I was taking apart a set of heads, and I went to slide the valves out of the guides, and they stopped when they hit the keeper grooves. Closer inspection showed that the keepers had extruded a bit of material on the valve stem, so that there were raised areas at the edges of where the keepers sat. I have never seen this before. Is this normal? I suppose I can dress the valves with a file to get them out of the guides, but this concerns me. I would think the valves should have been hard enough that this would not happen. Anyone seen this before (I haven't)? If it is not normal, what could cause this?

Originally posted by novadude:
I was taking apart a set of heads, and I went to slide the valves out of the guides, and they stopped when they hit the keeper grooves. Closer inspection showed that the keepers had extruded a bit of material on the valve stem, so that there were raised areas at the edges of where the keepers sat. I have never seen this before. Is this normal? I suppose I can dress the valves with a file to get them out of the guides, but this concerns me. I would think the valves should have been hard enough that this would not happen. Anyone seen this before (I haven't)? If it is not normal, what could cause this? =
Yes it's normal unless it is real bad in which case it is one of the signs of spring surge or valve float.
It is still a sign of things moving around which isn't really a good thing but you wouldn't believe what goes on with springs at different RPM's in almost all cases under the right,, (or wrong depending on your point of view :( ) circumstances.

See it all the time with all different kinds of valves except for ones with beadlocks.
It is usually worse with 10 degree retainers & lower spring pressures like most flat tappet stuff runs as you don't get the clamping pressure around the valve with the 10 deg stuff.

I see it less with 7 degree locks & higher spring pressures like 140-160 seat & 350 -360 open but I prefer to run a P55 core cam with these pressures.
Makes me sleep better :D


Yes you can take a file & clean the burr just enough to get it through the guide.

Well, that is good news. It is not real bad... in fact, I could probably hammer the valves through with a plastic mallet if I wanted to, but it would likely score the guides (not that I would do this!). I'll just dress the burrs with a small file and use 'em. By the way, these are 7 deg locks w/ LT4 retainers and springs. Heads were used w/ the HOT cam and spring kit.

Make sure your rockers aren't making any contact with the retainers, a friend of mine lost a valve in his 496 because of a slight rocker/retainer contact problem at high rpm.