T1 vw heads,,,,removeal ???

Well i live in Canada where we have an a-hole PM Trudeau, who wants it mandated that no gas- or diesel-powered vehicles are sold after 2035. I hope you are right though.

Get an engine that isn't trash...you know ... Japanese DOHC