I understand busy quite well. lots of that on my end too.

Anyway, after installation, I'm pretty sure that the rebuilt head was *not* rebuilt.

I finished cleaning it, removed all the valves, cleaned and oiled them, then scrubbed and painted the head, followed by blading the proper surfaces clean. It looked very nice - almost new.

What looked like the original mill-marks were there, so I thought "what the heck" and installed it on the motor with the new split manifold setup I've been wanting to try.

I gave the engine a new compression test yesterday afternoon and a day of "weird" motoring and terrible fuel economy (Recall that this engine had 175-180 PSI dry per cylinder when I reawakened it). It now has 130-130-120-130.

Eugh. This head is crap and needs a proper rebuild.

The intake valves looked new, and the exhaust valve looks good too, but clearly something is wrong. I saw no evidence of hardened seats when I was removing the valves. I've not yet measured the valve stem heights, but I'm guessing the results will not be impressive.

I've been reading up on valve recession at other sites and have a working knowledge of the problem, it's causes and results. Now I need to find a decent machine shop and fork a nice bundle of cash over to IPD for new valves and bronze guides.

I'm trying to find a decent price for a new head gasket to at least get the original head back on there. Then I'll start work on parts collection for a proper valve job.