I wanted to create a post to make a sort of "how to" for removing stubborn valve ***emblies. I realize there are more stubborn engines than mine and people have had to use more aggressive methods. I wanted to show my method gathered from reading plenty of forum postings and youtube videos. I'd recommend watching Ed Smith on BarryT'sGarage, he is a wealth of knowledge. In the video LINKed here (URL below if the link doesn't work for you), he mentions a creative way to remove the camshaft without significant dis***ebly of the engine. This began my path down how to remove these stubborn valves as the valve guides would not budge after 70 years of sludge and varnish. I was only successful removing one valve with the traditional pickle fork you can still buy from Offenhauser. That tool may work for some but it didn't work in my situtation. I leveraged Ed's method of holding the valves open with a 3/8" dowel. This then allowed me to flip the engine over and use gravity to keep the lifters from interfering with the cam shaft during its removal. Once the camshaft was removed I flipped the engine back over (right side up now) and pushed each of the lifters out, thus allowing the springs to relax as much as possible and unrestricted. At this point I began to pry each valve up as much as possible to try to cut the heads off. As I was cutting the first valve's head off I slipped with my die grinder and very lightly skimmed the gasket surface of the head. I learned my lesson immediately and abandoned that approach. We will see when this block gets to the machine shop how deep that slip was. I may try to measure it with a last word dial indicator later. My next approach was to try to cut the valves on the spring side. I do not own a die grinder that can fit in that area, and I'm not sure I'd have much control if I got one in there. So with this I began to look at what other cutting tools I had. It dawned on me to try a bolt cutter. While it was not easy, definitely a good arm workout for the day, the bolt cutter cut the remaining 14 ***emblies with no problem. If you choose this method, beware the valves may shoot out of their seats so beware of what they may hit. From here I cut each of the springs to make easy removal of them with the valve guides still in place. Once the rest of the ***embly was removed a steel drift and a hammer were able to finally remove the stubborn valve guides. With the amount of force required from the hammer and drift, those valve guides were not moving any other way. Hopefully another newbie, like myself, can learn from my mistakes in the future.
If removing the guides with a pickle fork or a valve guide removal tool (looks like a "C" clamp) doesn't work, Try lifting the spring, keeping the valve down and remove the locks. Then push the valve up and remove it and pry out the spring. After the valve and spring is out, take a br*** rod and drive the guide down with a heavy hammer. Don't drive it down so far as to damage the cam. Spray a little PB Blaster in the bore, remove the "C" clip and use your fork to work it out. I have removed some very badly stuck guides this way and no damage to the valve itself. If you're going to use wood blocks or shims to hold valves open, you need to use more than one. The Ford valves, especially, bend very easily. Put one with another one opposing and save yourself a lot of grief.
I use a regular clamp valve spring remover. I just stick it down under the retainer and compress the spring. I pull the keepers and remove the valves and then the springs . It is easy to remove the guides then. I had one of the pry bars but tried the regular remover and sold the bar.
The Jalopy Journal
