Homemade valve grinder Cost $0

[swampratt]

Just because I had stuff laying around it cost me nothing but time.

I got these 906 Vortec heads and the heads look great but being that the Vortec heads do not use valve rotators and the engines usually cruise at low speeds most of their life the exhaust valves get pitted quite a bit.
So I could not just lap those severely pitted exhaust valves.

Buddy left his sioux valve grinder here but he dropped it and bent the head and the thing is worthless for grinding valves now.

I researched Homemade valve grinders and some dude built one..I liked the concept and I had the parts.Here is his video.

I took a very pitted valve and ground it.. yea took about 3 minutes to do.
Then to check to make sure the angle is on the money I lapped the valve to the seat in the head 3rd picture.. Good enough for me. I have ran way worse for 100,000+ miles.
Some pics.

 

[deerwhacker444]

Hope your protractor ticks were accurate..

I like it...

 

[Catt57]

A stupid idea that works isn't stupid...

 

[swampratt]

I did not measure I drew lines on wood but those were useless.
I set the teflon block on the wood with 1 screw in it so I could change the angle by pivoting it.
I looked at the disc on the dremel cutter and lined up the valve seat on that and stuck another screw through the teflon into the wood to secure it.

I then took a test valve and seen if it was on the money.
Now the seating area of a used valve will be sunk.. and if you watch that video above and forward to 1:30 seconds into the video you can see where his valve was being surfaced on the outside edge and inside edge of the seating area at the same time.
During the initial hit of the grinding disc.

That would put you on the money as to being square with the seat. Or darn close and close enough to work.
That is the way my valves acted when I began resurfacing them on this crude tool.

I ground them all and lapped 2 valves in so far and it looks great.

Only issue is the small diameter disc will only allow my teflon block to do the 1.5" or 1.60" valves in the current screwed down position.. the 1.94" intake valves I will need to move the block and readjust.

But those intake valves are not pitted and will lap in as is.
No grinding needed.

 

[Gunbuffer]

I would have used a drum sander attachment instead of those cutoff wheels. They dont take well to side pressures as Im sure you know. they deflect and blow up easily
a couple suggestions; use the HD discs, they are thicker than regular ones, and stack 2-3 together, provided you can get enough threads on the securing screw. it will help solid it up

 

[swampratt]

You are right. I did end up doubling them up. I could see it just barely flex with 1 disc and then I added another.
I applied light pressure against the disc while it was spinning high speed and my drill was spinning the valve the other direction.
That is why It took 3 minutes to grind the valve instead of a few seconds like in the video.

But my valves were pitted quite deep.
My valve contacted the disc near the middle not on the outer edge so less flex there for sure.

 

[doctorjj]

You are right. I did end up doubling them up. I could see it just barely flex with 1 disc and then I added another.
I applied light pressure against the disc while it was spinning high speed and my drill was spinning the valve the other direction.
That is why It took 3 minutes to grind the valve instead of a few seconds like in the video.

But my valves were pitted quite deep.
My valve contacted the disc near the middle not on the outer edge so less flex there for sure.

Now use that setup to do a 3 angle or 5 angle valve job and I’ll be impressed! Just kidding. That’s actually pretty dang cool. The guy in the vid looked like he had some kind of backer behind his grinding disc to make it stiffer.

 

[swampratt]

Yea I seen that backer..The disc actually cuts well so not much pressure is needed.

On a different note I have taken Factory GM valve jobs in the Small block Chevy and the factory valves and just lapped them in with no valve cutting or seat cutting and ran mid 11's in the 1/4 mile with NO power adders.

Folks machine shop in Norman has done 5 angle valve jobs on some 601 heads for me, those are 305 HO heads.

I would then port the heads and remove all but 2 of the angles and run in the 11's on pump 91 octane with 355" engines No power adders.
Allen was doing the heads for me at that time. and said none of the 305 heads he did worked out ..all the customers that tried it
would come back for different heads because the 305 heads did not work.

He wanted to know what I did to them after they left the shop.
I took him to lunch one day and told him ...I warned him he would not like what I was going to tell him.

he was all about the Venturi on the exhaust port.. and playing with the flow bench measuring different things you will find a lot of air with a venturi shape.
I told him I took the venturi out of the exhaust port and left 2 angles.
He shook his head and then said :Well it sure worked out. The car ran 117 MPH in the 1/4. That was Best MPH.
Not bad for a 355" in a 78 Nova with the 292H comp flat tappet cam off the shelf.

Those 305HO chambers started out at 53.5cc and after unshrouding I ended up at 61.5 cc. Lots of metal removal.
You can keep it in the 57cc area with the factory 1.84-1.50 valves.. this one had 1.94" valves stuck in.

You do not race flow benches.. and flow benches can't duplicate the pulsation of air that an engine sees.

You must resort to trying your stuff in real world environments.
As we know.