427Hotrod

This pic was posted recently by Mark Jones (VortecPro). As I've mentioned before, I've been to his shop and seen his work. Very meticulous and really cares. He makes big power without spending stupid money because he pays attention to details.

I think a lot of people just looked at the shiny valves but failed to look closely at the imprints of the actual seating surface on the valve.

If you look at the intake valve on the right...see how narrow the seat is vs the exhaust valve on the left. Look at the placement of the seat out near the edge. This is a way to "maximize" the size of the valve seat and get as much area as possible with a given valve. If it was lower on the valve...the "hole" for air to flow through would be just that much smaller even though it had the same size valve as a head with a poor valvejob.

Notice the wider seat on the exhaust valve to help dissipate heat which requires it to be more centered.

Some guy hacking with a valve grinder or even an automated machine doesn't guarantee true craftsmanship.

And we aren't even talking about the work in getting the seats/flow correct on the head itself!

Attention to detail makes the difference in an average one and a "Gee Wow" motor when you stuff your foot in it.

Thanks for posting Mark!

JIM

Big2Bird

Nice work.

3JsVette

He certainly goes the extra distance to give his customer's great value vs. expense.

427Hotrod

No doubt....

JIM

68notray

Without taking up an entire page - yes that work looks great. Exhaust seat contact is indeed supposed to be wider, to transfer heat off the valve onto the seat. Intakes don't have that requirement so the contact should be more narrow. Doesn't look like the valves have been back cut, which is another flow trick on the intake. The more difficult work is on the seats themselves, not really hard to make new valves look good - please post a pic of the seats if you have one.

427Hotrod

NeverTooOld

I grind mine .060" wide intake and .090" wide exhaust then lap them to ensure a perfect seal.

vince vette 2

They do look pretty. The first set I did was on my brother's 74 Camaro back around 1976. They came out pretty well using the valve grinder at my grandfather's service garage. A couple weeks later we pulled the 4 cyl head off my father's old (even at that time) Ferguson 30 tractor. I got the angle set up right and turned the crank to move the wheel. Unfortunately I failed to consider that the Fergie valves were at best 1.00" vs. the 1.94" on my brother's Camaro. Long before the wheel contacted the face of the seat it's edge hit the valve stem and ground into it a nice groove about 1/3 the diameter the stem. What's country boy to do in such a situation? Well if Dad's nowhere in sight you finish the job, pop the valves into the head, and put the head back on the engine. It ran for years after that and it was eventually sold still running. Some people would say this just proves that things were over designed back then. My perspective is that it was properly designed for the foreseeable abuse dished out by the youngsters likely to be using and maintaining it.

derekderek

Looks like a 30 degree back cut on the intakes. You can see it best on #4 intake just inside #2 valve stem. Back cuts aren't as crucial on exhausts as the only flow being interrupted by the back of the valve is a reversion pulse anyway...

Vortecpro

Thanks for the nice words Jim means a lot coming from a real car guy as yourself!

Intake seat picture, intakes valve do have 30 degree back cut.

69Vett

big difference between a average motor head rebuild.
and when a machinist builds a good set of heads, quality does not come cheap.

Jebbysan

Nice work.....love the unshrouding......are you going to do any blending? Probably not as the valve job is done? The chance of knicking it.

Jebby

Vortecpro

Thanks Jebby! There was no blending. Check this out:
http://www.chevelles.com/forums/13-p...-pictures.html

Jebbysan

Amelio

Very nice work! its attention to detail that makes a relatively simple build work so good.....when people say "wow I cant believe how fast the car is with so little" its the attention to the small stuff that your average weekend thrasher misses. I am a firm believer in the "doing more with less" theory. Top engine builders can build an engine with the same specs as the next guy and it will run circles around the other engine because of little details!

One of my "If I had millions of dollars" thoughts, would be to have a nice big shop with all the necessary machine work to do top notch machine work, and then of course send myself to school to learn how to use them lol!

Vortecpro

Your mindset impresses me, thanks for the nice comments. In this day and age most rarely consider the machine work part of the build to be as important as it is.

69ttop502

Well Mark, your feedback on all the forums I am on speaks for itself. Just really impressive results all around. No one would buy a crate if they knew what they were getting with one of your engines. The machine work is just awesome!

Bill

Amelio

I have learned over the years that the small stuff has just a big of an impact as the big stuff if performance and longevity! The more I learn the more I realize I don't know but I always talk to the guys that really know their sh8t and take notes where I can! My little engine has turned some heads and surprised people at the track when they learn its nothing fancy or some big ci engine. Its just a mix of good parts (not all me) attention to detail and some dumb luck if you knew the history of the engine you as a machinist would laugh your *** off!

I have a few buddies that have really fast cars a few race competitively and I pick their brain when I can. Like I said before, I wish I had all the tools for machining and the know how to use it. Until then I just befriend people like yourself and get the help I need.