I'm restoring my dads old truck top to bottom... I've never had heads ported before and assebled them myself. I followed most of the performance shops advice on head parts as they did the porting and just sent me all the parts along with the fresh heads, but the guidplates seem shaky to me on the studs. Do they center themselves as they are tightened down? I don't want to geuss after all this trouble.

 

Well, you didn't give us much information, but it SOUNDS like you are saying that the guide plates are a loose fit on the rocker studs. So, I am guessing that your heads were converted to screw-in rocker studs. The head shop supplied the parts, so hopefully they gave you the correct parts. The rocker studs, if they are designed for use with guide plates, should have a shoulder under the hex that fits the holes in the guide plates. It is called a "guideplate locator shank". Check your studs and see if there is a shoulder under the hex that fits the guide plate holes. If not, they may have given you the wrong rocker studs.

 

Make sure they machined a flat area for the guide plates and studs to sit. The factory heads need to be machined and modified in this area for guide plates.