[SDGoat619]

I picked up some 6x-4's for my stock 73/455. The are in need of much work as they were covered in surface rust but underneath they appear to be in great shape. The runners and ports are virgin and everything appears to be smooth and square. A few of the exhaust seats have hardened seats already which leads me to believe there was some valve damage at some point that was repaired. I was told that the heads had been mag'd already but I plan on doing it again. All in all not bad at all for 150 for the pair. My goal for now is to clean up, gasket match, do some smoothing of the runners and ports. I don't want to remove to much material as I plan on doing this all myself so it will surely be a learning process. Long term I want to go 30 over and run all forged internals. My question is in the meantime if build a valve train to support added lift for a eventual cam switch out will this take away from the overall performance. Anyways still in the planning mode so its a good time to ask questions.

Thanks for the time
here are some picks

[SDGoat619]

I am about 80% done with the first one so you can see the before and after between the two. If has been pretty rewarding bringing these back to life. Cant wait to feel the difference once I swap these on over my 114cc 4x-1 heads.

[steve25]

It looks like your doing your rust removal with wirewheel if I am not mistaken, and since the heads need to go to a shop for a valve job anyway, save yourself the hard work and just have them glass bead the heads clean.
A wire wheel clean up job in the chambers just eats up much needed seat material and can make big enough marks in the deck surface to make for head gasket sealing problems!

[nkowi]

Originally Posted by steve25

A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.
Thomas Jefferson

Gerald Ford fans must surely appreciate their guy's words frequently being attributed to Thomas Jefferson.

[SDGoat619]

Thanks for the info on the wire wheel. I must say I just purchased a blast cabinet from Harbor Freight, for the price I just couldnt pass it up. Now that i have these heads blasted I see what you mean by "save yourself the hard work".

[Pontirag]

I;m always very cautious of using a bead blast cabinet on engine parts. you never seem to get all that abrasive material cleaned off and it will very quickly ruin an engine.

best to hot tank it, even if you must pay to have it done numerous times.

I would run for my life from any shop that bead blasts engine part, Too scarry

[SDGoat619]

humm so I should hot tank these heads now that i have blasted them.