Best of luck with your family. The car can wait...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Hello All.
Looks like I'll be back at it again tomorrow morning. After taking care of my mother-in-law's move, it seemed like something else always got in the way and prevented me from working on the Valiant. From cutting the grass (twice a week in the spring), visiting my new grandson and working lots of hours, I get tired quickly to work on the engine but feel extremely blessed to have such problems.
Getting this engine running is definitely a momentum thing. At least for me, when you are working on it daily, the torque specs and assembly order is easy to remember. When you step away from it even for a week or so, I have to go back and re-learn most of the processes. Oh well.
I went ahead and lapped the valves. They did look kinda bad. The rings seemed to be in really good shape.
I'll be reassembling the manifolds to the head and buttoning things up tomorrow before I try the restart. Lashing the rocker arms is also on the agenda.
I'll let you know how it goes.

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Thom Masterson
1964 Valiant Convertible with a 1965 170...

So did you reuse the rings after pulling them out of the engine? Not good.
If the valves looked "kinda bad" then lapping them won't fix them. Sounds like you need to at least consult with a machine shop for a look see, 2nd opinion, at best and either have them reground (THEN lap them in) so they're good, along with the rest of a proper valve job, or you're gonna get alot of "practice" tearing your engine apart. Then you'll cuss it, call it a piece of crap, and several other things and not be happy with the results.

You are using a new head gasket with all of the tear downs and reassemble?