[alfa] Details of head gasket replacement/reassembly

["Shawn Mayer" <shawn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all 

I have couple of questions. Please forgive my ignorance on some of these
topics - this has been my first attempt at any major repair.

I recently removed my 79 spider cylinder head to have it rebuilt (I
burned an exhaust valve in the fall), and just got it back the other
day. As always, Ive hit some snags:

1)       Like an idiot, I didnt check to make sure the cams were in
time with eachother when I got the head back from the machine shop (they
adjusted my valve clearances etc). The intake was set fairly near TDC,
but the exhaust was off. When we placed the head on, the front portion
was sitting up just < inch or so off the gasket it took a minute to
realize that the out of time valve was resting on the cylinder at the
top of its travel. We gently rotated the crank, and the head sat down
evenly  but Im concerned I could have bent the valve in the process.
How likely is that? I think it only had a fraction of the heads weight
resting on it, and we set it down pretty gently but I know theyre
precise little things Also  should I be concerned/dissatisfied that
the machine shop gave it back with the cams out of time? It seems like
common sense to me to leave them in time with eachother, but maybe I
expect too much.
2)       I know theres not ONE right answer to this  but what is the
best way to deal with the roll pins at the oil passages? I couldnt get
the old ones out at all. I read some advice that said to tap the old
ones further down to make room for new ones at the right height, but
this sounded questionable to me. Someone else recommended leaving the
old ones if they were still tall enough to prevent the o rings from
deforming into the oil pass. They werent 2mm above the gasket height as
recommended, but they seemed high enough to prevent the o-ring from
moving anywhere it didnt belong.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

Shawn Mayer
www.magneticormosaic.com
m| |m
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