You all have an informative and otherwise great thing going here. I've enjoyed it over the last few months, but now I need expertise.

I am reviving my 64 Valiant with a 225 6. Engine has low orig. mileage (87K), so I am doing an "unleaded special" on the head (2 fried exhaust valves).

The new head gasket is missing two water ports, one at the thermostat housing, and one offset between the two middle cylinders. No matter the brand (Victor, Felpro), these holes are missing, so I assume this was a later design change. . . Anyone??

Also, all new head gaskets seem to be composition, whereas the original is all-stainless steel. I intent to use the Victor, unless advised otherwise.

The carburetor is a Carter BBS, but the tag indicates its from a 67 Val. If I rebuild it, it should work, right? A 2bbl conversion is envisioned down the road. Just want my baby back. Your help & suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Good to hear from another "reader"...

You are on the right track with your valve job. If you can get your hands on the "empty / crack-checked" head, do some basic port de-burring Even 1 hour with a drill motor and a rotary file helps a lot. Your machinist can help point out the sharp edges to grind off. ( If he can't, find another machinist!!) This is a "must do" in my mind, just basic common sense port smoothing / de-burring.

As for the head gasket, your new gaskets are correct, it's your old steel shim gasket that has the problem! If you look at a new steel shim gasket, these larger two hole are not there. Your old one has corroded through in those places. The SL6 coolant flow design should push the cool water front to back through the block, then up through the two large rear holes, then back to forward through the head. There are 6 small "steam holes" which direct a small amount of cooler block water up into the head, right under the exhaust ports. These must be there and line up correctly.

Good you asked about this. I have seen some older engines with corroded steel shim gaskets that run the rear cylinders hot just because the coolant gets "short-circuited" through these unintended passageways.

Some Racers promote more even head temps as a way to help control detonation in "hotter" cylinders, One "school of thought" is to put an additional 1/4-3/8 "by-pass" hole at the center head "shake-out" hole location, just to give the front of the head a little more cooler block water. All you have to do is drill the hole in the gasket and head. I have personally never done this to any of my engines pending more "data" on whether this really helps.
DD