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Here's cylinder 8, the smashed one, in the middle....good as new...you never know there was a valve shoved up the exhaust port and another smashed into the chamber.

It's not even the one that's shinier than the others.

Also, how many different completely insane methods of numbering cylinders can Europeans come up with?

Ok, after several sleepless nights changed to

crank 2.1

rods 2.4

pistons 3.5



Final answer.  The change is based on the Ti rods get tighter with heat while the alum mains will get looser...probable about 1-1.1 loser.  This change is closer to factory spec (though rods are still on the tight side and mains loose) but should get everything closer to 1.2-1.3/inch when hot which is is loose.

The pistons...well I just screwed up, the spec sheet says 3.5, not 3-4 or anything else but 3.5.  So I'm guessing they mean 3.5.

To figure-out where the exhaust seat depth was originally I cut a seat, put a valve in with its shim and bucket, dropped the cam in and checked the clearance to see where I was relative to where it used to be. The shim was on the thin side so I added .010 to get give me more room to work shim wise....which made me realize why I picked the depth I did on both intake and exhaust, the way larger valves need to be at least that deep for the seat to actually cut on the outer edge so it all worked out fine.

As I was grabbed the cam it was in my mind that like the valve guides I reamed the journals and called it good so OBVIOUSLY I plan to MEASURE the journal sizes before assembly this time so that is what was on my mind as I dropped the cam in....that's odd.....it pops it with what looks and feels like flex in the cam ...hmmm....I know I milled the journals straight after I finished welding last time.....or was that before I realized the exhaust ports needed work? either way, tonight I'll blend the new seats on the other head then have a good long look at the cam journal situation.

The exhaust cam fit issue wasn't as bad as I feared. The intakes were fine and I went looking back at the pics I'm pretty sure I basically finished the heads then realized I couldn't get the exhaust flow I was after without a little welding in the ports....and that seems to have pitched the cam. A few minutes per head with a ground bar and lapping compound and the exhaust cams are like budda. On to fitting the valves I guess.

decided to start the morning by giving the intake cam journals some lapping love. The cams dropped and and spun free but the best I could measure they were on the tight side of good and there will be none of that this go around...this engine should really want 20w50 oil is the goal...not just in some place but that should be the right oil everywhere so everything gets the oils flow its supposed to get. So thats done.

Over on the ferrari forum Newman reminded me that ideally the lapping is done with the heads torqued on the block. Wade told me that too...what's that they say, when you're at a party and someone tells you you're drunk you may or may not be drunk but when a 2nd and 3rd tell you then you know you're drunk......I'll hold head assembly until the block comes home so I can give the journals another quick lap and be certain and looking back at old pics that is the way I reamed them the first time so .....yeah do it right.

There is a bit of fall yard work to do, close the pool and such but I should be able to cut the 4 new valves to length and give all 48 a quick lap check to be sure they are seating right, assuming they are. Then mostly clean up the heads so just final lap and final clean left.

The shop reorg I did the other week has really turned out to be more helpful than I expected. Here is the view I now have from my work bench....very motivating.

Moved on to lapping because I really wanted to see how things looked...5-10 seconds with the smallest amount of compound I could put on and I think it looks really good with a clean line on the valve and seat.


I did another 21 and they all look the same which bought me to need to finish the 4 new valves as they come as blanks before I could finish the exhausts and move to intakes. I mark them about .050" long with tape then chop saw leaving all the tape, then fill the length in the mill with a carbide cutter. They are all to lenght but keeper grooves will need to wait until tomorrow.

56F in the shop this morning

Trying to finish up the valves before I get put on yard work. I'm also going to need to recheck all the valve spring installed heights....there is very little margin with them from enough preload to get the seat pressure needed to coil bind at full lift with monster cams....best recheck it

Nice work Mark! I see light at the end of the tunnel for you!

It does feel like progress.....amazing what happens when I actually work on it

Finished cutting the keeper grooves, then I polished up the milled ends a bit...I use a block to hold it square. Then lapped the last to exhasuts and all the intakes.