Originally posted by warmonger:
First, if this engine is over say 30-40K miles, you should be inspecting the valves in the heads ANYWAY, so this doesn't apply. This only applies to engines with low enough mileage and evidence of good maintenance that you can reasonably expect it to run well without disassembly.

I understand that you wrote this with everyone in mind, but this doesn't apply to me. As you may recall, my $932.90 machine shop visit for the engine included a valve job on the heads with new valve seals, so no need to worry ... they are "factory fresh" now.

The heads are also OFF the engine, which will allow me more flexibility on grind angles and such as well as the ability to lower the compression a tad bit. I have a graduated pippet for measuring head chamber volume so that I can cut all the chambers and then cc them and then fine tune those out of range of the others.

I'm going to have to tape the valve covers as well. Since they will not be on the head, the covers will have an opening where the timing cover should be when ON the engine and since the heads are OFF, I will need to tape that area "shut".

Thanks for the detailed writeup ... stuffing and greasing the towels will be easier than what I had imagined up.

For Sale: 1997 Explorer XLT V8 AWD