oldcarmark (9/17/2009)
Looks like I will be doing a valve job on my 56.I am pretty sure the heads are original.Do I need to have hardened valve seats installed when redoing the heads?You should put hardened seats in your engine if you have the heads off. Now, having said that, I ran my 57 Ford 292 for many years on unleaded gas and never had a problem. I'm sure it was just pounding the seats to death.
When I had the 292 that's going on my F600 rebuilt, I asked about hard seats. The shop owner told me that "everybody" puts hard seats in old engines when they rebuild them without even asking.........It's a non-issue nowadays.....They just do it.
Incidentally, you can run your engine on an AVGAS mix if you're worried about valve seat damage. Just don't tell anyone that you're doing it. It's a violation of federal law if you run it on the highway with leaded fuel.
Cheers,
Rick
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1955 F-600/272/E4OD// Disclaimer: No animals were injured while test driving my F-600 except the ones I ran over intentionally!
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