I would get some plastic clearance material and check what kind of clearance you have on those cam journals, and I don't know what they should be, but I think you could use a new head, if your serious about getting it running properly.

 

wish i knew what the spec was and how to ascertain. not excited about that kind of outlay if i dont need to, but yes i want this built back up right and reliable.

what else should i be looking into? ok to reuse the head bolts?

cams?

what to inspect on the bottom end?

 

Has Bill seen your cylinder yet? Curious what he has to say. I looked back at an older post where you mentioned the top piston ring jumping out of its groove and recently that there was discoloration in a part of the cylinder sleeve. Sounds like something was not quite right with the fitment of the parts. My 351 has been great and coming up on about 800 miles and I expect to get many thousands more. Hopefully Bill will get you straight. If you were close to VA I'd come out and see it.

 

Not yet. I sent it so hopefully soon

once I disassembled I could see the piston gave up some metal under heat and left it on the cylinder wall. Yikes.

I triple checked the rings when I installed but who knows.

 

Replaced the valve stem seals yesterday. I pressed them on with a finger - is there anything else i need to do to seat them i.e. more pressure? Do they seat further under operating conditions?

Anything else i need to do while i'm in there, like clean the carbon off the valves and combustion chamber?

 

When I did valve seals on my Suzuki 1.3l car engine I just pushed em on firmly. How was the slop between valve stems and guides? Would be easy check with the valve springs and seals off.

 

seals changed; valve clearances sorted out. now waiting on bill to rehab my cylinder.

snappster- i didnt notice any slop - think we're ok. overall, the head seems good to me.

 

Just curious to see if you heard from bill and what he had to say...

 

waiting on a piston to come in then he'll try to bore it .010

i presume if that doesnt work it'll will get resleeved or replaced

 

I'm in the same boat...Bill should get my parts this Saturday.
Needless to say...I am following this thread with a fair amount of interest.