any tips, secrets, books, or sites that might help me out, thanks

If you had the special tools you wouldn't be asking. Even I haven't had to grind any seats since the 80's. It's easier to just take the heads to a machine shop. I watched the last time they fixed a valve for me. They had better tools than what I ever learned with.

He does have the tools now... I think he's looking for ways to get the most out of them.

Ahh.

No real tips or tricks. You just have to know what to do. I don't think there is any easy way to grind the seats. Knowing the angles and how to cut them just takes lots of practice.

Pick up a few old heads and practice, practice, practice.

I remember reading in a old issue of hot rod that you could pick up a little better flow by using a 30 degree pontiac style seat over the standard 45 degree chevy. I've also been hearing about people getting a 5 angle valve job as opposed to a regular three angle but I don't know anyone personally that has.

yes stephen i do have the tools, just got a B&D seat grinder from an e bay auction and picked up a B&D valve grinder from guido's dad. the valve grinder is pretty straight forward to me but the seat grinder has or seems to be a little more in depth, what with narrowing stones and when to narrow the seats. the angles isn't hard to figure, use the correct stone and you get the correct angle. i've got several sets of heads i can pratice on, but i was wanting a good result when i was done and not more scrap iron to haul to the recyclers. i'd really like to be able to read a book or shop manual before i start on some parts.

Ede,

I went through a technical school a while ago (not automotive) and I feel pretty sure that there are texts out there that would address basic valve and seat grinding. You might want to contact an instructor at one of these schools and ask him or her.

Many of our instructors were trained in the military. Check out the Air Force, Army, etc. The different branches often have their own text books printed up. They should be available from the Government Printing Office.

Also, contact the manufacturer of your tools. The tech department might be able to recommend something.

What do you guys think is a fair price to grind valves and seats? No assembly/ Diasembly by the shop, just grinding.

i've been paying 35 dollars for v8 heads, just to grind the valves and seats

Thanks, I had a shop tell me $180 /pair. I told them get f**ked.

I wouldnt use a 5 angle, b/c the smaller surface area would cause less heat to be transfered from valve to the seat/heads.

no i won't be doing any fancy tricks, i just want to do the valves and seats back to something close to factory specs. i usually build a few engines each year for stock or close to stock specs and just want to be able to do the heads my self and put the money in my pocket and not have to drive a hour each way to get them done, plus maybe do a few heads for other people and pay for the tools i've bought.

I've never used a 5 angle either but I have heard of it used on racing engines so I thought it might be good to mention it. Hey low c1500, are you sure they weren't giving you a rebuild price? I paid $200 for new valves, guides, three angle vavle job and had .015 milled off. For just a vavle job thats pretty steep. Also ede, maybe you could look it porting books. I'm guessing they would probably some valuable info you could use.

No just grinding, The guy sounded like a jerk on the phone. Thats $180 canadian.

Ed,

Once you get your equipment all set up, figure out how to dress the stones to whatever angle you may desire, discover how much depth of cut it takes to clean up damaged seats, and start making some progress, you'll also want to get a can of Clove or Time Saver to finish lap the valves. I still maintain that a lathe cut valve face with the proper tooling is superior to a ground finish, since the typical grinder uses far too coarse a stone in the interest of production time. With cut versus ground valves, the surface finish will have a more closed grain structure. In your case, however, you'll have the luxury of grinding at a slower rate with a finer stone, and can achieve the better result.

As far as grinding with a piloted stone set, the manufacturer of the equipment should have a manual that would include good general directions. You might want to contact them. I also have some older fleet training texts that are somewhere in storage. I'll try to dig them out when I get the boxes delivered to the new place. IIRC, there was some general information about valve and seat cutting, seat replacecment, etc.

As far as secrets and tips, coolant selection can be crucial to a good ground finish (no different than any other type of grinding grinding) so a water based coolant is probably the way to go. Plan on dressing often, since the carbon embedded in many heads will eroded your stones quickly. A guy with an indexed carbide cutter in a mill can get a very nice finish that only requires a light lapping, so the competittion is going to be tough.