defiant1

I pulled the cylinder heads to have a valve job done. I snapped a couple of pictures of the valves.

Please inform a novice on the condition of the valves (exhaust specifically) and what potential problems or symptoms the motor might be exhibiting.

To me it looks like a lean condition, but not 100% sure.

The motor is original 350 with #6 heads w/153,000 miles on it. It did not burn oil but the motor did have a tendency to run hot (when I first bought it) until I got the timing, carburetor and thermostat issues figured out.

Again for all I know this is normal wear, since this is the first set of heads I have pulled I don't have a frame of reference.

d1

(picture on left is the passenger side head and of course the picture on the right is the drivers side head)

Warhead

They should be more of a brownish/ whitish color, some seem kinda oily.
There are 2 ways for oil to get in there, you will not know until you have the heads torn down.
If you have over .001 wear on the valve stems, they are junk.
With that mileage, I'd bet all the guides are also.
This is where you pay attention to your machine shop, and look at all his measurements on each guide.
The valve stems should be .3427" diameter. Guides should be .0015-.002 larger.
Keep us posted.
Jim

defiant1

Jim

Thanks for the reply. This is the kind of feedback I was looking for. I knew the oil was bad, but I was not sure of the brownish white coating on the valves.

I will probably wind up getting bigger valves, new guides and hardened seats installed.

I am in the process of talking to machine shops and getting quotes.

thanks again.