Twisted Head

[DraginX]

Well my rad went and my car severely overheated. Tore down the motor and pulled the head off to find what looked as if the valves were bent(You could easily shove two or three pieces of paper between the valves and the head seats) Had the motor sent into a machine shop and asked them to check it over and if it was ok deck it. Well they checked it over and found the valves were ok. The entire head had gotten so hot it twisted to the point that the valves would not seat anymore. So instead of calling and finding out what I wanted to do with it they went ahead and plained it down, rebored the seats, and put new valve seals in it.
What I'm wondering is how it can be possible for the head to twist that badly that the valves wouldn't even consider seating and still be ok up top??? Literally the valves were that bad out of place that the cylinders only had compression of 50, 22,25, 18.
To me the head is trash, I won't be using it, I probably won't even pick it up, I just want to know what you all think. Possible it could be good or not?

 

[ilco187]

like what is twisted, you mean like warped, my concern would be the cams seating right from it bending/ or whatever.

 

[BIGBLAZE79]

If you are gonna keep it you could bolt the cams in with some assembly lube on the journals. Leave out the rocker arms and see if the cams spin ok. From your description though I imagine a really F***ed up head though! I would be scared to pay for machiening and it be out of spec. I know a head can only be decked so much before it's out of spec. I would be concerned they had to take off too much to make it flat again. Good luck bro.

 

[whe3ls]

if its wraped. find a new head... its not worth trying to fix it.

 

[DraginX]

Yeah it is warped to the point it actually did a bit of a twist. I don't even know how this supposed "reputable" machine shop thought it would be ok to fix. In my mind there is no way it could have warped that bad and the cam journals are still straight. I'm not paying for it, I'll pay for what I asked which was to be checked and fixed if it was "ok". But to me there is no way it could be ok in the cam journals so I pay them for checking it and tell them to throw it in the garbage...

 

[viprez586]

You must have really overheated it. Mine overheated to an unknown degree(wasn't driving it nor there when it happened) and my head scored the cam journals, warped to .010 and took out cylinder 3.

Hooray for engine re-build time... ~$1000 dollars later.

 

[Rob10_99]

I heard there was a way to get a warped head fixed, its a new process that heats it up I believe.

 

[DraginX]

I heard there was a way to get a warped head fixed, its a new process that heats it up I believe.

All these guys did was decked it, and rebored for the valves and seats.

 

[whe3ls]

i wouldn't use. personally

 

[DraginX]

i wouldn't use. personally

Oh I won't be using it for sure, I doubt I will ever see it again, they can shove it up their a$$ for all I care I just wanted to know what everyone else thought about it. I can't comprehend why these guys thought it would be fixable. Some others have been using this shop with good luck, and one guy has had some major problems with his motors from him, we thought it was because of an aftermarket crank dampener, and some other things but I'm starting to think it was some sloppy work and just looking past the obvious by the shop itself.

 

[defrag010]

Warped heads can easily be straightened.. all you need is an oven, a piece of 5"x20"x1/2" steel, shims, and some allthread. The key is to use the cam towers as the reference, not so much the deck. I have heat straightened many heads (have even done some in my oven at home) and the worst one I have ever done was bowed up about .080" in the middle. That was in 2004, and that engine has over 60k miles as of today in a friend's car.

 

[DraginX]

IMO it is too late for this head, the machine shop planed it til they felt it was straight, then rebored for the valves and seats. Said they measured and checked the top half and everything checked out

 

[rush2252]

I smell failure if you re-use this head, however I doubt they are going to eat labor costs etc. You might take the mature approach and advise them that they shouldnt have done any work without contacting you if not you might be looking for new parts + machinist if they hold your block and head until you pay up.

 

[DraginX]

They just have the head, and as far as I'm concerned they can throw it in the garbage. They should know better that to do all that work to a head that is obviously garbage. And to go ahead and do it without contacting me is even worse. I would have told them right away not to do anything else with it.