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valve cutter 2.25p

christofloffer

christofloffer

Big Landy Fan
Site Donor
I'm looking for a valve cutter to help get my landy back on the road. I've finally resolved some of my financial issues and really want to get the landy going again. I still have very limited funds for the moment so rather than getting a new unleaded head I'm thinking I can just clean back the seats for now. I'm not sure how much of the problems were down to the valves but I know it's not great. I have no choice but to buy stuff to deal with the bottom end, so I'm saving wherever I can. I can save up for a proper head once it's going.

Ideally I would love to borrow the right tool. It's not really something I'll need to fight with much in future so I would prefer to avoid the expense of it. If anyone has one they'd be willing to lend out that would be great. I would be happy to cover the postage for sending it here and back again if there isn't one local. I'm in the Newport/Market Drayton area.
If not what is the right size/angle I'd need? Any recommended kits to watch for?
 
The valve cutter is for reshaping the seats if they are pocketed. If you just want to reseal then you get some valve grinding paste and very carefully lap the valves to the seats. A lot metal comes off so its case of being gentle and stopping as soon as you get a 3/32 wide land all round.
 
It's a bit beyond grinding I think. I spent a while grinding the valves when I this engine in because the seats were really bad. I got so far and just went with it because it was only meant to be a temporary engine (8 years ago :rolleyes:). I can't imagine anything good has happened in there since. Without knowing how long it will be before I can look at new heads, I really don't want to mess about.
 
The problem with just hitting it with a cutter is that like @robwlondon suggests, the seat sealing land will quickly get too wide and not allow for a good seal. Poor valve sealing soon leads to burned valves and you don't want that. You kind of need a shallower angle cutter and a steeper angled cutter to go along with the seat cutter so that you can adjust the width of the contact surface with the valve. That also allows you to adjust the location of the seat contact area so that it meets the middle of the sealing area of the valve face (the blue part). The cutters are really only for roughing in a new seat and actual grinding is what finishes them. The final lapping with compound seals the deal as it were.
BobM_valveand_seatdrawing_labledresize.jpg
 
It costs about $200 to change the head gasket with fluids, gaskets, etc... Its good math to just do the head once - properly.

Good seat cutters run $1000's and are easily damaged. I wouldn't loan out that kind of tool to my best friend. Normally you want a .020" wide exhaust seat and double for the intake. Its a precision process that will mess up the valvetrain geometry if you sink the valves too far. here in the States its $20 per seat for new hardened seats to be installed, and you'll likely only need the 4 exhaust seats.
 
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