Should I grind the casting imperfections next to valve seat?

[Daveed]

Take a look at this pic. I noticed two obvious casting imperfections right next to two of the intake valves on my cylinder head. Should I bother grinding these spots smooth?

 

[absolute_DSM]

Unless you know what youre doing, I wouldnt worry about it. They arent sharp so they shouldnt create hot spots.

If you have the head tore apart for a port job or rebuild, then I would do it. A smooth combustion chamber is a happy chamber.

 

[pneumo]

Sure, why not? I like to smooth down those spots when I port heads. It will eliminate one more hot spot in the combustion chamber. I get good results using a sanding roll in a dremel.

 

[tkelly27]

It's real easy to nick the valve seats. If you have spare valves, put them in there first.

 

[Daveed]

Thanks for the input. I'll probably just smooth out those two spots with my dremel. I'm not porting anything with this motor. Just trying to get the thing running to see if I like the car overall. The valves in there right now are bent so all of them are being replaced with good ones from a warped head.

PS Does every DSMer end up with 3 heads on their shop bench?

 

[absolute_DSM]

PS Does every DSMer end up with 3 heads on their shop bench?

Yea, theyre next to the 3 spare blocks.

 

[90laserRSfwd]

Yea, theyre next to the 3 spare blocks.

Yep, I have 3 blocks and 5 cylinder heads! And a spare tsi fwd parts car! couple transmissions, some wheels and tires too...

 

[Defiant]

Smoothing won't hurt anything, but the only gain will be in learning how to smooth. It's the kind of work you do when you're waiting on parts or processes and don't feel like mowing the lawn.