re: [alfa] V6 valve guides

[ethan schartman <eschartman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Subject: [alfa] V6 valve guides

> Hey guys,  I'm just wondering how many of you have 
> replaced your own valve guides?

i've done it (twice,(&$^#!).

> It burns a little oil and puffs a bit a WOT.  I hate

> the idea of going through all the work of pulling
the 
> heads and not doing seals and guides but can't have
> the car off the road long enough to send the heads 
> out.

well, you could do the seals without doing the guides,
as long as they are in good shape. 

> Can it be done relatively well with typical tools? 

mostly. you'll need a tool to remove the valves and
cam pulleys (mark's alfa twiki has a nice super simple
way of holding the cam pulleys). give me a hollar if
you have trouble locating special tools in your area. 

> Just a matter of punching out the old, punching in
the 
> new, reaming to size, and  hand lapping the valves? 


yes. if you do decide to do the guides, make sure
they're the updated style with the groove to hold the
seal down. the old style tends to make installation a
bit of a pain (in my limited experience). you'll need
to heat the head (the shop manual reccomends a
temperature, but i forget what it is). when i've done
it, i made a little brass (same temp coefficient of
thermal expansion as the guides) standoff and secured
it to the top of the guide on a long piece of threaded
rod, and then cooled it in liquid nitrogen (welding
suppliers have it). then i just quickly popped the
guide into the hot head till the standoff bottomed.
works like a latin charm, though pounding also works.
be sure to ream after you're done, and don't forget
the moly grease when you put the valves in (exact type
recc'd in the manual), to ease wear during the first
start-up. 

i never bothered to replace or recut my seats, if
there is no scoring or divit that run the entire
seating surface, then don't worry too much (IMHO) -
just lap. and don't forget to secure your liners (not
doing this ultimately led me to re-ring my engine:)

if you've got everything lined up ahead of time, you
could do the guides in about an afternoon. if you
really are pressed for time, buy 13 guides just in
case you mangle one:)


good luck,
-ethan schartman
-'87 milano gold
-princeton, NJ


	
		
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