Technical SBC heads non harden seat's will they work or not

A wise engine builder was having success by just upgrading to stainless valves in lieu of hardened seats. They were doing a lot of high zoot tour cars where owners were concerned about it. None failed, some of those cars toured the rocky mountains and more. What say some of you? Made sense how he explained it.

 

And boom

 

I think the only way to know, would run “normal “ valves on normal seats, keep pulling the heads off, look at valve/seat, rinse and repeat with SS valves. Way too much work for me

 

I have a 67 Ford f 350 with a 352 the first 18,000 miles were put on before unleaded gas the valve issues showed up around 90.000. The truck was pulling trailers around 25% of the time.

 

They will work fine.

 

I'd rather have hammered valve seats than a mustang 2 suspension lol

 

Doh!

 

have about 50,000 miles on some power paks in my 57 Vette I built back in about 1990 .

Still runs fine . When I built it I did not plan on leaving in there for 30 years .

Its not a big deal to have to repalce tem some day . If there already done id run them .
I have a set of stock 461's going into the 27 T engine . Ill likely break something else first .

 

My '55 F100 had a '69 Corvette engine gifted me by a pleased customer. I installed it in 1972, just to make the truck 'movable'. (I had a 354 Chrys Hemi for it, but was collecting parts for my '37 LaSalle box) Truck was $60, had to buy it.
Chev engine was dependable, had a '66 P.G. tranny, truck ran strong with its 3.90 stock rear.
Hauled Hemis, (Chrys, Dodge, DeSoto) from all over Calif., many miles, pulled customers' boats, trailers, etc. Always dependable.
Flattened a cam in 2009, tore engine down and seats were excellent. (92K miles) Bearings showed some 'tri-metal 'color', but oil pressure had been 35 psi warm.
I ground the valves and seats on my SIOUX machine, engine is still disassembled.
Hemi is ready to go, but ANOTHER customer gifted me another 350 (1989 truck) so I converted it to Edelbrock 600/Edel intake) and Mallory YL ign. (for the Trad style)

I hope to get that SBC out of there, Hemi would be SO 'nice'... (don't know about that LaSalle and clutch pedal, though... This octogenarian is 350 T.H. 'spoiled'!

 

I like my valve seats like I like my women, soft and hot

 

I think I’ll get a hot pocket from the freezer now.

 

If you run them and later need to do seats it would cost you 2 or 3 hours to pull the heads and a set of gaskets. Machine shop cost either way, I would gamble.

 

Just normal cruising in a light car…go for it.

If every shift is at 6500 rpm, you live at the bottom of an eight mile grade, or you’re pulling a travel trailer for 499 of those 500 miles, take a deep breath and have seat inserts installed.

So the answer is… “it depends”

 

Seats are not expensive.

I am not sure what your engine builder is charging you for labor, but mine doesn't change much to install them.

 

Thanks for all your Advise--

 

I built my Yblock in 99 with soft seats and run the piss out of that motor with no problems so far. When i bought my Fairlane I called the engine builder to talk about the 390 he built one of the things I asked was the seats. He called BS on them said if you dont plane on taking a long trip dont worry about it . Was running lead substatute in my tanks but just use VP now.

 

Well...seems this thread took a turn for the worse. What started as a legitimate question about valve seats turned into putting a compact car suspension in a full size pickup.

 

What is “VP” ? I can’t come up up with what it stands for and is bugging me!!
Thanks.

 

Guessing the brand of gas? VP Racing fuels?

 

I don’t know dang it!!!

 

I think installing hardened exhaust seats while having the the heads milled and the all the seats ground- 3 angles added maybe $50 to the bill.

 

If you care to poke around on YouTube there is a video by Jim's Automotive Machine ( I think) , or Jamsi, showing them doing this procedure. Fair amount of work, even with the proper equipment. I'd say you definitely got your money's worth on that deal.

 

My machinist told me for a limited use engine that may get a dose of leaded race gas now and then or has a lumpy cam you will be fine.

 

I had to go back to my build thread for a reference. I put the engine together in 2015; I probably had the heads machined in 2014 because I did the port work after. There probably have been some price increases in the last 8 or 9 years. I would still do hardened exhaust seats today.

 

^^^^^ this

 

Around here most shops get $10 each plus seat Rock auto Chevy 327 seats are over $8 plus freight. 8 X 18 = 144

 

Not much different here.

I am not going to deliberately have an engine built with a shorter lifespan, just to save $150.

 

I absolutely need my machine shop to make money.

If the guy that builds my engines does not make enough, he will move on to something else that does actually make money.