Valve Maintenance Made Easier

Valve Maintenance Made Easier ENGINES Ken Burtard of Therasa Wis recently sent FARM SHOW photos of a method he uses to put valves back into engine blocks “I buy a lot of used equipment at auctions and rummage sales including machines equipped with air-cooled motors ” says Burtard “Quite often the valves lack compression so I have to fix them but putting valves back into an air-cooled motor is quite a job You have to hold the valve down with one hand and use your other hand with a screwdriver to try to put the springs and retainers back on without much room to maneuver ” He says that before he rebuilds valves he first takes the motor apart to see if the pistons can move up or down “Often when I do this I’ll see there’s no clearance between the tappet and valve so I remove the valve and grind a little off the end to increase the valve clearance anywhere from 015 to 025 “As long as I’ve got the valves out I clean them on a wire wheel I use a dremel cut-off wheel to grind a notch part way down into the center of the valve head Then I use my 1/4-in variable speed drill with a straight blade screwdriver to turn the valves to mate the valve end seats I put a little coarse valve grinding compound on the valve faces I then repeat the process but use a grinding compound with a finer grit “A few years ago I came up with a way to make the job easier I drill a hole into one end of a short metal bar and insert a short 5/16-in head bolt into the block I notch out the other end of the bar to allow some play for various head bolt patterns on different motors The bar goes across the valves to keep them from popping up as I put the springs and retainers back on “An even easier method is to place a large fender washer or 2 under a short bolt so that the washer extends across the valves Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Kenneth Burtard W660 Co Rd DD Theresa Wis 53091 ph 920 251-2726; cell ph kenburtard@icloud com

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