I never took a direct 90-degree image of my heads when they came off, but here's how the Int/Ford gasket lays in comparison.

Note the difference in the surface finish of the two heads.

 

 

Gnarly 15 year old valve covers.




After media blasting, and a temporary coat of WD40 until I powder coat them.

 

The photos are of my OE heads, rebuilt by UCF Machine Shop in Carlisle, PA. I picked them up yesterday.

 

You guys are making me re-think about o-rings for my heads .......

Dave, did they explain why the groove between the valve to glow plug hole? I've not seen that before.

Anything details about the surface finish they develop?

 

The fella I've been dealing with at UCF, Scott, tells me they haven't had a head gasket failure reported since they began O-ringing. When I asked how many heads they've O-ringed, he said "thousands." Scott mentioned one 6.0 owner who is in the 900 HP range, I believe Scott said he is a tractor pull kind of guy, as being a solid testament to UCF's heads.

The channel between the glow plug and adjacent intake valve...nope, I don't know the answer. Maybe they feel its an aid to fuel ignition?

Re: the surface finish; I didn't discuss it with them. I see the last photo I submitted appears steaky in the area of the 2 right hand cylinders. That's just some lighting shading, WD40 and smears where I just casually wiped the heads. Anyway, with your knowledge of metals surfaces you could probably carry on a good conversation with them about that, specifically.

Two items they install that I like:
a. all valve seats are ground and receive an insert, as no insert seat existed in the OE head. Any micro cracks that may have existed in the original exhaust valve seat area prior to UCF machining, will be eliminated during the new machining. The addition of the new insert will negate future micro cracks.
b. each valve receives a guide, stainless I think, with knurling inside the guide to promote oil distribution. OE heads do not have any guide provision, just a bore through the cast iron that the valve stem rides against.

Sounds good to me.

 

Have any pics of your heads before rebuild work? Do you know how much surface was removed? Will you be using head studs or bolts?

 

Unfortunately I didn't take any shots of the heads surface before rebuild. I should have asked about surface removal, STRIKE TWO, LOL.

I've had studs since 2005 or 2006 and will reuse the same studs. I recently bought a 3/4" drive torque wrench that is 33" long to help with reaching the big torque numbers. I'm just about 66 years old and not the fella I was strength-wise 15-20 years ago.

 

 

I can relate to getting older although not quite as far along as you. Father time takes no prisoners. Thanks for entertaining questions.

 

Dave, I agree.

I've thought they did a good job in the past and o-rings may make the surface finish aspect moot. For me, UCF is where I'd go for redoing existing heads, with an edge towards KillDevil for new heads. With the Asterix of if there is an improvement with the 20mm heads.

Everything I can check at home, including with valve removal, looks good on mine at 75k, and this endeavor has been more expensive then I thought, so I'm fudging external head work. Although I have one valve I'd prefer to recess another 0.005" now that I have this new cam in the block.

Those heads should treat you well.

 

This one is a Capri 31104, 365 ft-lbs. Check out the name of the Inspector on the calibration sheet. I wonder if his real name may be something like Li Wei. I also bought a 1/4" drive Tekton 20-200 in-lbs for use on the spool valve nut, but after the wrench arrived I discovered the spool valve nut is tightened to 5 in-lbs. So then I bought another 1/4" drive beam-type torque wrench, this one rated 0-80 in-lbs.

I'm getting nearer to starting a Go Fund Me page, this project is eating some cash. I'm still probably gonna snag a new turbo, most likely an OE. Those custom turbos costing twice an OE is just hard to swallow.

 

 

Don't forget to get the prevailing torque of the nut. I think one of the issues is that step is skipped.
The nut type is a metal locking and that number needs to be taken into account when the assembly is torqued.
If not then you end up with a loose nut.

The best tool for getting the prevailing torque is a dial or beam wrench. Click wrenches don't do the job correctly.

 

Finding the prevailing torque is a new term to me. Will you explain that a little more for an old guy?