Looking for valve/seat grinding and guide honing equipment

Hey guys,

I've come to the conclusion that I need to start doing my own valve jobs. Last guy I use to trust with my stuff has been getting sloppy, I never liked the serdi head machines to begin with, and I'm out of options and people I trust around where I live to do quality work, so I want to purchase good seat/valve grinding equipment and do my own valve jobs.

After only getting 6500 miles on the street motor in my truck (one summer for me) that had new guides and a fresh valve job. It started ticking. I got concerned and took it apart to find that a couple valve stems damn near wore through a 1/2 inch guide. Enough is enough and I'm sick of paying good money for substandard work. The last heads that I had done with stones were run 4 times as long and the guides hardly showed any wear when I retired the heads from street duty.

If anybody has suggestions as to which brands to look for and which brands to stay away from, I'm listening.
I would prefer to only purchase this stuff once

Any leads much appreciated.

Thanks,

Cody Ladowski

Cody,

IMO Its more about knowing how to operate and maintain the equipment properly and knowing what tolerances and specs are right than the actual equipment (Providing your not dealing with absolute junk)

I've had great luck with stuff done using Serdi equipment and tooling. Its having some one who knows and cares about the product that makes the difference.

Problems also arise out of using lower quality parts, incompatable materials and trying to reuse stuff to save money too.

Dave,

You raise some good points about maintaining the equipment. Operators are only as good as the equipment and equipment is only as good as the operator. I've worked in a machine shop most of my short life so I know you have to know your equipment and how to get the most out of it. Cylinder head rebuilding is a science and I'm sick people not caring about my junk. I understand that if you use substandard parts your only going to get substandard results. This wasn't the case for this set of heads. I've bounced around to many different shops to have work done around here over the years. Thing is I've seen them all do good work. So they Can do good work but the question is WILL they do good work. Its like one man's money isn't as good as the next. So I want to take things into my own hands because then there isn't anyone to blame but myself.

I'm mainly looking to get into the stone seat grinding setup because I'm only planning on working on my own stuff and I believe a stone setup is great for the limited amount of heads I have to work on and the limited amount of space I have to work with. I'm not looking to buy a serdi or sunnen head machine. Those are way out of my price range. I would like to get a valve grinder also.

Sorry for the novel,

I use Souix


Randy

Randy, Do you use Sioux seat grinder or valve grinder or both? Thanks

both


Randy

I have used Serdi, Rottler and some older grinding equipment, I have a Peterson
at home and some grinding equipment but I purchased some Neway cutters
they are very quick and does a great job on touching up the seats easy to use too.
The angles are set in the tool holder and don't go away like the stones do.
Highly recommend them. Hell the only time I use my machine anymore is to do major guide work
and heavy seat machining always use the neway to finish. Note: if you are wearing guides out check
push rod length it will wear guides very fast if the rocker is side loading the valves.

PM sent, I've got everything you want in the Sioux brand. Can email or send pictures to your cell phone. Let me know if you're interested.

steve i will send you a pm thanks cody