| mannydingo |
April-18th-2005 01:15 AM |
I've done this job a few times on different kinds of cars. I have always removed mine, gotten it shaved and put a new gasket on. Each time has worked out almost perfectly. On one car they had to replace two bent valves from a broken timing belt. The junkyard idea isn't bad if you look all around the engine to make sure it all looks clean as if it never had that kind of problem. I wouldn't risk it for two reasons: the head could be bad without a sign of oil or water and you would be removing a head twice and installing it once. That's three times the work instead of the two which is removing the old and putting it back on after machining. I know, I know--you're going to get the guys that say "it doesn't take any time to remove a head. I did it in like 2 minutes." Blah, blah, blah. It's not hard and doesn't take forever but it's still time consuming. Also, when you take your head to the machine shop, they will be able to find any other abnormalities that may need fixing or replacing. That's great to find out while it's out and not after you've installed the junkyard one if it has a problem already. It's a non-interference engine so a snapped timing belt in the past would not have bent any of the valves.
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