Looks like I'm a lucky SOB.







No other damage that I could find, all cylinder walls on that bank were perfect. head had no damage, even the exhaust valve that hit the piston looked normal, aside from the fact that it looked perfectly clean whereas all the other exhaust valves were brown. I guess that continues stream of ethanol it got cleaned it up??

It's pretty amazing to me that just this valve not operating caused the engine to run like such ****. But I can't find anything else wrong. Motor had normal oil pressure.

KB recommended just filing the defect smooth and running it, sounds good to me. I bet my dremel sanding bit will make quick work of it, with great care of course.

The other question is now what to do with the setup. Since I've basically got the thing torn down, lifters and everything out, I guess I'll do the cam swap I've been wanting to do. As far as heads, I haven't decided yet it I want to reuse mine or go with something else.

 

Long as the valve seats are good I'd just keep those heads. Too many people making 4 digits on stock heads to justify otherwise lol.

 

I had a couple.pistons have the same valve contact mark, I used some of the small 1 1/2" roloc discs on my drill and smoothed em.out, never had an issue with em afterwards

 

What springs are you going with now ?

 

Haven't figured out yet. Any recommendations?

Of course, I'm looking at dual valve springs. The PRC kit with titanium retainers looks nice $300.

 

What springs were ya running before heard good things on the patriot dual golds

 

My next set will be duals for extra insurance , I've got single 1518s now that have been great , but will look at patriot or Pac dual orTooley springs.

 

I was running PAC 1218 springs.

Decided which ones I'm going with: Brian Tooley .660 platinum duals with TI retainers.

Gotta get the heads to a machine shop, get them inspected, cleaned and the springs installed.

 

Look into the Brian Tooley valve spring kits. *EDIT* I see you decided to go with them, Good choice!!!

The springs actually look nicer then the last set of dual golds I bought. I can't remember if they were PRC's or Patriots but the finish is much nicer on the Tooley's I just received.

 

Tooley platinum springs with Ti retainers ordered

ARP head studs and assembly lube ordered

I heard Summit price matches gmpartsdirect on LS9 head gaskets so I'll be ordering those tomorrow.