Hot Rods Late 8ba no valve seats?

Hi all hambers,i just opened my 8ba flathead and i notice no valve seats, looking on the web i read that the late flathead are without valve seats,my crank is marked eab....since i'm going to put a race camshaft,Is better to put valve seats?.....thanks forward for replies

 

Yeah, I have 53 block with no seat inserts and another block with just exhaust inserts. New inserts don't cost much. I don't know if every local machine shop has the tools to install them easily. Bumping this up because I'd like to know more myself.

 

Way back when it was standard procedure to have hardened seats put in or replace the seats in flatheads. Now I have to go along with Leon Bee in that many newer automotive machine shops may not have the correct guides to install flathead valve seats or even grind the seats.

 

The big need for hardened seats is because we don't generally have leaded fuel. Where this really becomes a problem is on the exhaust valves as they get hot enough to have the seat material weld to the valve. Small bits of seat stick to the valve and soon the valve does not seal and hot gases are blowing past and the valve is burned. Leaded fuel tended to leave a coating on the valve which protected it from the problem. Intake valves don't get so hot and don't tend to have the problem. As leaded fuel went away, hardened seats became almost mandatory for exhaust valves. One thing in your favor if you have an old engine is that after an engine has been well broken in there is enough of a coating on the valve seat that the welding won't happen. If you need the valves/seats ground, you should get hardened seats, at least the exhaust side.

Since the engine block has to fit in the valve machine, as opposed to just the head, you should look and make sure they have the equipment to do the job. You might need to do the valve guides too as it's usually done on the same machine.

 

I inquired about that with the machinist when I picked my block up from cleaning last month. They still have the tooling but I was told it was not needed.he told me Chevrolet didn’t have the hardened seats through the mid nineties....Steve


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I don't think he or anyone at the shop knows how to set up the tooling and do the job.

 

I just did a '53 block. Put seats in the exhaust valves and had the shop touch up the intake seats which were still in nice condition. Make sure the shop knows what they are doing as far as the installation procedure.

 

It’s about the simplest operation at a machine shop...guides have to be done first, our sett has plenty of room for a block or head, it’s funny though...lots of stuff still running without hardened inserts. I just did a set of heads and didn’t bother.


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My little bro and his son are going to build a 53 Merc flatty. They'd like to install valve seats. My buddy loaned him a tool set he bought at an auction years ago but has never used. A hand crank seat cutter. Sounds like a real bicep builder. I'll update this if Popeye ever gets the job done.