Onto the head build then!
First up, I'm notoriously messy in the garage. I tend to start too many things, finish too few, and never get round to tidying up after myself.
Building a head needs to be clean, so job number 1 was to make a tidy work space!
Done.
I got the head on the stands, and all 20 valves ready to lap in.
I'd paid the machine shop to cut the valve seats and lap in all the valves, but one of my exhaust valves was found to be bend, so they couldn't do this one. I started off by lapping this one valve in, with first coarse paste, then fine:
It probably wasn't needed, but I then decided I'd lap all the other valves in myself too, just for complete peace of mind. I went over each valve, twice with coarse paste, then twice with fine paste until they were really silky smooth in the seats. A quick check with some brake cleaner and nothing leaked out with the valves just sitting in the seats. not even valve springs to hold them shut, so I'm pretty confident of a very good seal there.
20 valves lapped, and cleaned up ready to install:
And then came the most hateful job in the world!
The exhaust side wasn't too bad, the valves are big, and access is easy.
I think it took about 30 minutes to install all 8 exhaust valves:
But the inlets.... ****** hell, what a mission for a man with big hands!
This is what you're faced with when you put the tool in and compress the spring.
And here is the valve stem, deep down inside that recess!
And somehow, through that most tiny of access holes, you need to carefully slip 2 TINY collets into place, and release the tool to set everything in place!
Look at the damn size of them!
Still, about about 90 minutes of faffing, the 12 inlets were done too!
Next up I cleaned up all the lifters:
then cleaned up the VVT tensioner I'm using. This tensioner appeared to be genuine with a factory part number (unlike the gsf ones I've seen), and also appears to be pretty new from the colour of the ali where it sits inside the head, and almost zero wear on the pads. I know
@Gops didn't hold back when it came to fitting brand new OE parts when he built the previous donor engine, so I'll try this tensioner first. If it doesn't work I've got another known working one spare from a reasonably low mileage car.
I cleaned the AGN naturally aspirated cams up, and fitted new cam seals:
And these went together with a brand new chain and gasket:
This all then went into the head:
What was most noticable was that the brand new chain seemed much tighter than the used ones I've installed in the past. I've seen stories of how much they can stretch before, but on this one I had to noticably compress the tensioner more than normal just to get it all in. I wonder what difference having a brand new tighter chain will make to the general running of the engine, knowing cam timing is under tighter control?
I checked the all important cam to cam timing.
As per this image, there should be 16 rollers between marks on the cams:
Exhaust side:
16 rollers across, to the inlet side:
The marks are slightly off in each of these images. After compressing the tensioner the top side was very low, allowing the top route of the chain to be longer. After turning over the head the tensioner lifted, both marks lined up perfectly, and I counted the 16 links again
Next up was to install the CatCams vernier pulley. This doesn't have a timing mark when made, so I used the centre pin to zero set the adjustment, and offered it up against the stock pulley, and transfered the timing mark across to the same tooth. This was purely to get a start point on the setup, but will be a handy reference for future also.
Seen here with the adjustment spun round to allow my to file the mark onto the pulley:
And onto the cam, torqued to 55lbft with the ARP bolt and IE diamond friction shim: