The minor welding porosity is inside of the gasket fire ring, so I don't expect any problems from it.

As for the seat install, I heat the head to 250* for about 1/2hr, and the seat rings get put in a cooler with ice.

With aluminum heads I machine the seat bore to have about .007-.008 interference fit with the insert at room temperature.

Great info. Nice save for your customer. Thanks, Dwayne.

These are some of the details that are left out of most of the "I got these heads for a $1000 what a deal" stories that people like to tell.

Thanks for sharing Dwayne, After the 1st couple of pics I didn't think there would be a happy ending

I was actually impressed that the quality of aluminum was there so that they can be welded.... unlike my W5 door stop

When Dale and I bought his AMX in 1997, it came with a set of damaged MP Stage VI heads. They've been on about five engines since, as we've traded them back and forth between friends and family. They require a trip to the machine shop every time for something. I bet we've spent over 4K on those "free" castings in the last twenty years!

Meanwhile my Edelbrock RPMs have provided excellent service since 2002 with a couple of very minor freshen-ups.

Thanks for the pics and explanation, great work as always!

Billy, I'm actually working on some stage 6's at the shop now.

It's one of those things where.......the customer already owns them.......and you can't quite get into a set of comparable new heads for what it would cost to get these into shape.

These happen to be brand new, but I've had a few sets of used ones come through the shop where there was a good argument to be made that it might have been better to cut your losses and move on.

They still trickle into the shop from time to time.

In the case of the Pro Comps....... it wasn't really any fault of the heads themselves that resulted in the dropped valve.
I'm sure if the same parts had been installed in a set of Ede Victors, the outcome would have been the same.

Nice recovery,fix work.Getting a project like that for the buyer makes for some hard choices I would think.

I was told that if there ever was ceramic sealer used in the coolent that the head could not be welded on,any comment on that?

That's good stuff Dwayne.

Is this one of those times where you look at that thing, then stare at the owner giving him the "Dude! Seriously???" look? Or does "Well, here come's the rent!" pop into your mind and off you go into the shop ready to make some chips!

I've had them a lot worse....... This wasn't really that bad of a job.

It's just a lot of little things that take time, and that adds up.......but no one part of it was really hard to do, or all that time consuming.

The first thought I had wasn't that it as going to be hard to finish, it was actually whether or not it was going to be cost effective to do it.
As I mentioned previously, had there not been porting done, it wouldn't have been.

Kind of feel sorry for the guy who owns those heads. I've been there before. Have to decide if you keep throwing money into the bottomless pit or stop at some point.

I gave him an estimate on the repair...... He thought about it, and said "yes". There was no pressure........ He could have said no.

I don't know that I'd call it a "bottomless pit".
They're done, and should work better than they ever did.

The guides are nice and straight, correct clearance, better valve job, correct size valves, reblended bowls/seats, more flow than before...... And the valves won't be running into each other.

If the head hadn't already been welded when I got it, that could have been the tipping point that pushed the cost into the "just get a new head" territory, but it was already done.

Of course, if it was an actual Victor head, there would have been no question it would be cost effective to fix it, since the cost of a Victor head casting is about double.

Real happy with your work Dwayne 👍🏻