More advances

Work! Must! Progress!

Taking advantage of an unexpected off-day from work, I took the freshly-stripped cylinder head to a local machine shop. In the interest of giving props where due, Engine Machine Shop on Old Shell Road here in Mobile performed the hot-tanking on the cylinder head free of charge. When I finally get off my duff and tackle the Toronado's engine, they'll have my business.

At all events, with the exception of some small, especially stubborn carbon deposits in the exhaust ports, the head is now clean, but one more wipedown with solvent will be in order before I begin reassembly. I'm going to take another crack at the last of the soot tomorrow too:

After I got back from the machine shop, I began the "grinding" task of removing the built-up deposits from the valves. The intake valves took about 2 minutes each, but the exhaust valves took considerably longer, as the deposits seemed to be hard-baked on the metal. From the burning-oil smell of the dust when I was grinding, I figure the heavier deposits on the exhaust side were engine oil that got past the valve guides while the engine was off, only to get baked on later.

This car was left undriven for months at a time over the course of her lifespan before I took possession, so I figure that oil must have congealed on the valves, only to be baked on by high engine temps when she was driven. It's been said that Jaguars run better the more they're driven. Now I can see a convincing reason why.

Here are before-and-after shots of one of the valves:

That was an intake. One of the easy ones. Some of the exhaust valves still have deposits that I haven't managed to crack yet, but I'm going to give them another go tomorrow before I begin hand-lapping the valves back onto their seats.

When I began this project last week, I set a personal goal of reaching a halfway mark by this Tuesday. Once the valves are lapped in, the head will be ready for reassembly tomorrow afternoon; Barring laziness or bad weather, I'm also going to clean the carbon off the pistons and tap the cylinder head bolt holes. Once that is all in order, readiness for reassembly is my halfway mark!