Hey everyone how's it going,few questions here. Is it possible to use the wrong valve springs when rebuilding a head? Had a head gasket go and the shop it's at said they can't re assemble after machining them. Also stated 4 of the valve guides were cracked. Just curious about the valve spring issue.

Secondly, maybe instead of rebuilding the stock iron heads, I could switch them to an aftermarket set. I'm not sure what size valves or really anything about heads and what will work with what.

 

Hey. Most aftermarket head brands will have a set that's comparable with the intake, valve covers etc you'd like to run. At the end of the day your budget and the performance levels you want or plan for in the future will be determining factors. About the cracked guides; sounds like someone may have fitted a cam with too much lift. - or horribly tight valve lash setting - or severe overheating could have done that. I stand to be corrected but L98 (083) heads are note prone to guide problems? I'm reworking and porting mine now, as a set of aftermarket heads would work out very expensive to lmport here

 

Of you want I have the set of '88 L98 center bolt heads with valves 48k miles took off my car last winter in favor of some ported 113 Vette heads one of my sons had. Only thing I would suggest on mine is put the umbrella valve seals on the intakes. As the would "puff" blue smoke only on cold start & had done that since about the 15k mile mark
Located in the Lansing area $50 if you pick them up.

 

Without knowing some history, it's impossible to tell you what you have on your hands. Tell us what's REALLY going on, from the beginning (you know, first the Earth cooled, then the dinosaurs came, but they got fat and lazy and all turned into oil, ...), instead of dropping us somewhere in the middle of some chain of events.

Valve springs are easy enough to replace if the existing ones are no good. Which if they're stock, they're no good. One option would be to simply order a set of good ones from Summit or some such where, along with all their supporting hardware, and take them to the machine shop and have them install those instead of a bunch of ... whatever is there now.

Cracked valve guides is kinda weird. That's why we need history.

No L98 heads are not "prone" to that, any more than any other small block Chevy heads are. That's why we need history.

Yes aftermarket heads are always a possibility.

Avoid letting them swap you whatever ready-to-go heads they have on hand for your good L98 heads. (if that's in fact what they are... what's the casting #?) You will most likely end up giving up a set of some of the best stock heads made before Vortecs came out, and get in return either 70s smogger crap or, more likely, truck TBI crap. Either one would be a SERIOUS downgrade to your motor, even if it's still crippled by having TPI on it.

I'm the ever-suspicious type when it comes to things like this. I've seen WAY too many people get literally swindled out of their original parts in this kind of situation, by unscrupulous operators who spot THE GOOD STUFF and a potentially naïve owner, and smell an opportunity to take advantage of that "information asymmetry" and score some highly desirable parts without paying for them. DON'T let that happen to you!!!! Not even accidentally.

 

I've had the car a little over a year, hard to say what all exactly is in the car. I'll get the casting # later today. Little busy at the moment. Spoke with the machine shop, the heads are already ported. I'm just going to have the heads redone instead of going aftermarket. And I don't want to get swindled out of anything either. That's why I'm asking for advice. Thanks for the response by the way.